Political waters : the long, dirty, contentious, incredibly expensive but eventually triumphant history of Boston Harbor--a unique environmental success story /

"Boston Harbor is America's harbor," says environmental author Dolin (Smithsonian Book of National Wildlife Refuges) in this sprightly account of its history and cleanup. This tale of politicians, engineers, and money began in 1632 when the Puritans, in search of a clean water supply, settled on the Shawmut Peninsula. Within two years, Boston became the capital of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and like all cities, it wrangled with its waste. After the Boston Board of Health was established in 1799 with Paul Revere as president, city fathers began tackling the job of building a sewer system that carried away human waste, sewage, and water runoff into Boston Harbor. By the 1980s, the harbor was a stagnant, putrid disgrace. Drawing on extensive quotes from a variety of primary sources, Dolin details how in one of the most impressive environmental cleanups in U.S. history, the harbor was restored. It took just two lawsuits, the creation of a sewage authority, billions of dollars, and many individuals, including Massachusetts Governor and 1988 Democratic presidential candidate Michael Dukakis and Republican candidate George Bush, who exchanged jibes over the harbor. Recommended for libraries with environmental, law, and urban history collections.-Patricia Ann Owens, Wabash Valley Coll., Mt. Carmel, IL (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.