From Snails to Whales: Findings from Spectacle Island

Thursday, August 4, 2011

Findings from Spectacle Island

Findings From Spectacle Island

1.) Porcelain. Due to the curved nature of this porcelain, I'm deducing that it was once a piece of a toilet from the ward rendering factory that operated on Spectacle Island. Mahum Ward's dock was a factory that used materials from dead horses to produce fertilizers, glue, hides, and leather softener. In 1903, the CIty of Boston comstructed a garbage processing plant and compressed garbage to extract grease and make fertilizer. This is likely one of the scrap pieces of porcelain that has likely been on this beach for at least a century. I can picture them throwing a toilet into a garbage area, and not being consciousness enough to gather all of the scrap pieces.

2.) Asbestos. Pieces of asbestos such as this one are seldom found on Spectacle Island. These pieces of asbestos are not native to the island but have washed ashore from an off island source. I am not certain this is asbestos but one of the island ranger's named Kim told me that pieces of asbestos are reddish beige and tend to sometimes be triangularly shaped. She said that it was more than likely that this was asbestos. If it is not asbestos, it is brick or clay from 1992 when "The Big Dig" was under construction. Pieces of clay and sediment excavated from the project were brought to Spectacle.

3.) Bottle Neck. This artifact was most likely once a liquor bottle. It could have got to the island from blue collar workers being saucy and drinking on their break. During the prohibition era there were seldom "raids" at the workplace. Where this factory was on an island, I would venture to guess that Spectacle Island was a relatively safe place to have a relaxing bottle of tub gin.

4.) Hardened Grease or Cyanoacrylate. At first glance I originally thought that this was simply a piece of broken glass but the air bubbles trapped inside tell a different story. Judging by it's light weight it is more than likely that this sample is a compound of hardened glue or grease. This could have been a scrap from a molding that workers didn't feel it was necessary to capture. It may of even been a bit of hardened glue that was scraped off of the floor and never made it to a secure garbage location. This specimen had a smoother texture compared to similar looking glass findings, and when I tried to scratch the surface of it, it was not peeling with ease but it had a very rubbery texture like a rubber ball. It also had a coating of sand stuck to it.

5.) Cup. This teacup could have found it's way to Spectacle Island any number of ways. It's edges are smooth so this is evidence that it also has been on the island for a number of decades. At first I believed that this was simply garbage dropped off circa 1942 but then I gave it a second thought and realized that this was among other similar looking cup pieces. It was no coincidence. This must have been a part of the same set. This set could have been used on an observation platform where a supervisor would overlook the grease pressing operation. Although this or something like this can be picked up at a Wal-Mart today relatively inexpensively, this was no doubt a luxary item reserved for those of an upper class.

6.) Plate. This plate could have been used by offshore civilians and wound up on the island simply as a result of the land fill. Or, this could have been used by the upscale bed and breakfast Inns located on Spectacle island. This was most likely used by citizens who were in an upper class and could afford such luxurious accommodations. In 1738, Spectacle made a legitimate effort to attract tourists as a destination for fun. Two summer themed Inns were open to wealthy guests until the late 1850s. This was before businessman Nahum Ward realized he could make a lot of money building a horse rendering factory on this land.

What Happens to My Trash?
After my trash is out out onto my sidewalk it is picked up by JC Waste Removal. Once it is loaded onto the garbage truck, the waste is carted off to Covanta Energy located in Haverhill Massachusetts. Covanta incinerates the waste using two, 825 ton-per-day waterwall furnaces with grates and ash handling system in order to have the most efficient and nature safe burning system available. Covanta burns 1,650 tons of waste per day. This may sound like a lot but people throw away a lot of unusable materials. These unusable materials sit on the lot of Covanta Energy's 147 acre campus until the can be properly sorted and incinerated. Covanta is aware of common negative associations with "dumps" so on it's website they mention that they dispose of waste responsibly using 5 random, yet re-assuring words. The words they chose are

Protection
Compliance
Conservation
Qualification
Commitment.

The workers at Covanta are "Certified" and that combined with the aforementioned 5 "principals" we are assured that as citizens of Lynnfield, we do not have to worry about our trash being washed away to an Island 3 miles off the shore of Boston.

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From Snails to Whales

Welcome to Snails to Whales, Bruce Berman's blog focused on both the little and the big things that make Boston Harbor such an interesting and extraordinary place to live, work and play.

With 50 miles of protected water, four sheltered bays, seven river systems, 34 islands and a nine-foot average tide, Boston Harbor is one of the most diverse urban ecosystems in America.

This blog focuses on the flora and fauna of Boston Harbor and Massachusetts Bay - on the beach, the shore, and the harbor islands, and in the cleaner waters of Boston Harbor and Mass Bay - including this ecosystems most important species - people.

During the summer, it is also a place for my Boston University Students and my colleagues at Save the Harbor / Save the Bay to share their work and experiences.

Where I am coming from...

Love that clean(er) water
Learning about the Boston Harbor Cleanup from the waterway’s eyes, ears, and mouthpiece

By Brian Fitzgerald, BU Bridge

On Georges Island, Bruce Berman talks with his students about the history of the Boston Harbor Cleanup,
which is largely complete. Photo by Vernon Doucette

Bruce Berman, aboard a ferry from Boston’s Long Wharf to Georges Island, poses a question to his students: “How clean is clean enough?”

He’s talking about the water below.

It’s a brilliant July day, with the smell of salt spray in the air. The sky is clear, and so is the ocean. But there was a time when Boston Harbor wasn’t so clean, when the stench of sewage assaulted the nostrils of anyone who went near it.

