{"product_id":"political-waters-the-long-dirty-contentious-incredibly-expensive-but-eventually-triumphant-history-of-boston-harbor-a-unique-environmental-success-story-9781558494459","title":"Political Waters: The Long  Dirty  Contentious  Incredibly Expensive  but Eventually Triumphant History of Boston Harbor : A Unique Environmental Success Story","description":"\u003cp\u003eBoston Harbor has always been Americas harbor. It served as a colonial gateway to the world  witnessed the Boston Tea Party  and helped Boston transform itself from an outpost of a few hardy settlers into a bustling metropolis and self-proclaimed hub of the universe. Yet for hundreds of years  Eric Jay Dolin points out  Boston Harbor was also a cesspool. Long before Bostonians dumped tea into the harbor to protest English taxes  they dumped sewage there. As the Boston area grew and prospered  its sewage problems worsened  as did the harbors health  to the point where in the 1980s it was considered the most polluted harbor in the country and ridiculed as the \"harbor of shame.\" Then  in one of the most impressive environmental comebacks in American history  Boston Harbor was dramatically cleaned up. All it took was two lawsuits  two courts  dozens of lawyers  the creation of a powerful sewage authority  thousands of workers  millions of labor hours  and billions of dollars. Sewage management is rarely as compelling and exciting as higher profile environmental issues such as global climate change  preserving endangered species  or protecting tropical rainforests. But it can be  as Dolin shows in this engaging narrative account. Bostons struggle to deal with its sewage is an epic story of failure and success  replete with colorful characters  political  bureaucratic  and legal twists and turns  engineering feats  and massive amounts of money. In the end  success hinged on the often overlooked yet monumentally important act of responsibly disposing of the waste people produce every day.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45951522471989,"sku":"ByrdShop_1558494456","price":336.75,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9781558494459.jpg?v=1788111755","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/political-waters-the-long-dirty-contentious-incredibly-expensive-but-eventually-triumphant-history-of-boston-harbor-a-unique-environmental-success-story-9781558494459","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}