Considering how much attention had been paid to the MWRA’s project to cleanup Boston Harbor it is usual that the final step in the process did not make the front page of the Boston Globe. On September 6, 2000, gates were closed on Deer Island and the effluent output of the plant, now with secondary treatment, tumbled into the completed outfall tunnel for its eventual dispersal 9.5 miles out into Massachusetts Bay. One might have expected more fanfare.
The timeline below and on the following pages are highlights for only what the MWRA at the time called |
the Boston Harbor Project. That is what the court ordered to be completed by the end of 1999.
The color key reflects the three major aspects of the project, the treatment plant, the tunnels, and the solution for what to do with the sludge.
The left column are the actions and reactions from the MWRA as it relates to its efforts to complete the project on time.
The right column are the actions of everyone else, the EPA, the courts, government officials, politicians local and national, citizen groups, academics, aggrieved suppliers, etc.. |
