Field Trip: Environmental Law Class Visits Deer Island Sewage Treatment Plant

This year the seminar in environmental law class again visited the Deer Island sewage treatment plant, which serves the Boston area.  Boston Harbor has gone from the most polluted harbor in the U.S. -  when once served by only a dilapidated old plant - to one of the cleanest, served by a modern well operated plant.  The class is shown standing next to one of the inadequate pumps that was used in the old plant - which is now preserved as only an exhibit in the new plant's waiting room.  The new plant now includes pumping units as large as Devlin Hall, as well as highly effective primary and secondary treatment systems, which now remove over 95% of sewage so that the plant discharges only clean effluent to the water.