Berman is the communications director for Save the Harbor/Save the Bay, a public-interest environmental advocacy organization whose mission is to help restore and protect the harbor and Massachusetts Bay. He also teaches a Metropolitan College summer course called Politics, Public Relations, and Public Policy: The Boston Harbor Cleanup.

“The Boston Harbor Cleanup is an amazing success story, and I just love to share it with students,” says Berman, noting that the harbor’s “bad old days” weren’t that long ago. Those were the days when untreated human waste, syringes, condoms, and tampon applicators routinely washed ashore. The antiquated sewage treatment plants on Deer Island and Nut Island were so poorly designed and maintained that they flooded during even mild rainstorms, sending millions of gallons of untreated waste directly into the harbor.

Since then, bacteria counts in the water have decreased by more than two-thirds. Now the harbor teems with plants and animals, and people can legally dig for clams on Carson Beach in South Boston, which was unheard of in the 1980s.

“It was one of the filthiest harbors in America, and now it’s one of the cleanest,” says Berman. “What I’m trying to impress upon students is how this incredible comeback occurred, and how business, advocacy groups, environmentalists, and government can affect the outcome of large projects such as the Boston Harbor Cleanup through negotiation.”

Paradise regained

Berman points to the left as the boat cruises by the cleanup’s centerpiece: the gargantuan white egglike tanks of the Deer Island waste treatment plant, which in 1995 replaced the antiquated facility. The plant treats an average of 350 million gallons of sewage a day.

“And what comes out of the Deer Island treatment plant?” he asks. Berman, his booming baritone competing with the roar of planes taking off from Logan Airport, has a habit of putting students on the spot to see if they’re paying attention.

“The outfall pipe,” say several simultaneously. “Treated water,” chime in a few more.

“That’s right,” he says with a smile. “The plant separates the solid and liquid waste, and it pumps the treated water through the 9.5-mile outfall pipe, which empties into Massachusetts Bay. The resulting sludge is converted to high-grade fertilizer.”

Now Berman returns to his original question: “How clean is clean enough?” There’s no quick and clear answer to this one. “It’s a question that at the end of the day the federal courts had to decide.”

In 1985, a landmark federal court case required that the harbor’s beaches be made swimmable and fishable by 2000. Save the Harbor/Save the Bay was formed the next year to raise public awareness of the $4.5 billion Boston Harbor Cleanup. Sewer ratepayers in the 43 cities and towns financing the project cried foul over the prospect of astronomically rising bills, but because of the determination of environmental advocacy groups such as Berman’s, the cleanup was largely completed on schedule.

Berman says it isn’t finished, however. There are still frequent beach closures because the counts of Enterococcus bacteria exceed the federal and state standard for swimming. The culprit: filthy storm water and sewage, much of it from leaky pipes and illegal hookups emptying into storm sewers, and then into the harbor.

“So is the harbor clean enough,” the Springfield native asks his students, “when you can’t swim in it one out of five days in the summer?”

Work to be done

Berman and his class look out from Georges Island to Gallops Island (left) and the white tanks of the waste treatment plant on Deer Island (right). Photo by Vernon Doucette

This summer the state approved one of the last parts of the cleanup: the construction, by 2011, of a 2.1-mile tunnel near the Dorchester and South Boston shorelines that will hold sewage and storm water during bad weather. It then will be pumped to Deer Island for treatment.

Berman is ecstatic over this development, the result of “tireless negotiation and consensus-building,” he says. “After 2011, we’re looking at beach closings once every five years, when there is a major storm, instead of once every five days.”

But he is not about to let his guard down. To say that he is a man obsessed with the harbor cleanup would be an understatement. Berman is also Save the Harbor/Save the Bay’s “Baywatcher,” and he lives on his 40-foot trawler Verandah. Polluters beware: if you’re discharging oil or sewage into Boston Harbor, the Baywatcher just might be watching.

He is quick to point out that his zealotry is not just on behalf of the harbor’s flora and fauna. “The harbor is for everyone,” he says. “If you’re from a working class or poor family in Boston, and you can’t afford a Cape Cod getaway in the summer, a clean harbor is important. The same is true if you’re a tourist vacationing in Boston or you happen to live in a pricey waterfront condo.”

Accordingly, Berman, who was a political consultant and contributing editor to the Phoenix newspaper before joining Save the Harbor/Save the Bay nearly 10 years ago, also teaches his students about the harbor’s role in the city’s economy. He points out that in the early 1990s, just a few ferries cruised the harbor’s waters. Today, more than 100,000 people visit its islands each summer, discovering their ecological and historic treasures.

“The best way to protect the harbor cleanup,” Berman tells his students, “is to make sure that the public has access to the resources and can see a return on its investment.”

Trevor Kosmolsick (MET’05) has lived in Boston for seven years, but until taking Berman’s course, he had never been to the waterfront. “I’ve also wanted to go camping in the area, but I never knew that you could camp on a few of the islands,” he says. “Bruce Berman is not only a great professor, but the ultimate tour guide.”

He also backs up his words with actions. Sometimes he takes off his shirt and dives in the water to demonstrate to passing boaters that it’s safe to swim. To show people on ferries that fishing is safe, he’s been known to grab one of the bluefish or striped bass he’s caught and (very carefully) plant a wet kiss on it.

“What I want everyone to understand is that investment in the environment really does pay off,” says Berman. “We’re willing to pay for a clean Boston Harbor, so we should enjoy it.”

From Snails to Whales

Thursday, August 4, 2011

Findings from Spectacle Island

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