What are some critical attributes of the polluted Boston Harbor?

• Boston Harbor covers 130 square kilometers and has an average depth of 5.8 meters.
• The Harbor once supported abundant, healthy populations of harbor seals, porpoises, whales, sea birds, and many other types of marketable fish and shellfish.  However, after centuries of raw sewage and pollution to the Harbor, a large portion of these species have suffered.
• Before 1980, the main transport artery and large buildings separated downtown from the ocean, and those who did notice the deterioration of the water quality had no means to convey their observations.
• The majority of beach-goers were primarily lower- to middle-income Bostonians with little formal political standing, while fisherman simply did not want to announce to the public that their product was below average.  Legislators were interested in more visible projects, such as roads and parks.
• The Clean Water Act of 1972 (CWA) required that publicly owned treatment works would provide secondary waste water treatment by mid-1977;  however, the Metropolitan District Commission suspended any action for system upgrades for 13 years. (Refer to Table 1 below)

TABLE 1:

                    POLLUTION-PREVENTION COMPARISON 

               OF WASTEWATER TREATMENT OPERATIONS

            Primary Only                                                   Secondary

– removes 60% of solids                                 – will remove 90% of solids

– removes 40% of toxic pollutants                  – will remove 85% of toxic pollutants       

– reduces BOD* by 35%                                – will reduce BOD* by 85%

*Biological Oxygen Demand, a measure of the oxygen-consuming organic matter present in effluent.  BOD is a pollutant because it removes oxygen necessary for fauna from the marine or aquatic environment.