The State of Boston Harbor and Massachusetts Bay
MWRA Environmental Quality Department

What's New

Harbor and Rivers Water Quality Report
Recent measurements of bacteria, algae, and water clarity in Boston Harbor and its tributary rivers.

Bacteria Monitoring at the Outfall
Recent measure of sewage indicator bacteria, fecal coliform and Enterococcus, around the outfall and elsewhere in Massachusetts Bay.

Discharge Monitoring
Monthly monitoring results from Deer Island Treatment Plant and Combined Sewer Overflow treatment facilities are summarized in these tables submitted to federal and state regulators. (PDF)

An Update on Boston Harbor: Presentations to the Outfall Monitoring Science Advisory Panel:
PDF Presentations
Powerpoint Presentations

Contingency Plan Red Tide Exceedance (Alexandrium)  (PDF)
Results from a May 16 survey show that the single sample abundance of Alexandrium near the outfall ranged from 775 to 1493 cells per liter.  The Contingency Plan Alexandrium threshold is 100 cells/liter.

Plant Performance Data  (PDF)
Last month's data on the Deer Island Treatment Plant's effluent discharges. Measurements of fecal coliform bacteria, suspended solids, oxygen depleting materials, and chlorine residual are included.

An Award of Excellence was awarded by the National Association of Government Communicators to the U.S. Geological Survey at Woods Hole, MA for the technical report, "Processes Influencing the Transport and Fate of Contaminated Sediments in the Coastal Ocean--Boston Harbor and Massachusetts Bay". This report is based on research into how sediments and sewage particles move in the harbor and the bay. The project was funded jointly by MWRA and USGS.

Real-time Data from Massachusetts Bay: Data collected hourly off Cape Ann provides MWRA with useful water quality information. Check the temperature in Boston Harbor Water Quality at Boston Harbor Beaches The State of Boston Harbor & Massachusetts Bay Literature List Permit Reports Ambient Monitoring Best Mgmt. Practices Contingency Plan Discharge Monitoring Exceedances Flow Limitation Groundwater Local Limits Operations Pollution Prior Notice Archived Reports View reports required by MWRA's discharge permit.

 

Note: Many of our reports are in PDF format, which requires Adobe Acrobat Reader®, a free program available from Adobe Systems. To request a paper copy of any report, please contact the MWRA Environmental Quality Department at 617-788-4601, or e-mail us at web.enquad@mwra.state.ma.us.