From Robert Whitcomb's "Digital Diary,'' in GoLocal24.com
“Well, I love that dirty water (I love it, baby)
I love that dirty water (I love Baw-stun)’’
From “Dirty Water,’’ (1965) by the Standells, a tribute to the polluted waters of Boston Harbor and the Charles River, which of course flows into it.
As the Trump administration continues to weaken the understaffed Environmental Protection Agency, I think of Boston Harbor before the EPA and the great Boston Harbor cleanup, which the creation of the EPA (1970) and the Clean Water Act (1972) helped set in motion. I had summer jobs on the Boston waterfront in the ‘60s and well remember how rank the harbor was. My workmates and I would sometimes take the lunch boat, which offered many scenic attractions, but on a hot day, the smell was foul enough to make us put down our sandwiches.
The cleanup was a great social, aesthetic and economic boon for our region, as has been the gradual cleanup of Narragansett Bay.
