Writing Contest Winners 2014-2015
Third Place, Grades 6-8
Andrew Ferrari
Grade 6, Andrews Middle School, Medford
Andrea Twardzicki, Teacher
MWRA Poem
When you go to the bathroom, you hardly think
Where does the water go when you turn off the sink?
Does it simply just go away?
No! It goes to the MWRA.
What is the MWRA, you ask?
It gives us fresh water, which is quite a task.
The sewer is also owned by the MWRA.
It filters out the waste and puts the water in the bay.
There is a guy named Bob, who goes to work every day.
He's a wastewater worker at the MWRA.
He leaves his house and goes down his path;
He's ready to use science, technology, engineering and math.
He measures bacteria in the bay,
Using math to make sure the water's okay.
If there's too much bacteria, it's not safe to use.
Having nasty water's not a good choice to choose!
The water's clean, and that's the way it will stay,
All thanks to the MWRA.
But using math is not all he has to do.
He has to use technology, too.
Bob pumps the water from someone's home,
Then he separates the waste from the loam.
Then a few chemicals get filtered out.
If this didn't happen, out of the pipes toxins would spout!
When microbes have eaten all the waste,
Out of the pipes clean water will race.
Now none of this could ever be
Without the use of technology.
Engineering is indeed
something that we all need.
It is also something that Bob needs, too.
For without it the sewer would be untrue.
The outfall pipe is the biggest thing of all.
It must have been hard to install.
If anything needed to be repaired,
Bob needs engineering to be prepared.
In the future, if there's anything to add,
Without engineering, Bob would be sad.
The sewer is an engineering feat.
It gets rid of bacteria like pressing "delete."
Engineering is useful every day
If you work at the MWRA.
Now finally for the S in STEM,
Which comes before the rest of them.
The breaking down of chemicals wouldn't exist
If it wasn't for a scientist.
Bob uses oxygen to make microbes grow,
Down their mouths the waste will go.
The waste is out of the water-hooray!
Now it can flow through the outfall pipe into the bay.
But the waste itself needs to get treated,
After that it also gets heated.
Then it's used as fertilizer.
By doing this, Bob's an economizer!
Science is very important there-it is used everywhere.
So, next time you go to the bathroom, just think,
The wastewater doesn't disappear with a blink.
It goes to the MWRA,
Where people treat it every day,
On Deer Island, in Massachusetts Bay,
Keeping the water a safe place to play.
This wouldn't exist if it weren't for the MWRA.
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