From Snails to Whales: Deer, Moons, and the interesting points behind their formations and usage

Saturday, July 14, 2012

Deer, Moons, and the interesting points behind their formations and usage

Hello All,

The class today was one like no other I have every had. It was nice to be out of the classroom and experiencing a different type of learning. Not only was I able to intake a large amount of interesting and useful information, but I was also able to observe and experience the harbor for myself. It had been a long time since I had been in a boat around the harbor, and it looked much different then I remember it. It was interesting hearing an expert's point of view on the different locations in the harbor, and the usage of each island within it.

Embarking on our journey during low tide was a special treat, with a nice outside temperature in the high 80s, and some humidity, we were able to relax and enjoy the views. We were able to see a number of rock formations that would have normally been covered by the tide, and would only be visible to boaters by their careful preplanned routes (As seen in the chart displayed in the blackboard course documents, where I was able to locate what I think was one of the rock formations we were able to see today). As a class we were able to see that the tide was on its way down because of the color spectrum on the walls, and the still wet seaweed on the walls. Tides have a 6 hour cycle, and if the tide was on its way back up, then the seaweed would have been dry above. It is interesting that because of all the man made wharfs and piers in Boston creating a vertical tide that ranges from 9-11 feet and how different that is from the wide spread horizontal tides that are seen on a normal swimming beach.

One of the most interesting parts of the harbor that I learned much more about was Deer Island. I did not realize the massive size and capacity of the treatment plant. I did a little extended research on Deer Island from the Boston Harborwalk website, and learned that it services 43 communities throughout the MetroBoston area. This is a large number of people, and a large amount of waste. The design of this plant is so efficient and complex, that it is used as a model for other cities around the country to help clean up waterways and provide a benefit out of normal human waste. The large barrels that works as digesters that are 10 story towers of waste are an engineering masterpiece, allowing for the treatment of water and solid waste to create a benefit to the economy and to the population. I did not realize that the treatment plant shipped the solid waste to Quincy in order to create pellet fertilizer to be used for planting (As Professor Berman put it, our homestyle orange juice is fertilized with our own shit).

"As one of the largest electricity users in the Northeast, Deer Island has embarked upon an ambitious goal of generating 30% renewable energy by 2020" (www.bostonharborwalk.com). This is a monumental goal that further impresses me by the power and productivity of this project. The wind turbines that we were able to observe when passing the island were used to return energy to the plant. It also uses alternative lighting and its own methane gas for alternative heating. The self sufficiency of the whole project makes it one of the many marvels of the world, and definitely created a lasting impression on me after our trip today. Professor Berman's toilet game also helped reinforce the process of moving the "goldfish" from the basin of your toilet to the treatment plant.

In the picture to the left we can see that different pieces of Deer Island from the digesters on the right, to the turbine fans (hardly visable) on the left side. This was a picture I took for my own observation on our trip to the harbor today.

I have learned a lot about the uses of the harbor in current day, as well as in the past, many of the points I did not know before. I am looking forward to our further adventures into the Harbor, and for what other interesting information will come my way. I appreciate Professor Berman's high level of interest and expertise in the subject.

Until tomorrow, enjoy your evening everyone.

Trevor O'Leary

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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

Saturday, July 14, 2012

Deer, Moons, and the interesting points behind their formations and usage

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