Political Waters: The Long, Dirty, Contentious, Incredibly Expensive, but Eventually Triumphant History of Boston Harbor : A Unique Environmental Success Story

by Eric Jay Dolin

Boston Harbor has always been America’s harbor. It served as a colonial gateway to the world, witnessed the Boston Tea Party, and helped Boston transform itself from an outpost of a few hardy settlers into a bustling metropolis and self-proclaimed hub of the universe. Yet for hundreds of years, Eric Jay Dolin points out, Boston Harbor was also a cesspool. Long before Bostonians dumped tea into the harbor to protest English taxes, they dumped sewage there. As the Boston area grew and prospered, its sewage problems worsened, as did the harbor’s health, to the point where in the 1980s it was considered the most polluted harbor in the country and ridiculed as the "harbor of shame." Then, in one of the most impressive environmental comebacks in American history, Boston Harbor was dramatically cleaned up. All it took was two lawsuits, two courts, dozens of lawyers, the creation of a powerful sewage authority, thousands of workers, millions of labor hours, and billions of dollars. Sewage management is rarely as compelling and exciting as higher profile environmental issues such as global climate change, preserving endangered species, or protecting tropical rainforests. But it can be, as Dolin shows in this engaging narrative account. Boston’s struggle to deal with its sewage is an epic story of failure and success, replete with colorful characters, political, bureaucratic, and legal twists and turns, engineering feats, and massive amounts of money. In the end, success hinged on the often overlooked yet monumentally important act of responsibly disposing of the waste people produce every day.

Genres: History

Hardcover

First published June 1, 2004

About the author

I grew up near the coasts of New York and Connecticut, and since an early age I was fascinated by the natural world, especially the ocean. I spent many days wandering the beaches on the edge of Long Island Sound and the Atlantic, collecting seashells and exploring tidepools. When I left for college I wanted to become a marine biologist or more specifically a malacologist (seashell scientist). At Brown University I quickly realized that although I loved learning about science, I wasn't cut out for a career in science, mainly because I wasn't very good in the lab, and I didn't particularly enjoy reading or writing scientific research papers. So, after taking a year off and exploring a range of career options, I shifted course turning toward the field of environmental policy, first earning a double-major in biology and environmental studies, then getting a masters degree in environmental management from Yale, and a Ph.D. in environmental policy and planning from MIT, where my dissertation focused on the role of the courts in the cleanup of Boston Harbor.

I have held a variety of jobs, including stints as a fisheries policy analyst at the National Marine Fisheries Service, a program manager at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, an environmental consultant stateside and in London, an American Association for the Advancement of Science writing fellow at Business Week, a curatorial assistant in the Mollusk Department at Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology, and an intern at the National Wildlife Federation, the Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management, and the U.S. Senate.

Throughout my career, one thing remained constant--I enjoyed writing and telling stories. And that's why I started writing books--to share the stories that I find most intriguing (I have also published more than 60 articles for magazines, newspapers, and professional journals). My most recent books include:

***A Furious Sky: The Five-Hundred-Year History of America's Hurricanes (Liveright, 2020), which was chosen by:

The Washington Post -- One of 50 Notable works of Nonfiction for 2020

Library Journal -- One of the Best Science & Technology Books of 2020
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Kirkus Reviews -- One of the top 100 nonfiction books of 2020 (it was also a finalist for the Kirkus Prize)
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Booklist -- 10 Top Sci-Tech Books of 2020
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Amazon.com -- One of the Best Science Books of 2020

And also was an Editor's Choice by the New York Times Book Review.

New York Times -- Editor's Choice

***Black Flags, Blue Waters: The Epic History of America's Most Notorious Pirates (Liveright, 2018), which was chosen as a "Must-Read" book for 2019 by the Massachusetts Center for the Book, and was a finalist for the 2019 Julia Ward Howe Award given by the Boston Author's Club.

***Brilliant Beacons: A History of the American Lighthouse (Liveright, 2016), which was chosen by gCaptain and Classic Boat as one of the best nautical books of 2016.

***When America First Met China: An Exotic History of Tea, Drugs, and Money in the Age of Sail (Liveright, September 2012), which was chosen by Kirkus Reviews as one of the ten best non-fiction books of Fall 2012.

***Fur, Fortune, and Empire: the Epic History of the Fur Trade in America (W. W. Norton, 2010), a national bestseller, which was chosen by New West, The Seattle Times, and The Rocky Mountain Land Library as one of the top non-fiction books of 2010. It also won the 2011 James P. Hanlan Book Award, given by the New England Historical Association, and was awarded first place in the Outdoor Writers Association of America, Excellence in Craft Contest.

***Leviathan: The History of Whaling in America (W. W. Norton, 2007), which was selected as one of the best nonfiction books of 2007 by The Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, and The Providence Journal. Leviathan was also chosen by Amazon.com's editors as one of the 10 best history books of 2007. Leviathan garnered the the 23rd annual (2007) L. Byrne Waterman

Reviews

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dolin looked at the very flawed Boston sewer and waste management system over the entire course of its history. While he notes that, like much of Boston’s history, it started as ad-hoc sewers dug by home owners, by the 19th century, demand for a way to deal with the growing problem of disease, fire, and strong odors pushed Boston to build more coordinated sewers. By 1885, a sewer system which dumped waste into the Boston Harbor had come to formation, where the idea was that the harbor would dissipate the waste and therefore dispose of it properly. The place of discharge was near Deer Island and Moon Island, where secondary treatment plants were later built. Unfortunately, the system quickly led to Boston Harbor becoming horribly polluted, and by the mid-20th century, the treatment facilities on Deer and Moon were becoming outdated. Sewage regularly washed up on beaches in the area and made them unusable for swimming or for even being on the beach because of the odor. In 1966, the Massachusetts Clean Water Act, followed by the federal Clean Water Act required Boston to clean up, build new treatment centers on the islands, and replace the antiquated pipe systems. After a series of lawsuits, Massachusetts and Boston opened the Boston Harbor Project, and in 2000, a new pipe opened which took sewage further out into the Massachusetts Bay where it could more properly dissipate. Deer Island waste treatment was at the same time shutdown. Though Dolin is skeptical about the long-term reliability of the sewage system, he stresses that it has made major progress.

[Allison · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book provides a long detailed account of the transformation of Boston Harbor from a polluted open sewer to a harbor with beaches clean enough for swimming.
The first chapters are particularly interesting because they describe how the early city handled its sewage. Most people had an outhouse, a hand-dug pit, in the backyard or basement. That might be OK in a rural area where houses are widely spaced, but it didn't work so well as the city grew. Or when that city is on the water.
When the tide rolled in, the water table was so high in parts of Boston that polluted ground water and sewage seeped up through the floor into basements. In some cases, residents regularly had three feet of sewage and sludge in their cellar. Various municipal projects improved the situation for homeowners, but by the 1960s, the harbor was a cesspool.

Dolin recounts the policy fights, lawsuits and court action that led to the clean up. It took the federal Clean Water Act, EPA regulations and compromise on all sides. It's amazing to read of a time when government and politicians managed to make compromises and get something done even when they disagreed.