The MWRA Advisory Board is glad that the Globe acknowledges, in its Dec. 8 editorial “Expand the MWRA’s mission,” that the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority has successfully fulfilled its mission to clean up Boston Harbor.
Clearly, the cleanup is an environmental and economic success that has benefited the entire Commonwealth. Where the Globe has it backward is when it states, “The 43 cities and towns of the MWRA district owe the agency a debt.” It is the MWRA and all of Massachusetts who owe the 43 communities a high five.
That $4.7 billion came, and continues to come, from ratepayers in these communities. It didn’t come from the Commonwealth or the federal government.
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The Globe now believes that no good work should go unpunished, and that the MWRA should turn its focus on new contaminants. Really?
Ratepayers have expended more than $74 million in monitoring since 1992.
As the Globe states, this monitoring has found no evidence that the MWRA’s outfall discharge causes degradation in Massachusetts Bay. The MWRA has done its job.
Emerging threats to the marine environment, such as pharmaceuticals and plastics, should be evaluated, but the MWRA is not the only stakeholder, and this effort should not be funded on our ratepayers’ dime. It is past time for others to step up to the plate.
With the state coffers overflowing, it is time for the state and others to begin to fulfill their responsibilities. We at the MWRA and our ratepayers have absolutely fulfilled ours.
Joseph Favaloro
Executive director
MWRA Advisory Board
Boston