Boston Harbor Cleanup Made Possible by EPA. What Will Happen Now With the Threat of Budget Cuts?
Boston Harbor once had the notorious reputation of being one of the dirtiest bodies of water in the nation. Today, however, the water is so clear and clean that the shoreline and beaches have enjoyed a resurgence among outdoor recreationists. Even sea creatures are thriving in it.
Thanks to the Environmental Protection Agency’s enforcement, cleaning up the polluted Boston Harbor has been a multi-billion dollar effort that has extended over more than three decades. Now, that agency faces budget cuts so drastic that supporters worry it may not be able to maintain this level of vigilance in the future.
President Trump’s EPA Administrator, Lee Zeldin, has promised to reduce the agency’s total spending by 65%. Earlier this week, a New York Times report stated that the agency’s scientific research and development office could be on the chopping block.
For Boston, a long-sought goal to clean every section of local rivers enough to permit public swimming seems elusive. Former EPA regulators told The Boston Globe that substantial cuts could cripple efforts to stop stormwater and wastewater pollution from entering Boston-area watersheds.
The Boston Globe noted that Boston Harbor was used as the city’s sewer for more than a century before a 1983 lawsuit raised by the Conservation Law Foundation and the city of Quincy forced the cleanup. The EPA became a plaintiff in the case that caused Massachusetts to take action. The cleanup, administered by federal judge A. David Mazzone, required a huge sewage treatment plant constructed on Deer Island. The cost was $3.7 billion, subsidized by increased water rates, state funds, and federal EPA grants.
James Hoyte, a former Massachusetts secretary of environmental affairs who was in office during the Boston Harbor cleanup, fears that budget cuts at the EPA could weaken state agencies such as the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection. This agency receives one-third of its funding from the federal government.
“Environmental protection doesn’t come cheap, but it pays enormous dividends,” said John DeVillars, the regional EPA administrator in New England in the late 1990s. “Sadly, for the next four years, it doesn’t look like we’re going to have that.”
