30 year cleanup of Boston Harbor completed

stellarfun

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Must be a bunch of land lubbers on this board! I didn't find a thread on this project. From the August 6 Globe:

....US District Judge Richard G. Stearns last month issued the 239th compliance order in the 1985 lawsuit that led to the Boston Harbor cleanup project, declaring an end to the construction phase of the massive combined sewer overflow project.
....
“The court repeats its congratulations,” the judge said in the five-page compliance order last month, saying that the MWRA presentation highlighted “the magnitude of this multi-decade achievement.”

The presentation turned into a celebration with environmental protection attorneys and construction contractors, sewer and water system operators, and government lawyers all saluting the cleanup of the harbor and the Charles River — and an end to the 31 years of litigation.

http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/20...cleanup-era/EFKyY9F63azlbFU5BBR1fK/story.html
 
Record number of humpback whale sightings in the outer Harbor in the past year, including another one a few days ago. Usually they stay 20-30 miles out by Stellwagen Bank, but NEAQ says they seem to be clued in to increased food supply closer to shore and are making more regular trips inside of 10 miles than they've ever been known to previously.
 
U Mass Boston just digitized an old film that's halfway between a documentary on the harbor at its dirtiest, and a Boston version of Koyaanisqatsi. The core is about ten minutes of a narrated helicopter flight over the Harbor Islands in 1969, some really great footage:

https://vimeo.com/174398217
 
That is amazing news. All this development and a cleaner harbor. Great stuff. I remember looking into the water as a kid and it was absolutely disgusting.
 
It is worth reading the EPA's pages on:
Charles River Watershed
Mystic River Watershed

The Mystic's graphical reportcard shows that the Alewife Brook is still a problem (or was 2013-2014...haven't a couple of CSO-separation or stormwater projects completed since then?), but it is sure nice that the "Mystic Proper" is all rated "A" or "A-" for bacteria.

The great North Cambridge stormwater pipe construction blitz is substantially complete after 5 years of tearing the shit out of every residential street in the area. They're still fussing around Concord Ave. by the rotary, but the activity has substantially calmed down this year. None of the new infrastructure would've been online for this report card survey, so effects on Alewife are still TBD and wouldn't show themselves for a couple more years.
 

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