2024 Advisory Board Field Trip

On Thursday August 22, 2024, the Advisory Board welcomed water and wastewater advisory groups, MWRA staff, and municipal employees, among others, for our annual field trip with a focus on wastewater. As said by MWRA Executive Director Fred Laskey at a recent Advisory Board meeting, “It’s one thing to read a staff summary about a location or an issue, but it’s far better that you see it in person.” These field trips serve as a tangible way for ratepayers to see first-hand the infrastructure that contributes to quality drinking water and wastewater treatment.

For attendees that opted to take the bus from MWRA headquarters in Chelsea, they were treated to a sneak peak of the Advisory Board’s launch of its podcast endeavor, known as ABTV. Early versions of upcoming episodes featured MWRA’s very own Dave Duest, Director of Wastewater Treatment, speaking on the challenges of PFAS, and Steve Estes-Smargiassi, Director of Planning and Sustainability, speaking on the Authority’s climate resilience planning. Attendees also heard on-board commentary from Executive Director Fred Laskey, as well as MWRA’s Stephen Cullen, Director of Wastewater, who offered many “fun facts”.

The bus passed by Moakley Park, located at a low-lying area of Boston that is vulnerable to sea level rise along the shores of Dorchester Bay. It is here that the MWRA has been working with staff from a number of Boston departments for about six years on a major climate change adaptation project, as both the MWRA and the Boston Water and Sewer Commission both have assets below and around the park that need to be protected. It’s an excellent example of how various organizations can work together to meet multiple community goals.

The first stop on the trip was the MWRA Biosolids Processing Facility, or pelletizing plant, located at the Fore River Shipyard in Quincy. The location was originally acquired by the MWRA for use as a staging area and transportation system during the Boston Harbor Project. The 2.7-mile-long rail line, which is owned by the MWRA and operated by the Fore River Transportation Corporation, is known as the Fore River Railroad and is used to transport fertilizer produced at the facility.

The facility is operated under contract by the New England Fertilizer Company (NEFCO) to process up to 94.0 DTPD/TSS (Dry Tons Per Day/Total Suspended Solids) as an annual average. The MWRA pays a fixed monthly amount for the calendar year, with a contract requiring NEFCO to capture at least 90% of the solids delivered to the facility. Operating five days per week, the pellets produced are marketed in bulk nationwide by NEFCO, with a smaller portion being marketed as Bay State Fertilizer.

When wastewater is in a settling tank, things such as plastics, fats, and cooking oils float to the top and are later landfilled as scum. Heavier particles sink to the bottom, becoming what is known as sludge. The Deer Island Wastewater Treatment Plant sends sludge to the Biosolids Processing Facility. This sludge is then processed with rotating, high temperature dryers into nutrient rich fertilizer pellets for use in gardening and landscaping.

Sometime after noon, the bus arrived at the Nut Island headworks facility, which resides on a peninsula in the Boston Harbor near Hough’s Neck in Quincy. Originally acquired by the Commonwealth in 1890 to expand Boston’s sewage system, the peninsula later hosted the Nut Island Primary Wastewater Treatment Plant operated by the Metropolitan District Commission. This treatment plant was demolished in 1998 and replaced by the Nut Island headworks, which the MWRA owns and operates as a preliminary treatment facility for removing grit and floatables from waste before it is sent as effluent to Deer Island for further treatment. The headworks serves about 800,000 people and processes up to 360 million gallons per day.

Following a fire in 2016, the Nut Island headworks received upgrades to its ventilation and odor control facilities as well as its fire protection system and other safety enhancements. This entailed installing four high velocity fans, custom air handling units, three oil-fired boilers, and two 20,000-gallon buried diesel tanks, rehabbing three chemical wet scrubbers with new chemical metering pumps and tanks, replacing five steel carbon absorbers with ten fiberglass carbon-containing tanks to treat odors and harmful gases, new ductwork, removing and repairing an underground roof, new roof hatches, replacing emergency spillway isolation gates, and a new egress stairway.

With views of the Boston skyline in the distance, attendees gathered for lunch outside of the facility, awash in fresh air no doubt made possible by the carbon filtration system in the headworks. Over hotdogs and hamburgers, MWRA Advisory Board’s Executive Director Matthew Romero and former Advisory Board Executive Director Joseph Favoloro, gave tribute to John Sanchez, who will be retiring his seat as the Chair of the Advisory Board. For everyone who was able to come to the field trip, we thank you and look forward to next year!