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MWRA Writing Contest Winners 2004-2005
Massachusetts Water Resources Authority

Honorable Mention Grades 3-5
by Noah M. Bernays, Grade 3
The Jewish Community Day School, Watertown

Tom Etre, teacher
Hamutal Gavish, principal

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The Greatest Benefit of a Clean Boston Harbor

I love to camp and I think the greatest benefit of a clean Boston Harbor is that people can camp on the islands there. There are thirty-four islands in all, although you can’t camp on all of them because boats do not go to all of the islands; some of them are still dirty, and others too small; and some are private. So you can’t camp on all of them.

The four islands that you can camp on are Bumpkin Island, Peddocks Island, Grape Island and Lovells Island. On Bumpkin Island, flowers and plants grow along the trails that lead to the remains of an old children’s hospital and stone farmhouse. There are a lot of shell beaches and open fields which make it a very relaxing and peaceful place to be.

Another one of the four islands that you can camp on is Lovells Island. Lovells Island is named after Captain William Lovells. It is forty-eight acres but when the tide is low it is seventy-one acres more, totaling about one hundred and twenty acres. Lovells Island has picnic areas, the remains of Fort Standish, and trails that go past dunes and forests. While I was on it I saw large, brown rabbits! You can also swim there.

You can camp on Peddocks Island, which is one of the largest islands in the harbor, totaling one hundred and eighty acres in all. On the Eastern part of the island are the remains of Fort Andrews. Trails on Peddocks Island go past a salt marsh, a pond and a forest of old trees.

One of the islands you can’t camp on is Georges Island, on which there is a big, run-down fort called Fort Warren. There is also another long, skinny fort on the island. Georges Island is forty acres in all and it is a great place to fly a kite, have a picnic or just explore.

In past years, when the water was dirty, you couldn’t camp or swim on any of the islands because they were just too dirty. There was trash and garbage everywhere and there was also poop in the water because whenever people in certain areas flushed the toilet or spit into the sink it would go through a pipe and then out into Boston Harbor.

Since then, people have raised enough money to clean up most of Boston Harbor. Now that it is clean, people can camp on it and swim in it. Now, whenever you flush the toilet or spit into the sink it goes into a pipe, then out onto and island called Deer Island, where there are sixteen big tanks that look like gigantic eggs! There are a lot of people working there who make sure that the egg-like tanks do their job by breaking down the waste that comes into them with microorganisms and bacteria so it doesn’t smell bad or harm our environment.

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