A Walk on Deer Island

Yesterday was one of those perfect days that we have gotten all too seldom this summer, so Alex and I decided to go exploring near the ocean. We started out with lunch at a restuarant overlooking the harbor near the Constitution wharf in Charlestown, and then drove past the airport and started working our way north through the ocean-view neighborhoods of Revere. That eventually led us to Deer Island, which is no longer an island, but is connected to Revere via a causeway. Deer Island is the home of the new, huge Massachusetts Water Resources Authority sewage treatment plant, but it also has quite a bit of public access with great views of both the plant and the ocean. (Unfortunately, it was a very small parking lot, but we were lucky to just be able to squeeze into a place.)

There is one long 2.6-mile paved path that goes around the perimeter of the island. We started going along the east side facing the open ocean, where the only hint of the plant is this tower just visible over the hill. The area has been planted with native grasses and wildflowers, with an occasional cluster of trees. There's a long fenced seawall, where we caught a view of a fancy cruise ship leaving Boston harbor and could also look down to see the seabirds at the water's edge. There were also occasional signs explaining what you were seeing, including one that marked the location of the 9.6-mile outflow tunnel that takes the treated waste out into the ocean where it is released.

After a mile or so, some parts of the plant came into view. These are the huge egg-shaped "digesters" that are at prominent at the island's south tip. From the south tip, you get some incredible views: directly across the mouth of Boston harbor, watching all the boats going in and out, and to the west, a view of the Boston skyline.

Before being taken over by the MWRA, Deer Island had a long history of housing various sorts of institutions, including an immigration quarantine facility during the Irish potato famine, a reform school, and a jail. Very little remains of these uses, although there are plans to build memorials to the Irish immigrants and the original inhabitants, the native Americans. This is one old building that still remains - an 1889 pumping station that is now said to be used as a visitor center.

Although, strangely, the public can't access the visitor center because the plant is walled off from the walking path by these chain link fences that look like they were added as a security measure after the plant was originally built. (Apparently there are public tours of the plant available on the first Tuesday of each month.)

After completing the perimeter path, we took another unpaved path that led up through the tall grass and wildflowers to the crests of a couple of man-made hills that gave great views in various directions. Below, you can see the view west toward Boston, north past Revere (notice the airplane taking off from Logan airport), and south overlooking the huge expanse of the treatment plant.

The plant overlook had a descriptive sign that explained the flow through the plant and what was processed in the different facilities. This sign gave the interesting and memorable statistic that the volume of sewage processed by this plant each day was equivalent to three Prudential towers. That could lead to a lot of bad jokes, but I will refrain. Strangely enough, there really wasn't much of a smell. There was a slight odor on the landward side where we didn't have the sea breeze, but as Alex said, "I've smelled worse in Cambridge after a heavy rain."

When we left Deer Island, we meandered north a bit further, and stumbled across a sand sculpture exhibition on Revere Beach. The dragon was my favorite.

Comments

[Steve]

You said " That eventually led us to Deer Island, which is no longer an island, but is connected to Revere via a causeway." Thats wrong. Revear goes into winthop after revear beach, you go buy all the highlands, then you get to another beach. Go all the way down that to the point, then on to deer island. What i mean is, Deer island is connected to Winthrop, NOT Revear.