Our knowledge is so rudimentary about the environment where the proposed 
diffuser was to be built that if Boston was allowed to stay with primary sewage 
treatment, the distribution of the rocky areas in a transect going 7 miles out is virtually 
unknown, although some preliminary side scan sonar work was done in the early 1970s by 
Edgerton's group at MIT. That's about the state of our knowledge in mapping where there 
are sediment patches and rocky patches. 
Without a good side scan sonar or good depth sounding device, we wouldn't 
know when we put down a box corer whether we would be landing in soft sediment or in 
rock. Our state of knowledge is that poor. When our state of knowledge is that poor, I 
don't think the scientists are going to be saying, "Build the outfall out there." You know, 
build it out there and we'll decide after we've done more studies whether we need to go to 
secondary. 
Question: Whether you go to secondary treatment or not, there has to be a 
discharge of some things some place. You need to decide discharge location whether you 
do physical oceanographic work or not. How much more physical oceanographic 
information would you need to make a decision about where you would want the 
discharge? It is going to have to be discharged. 
G. Wallace: We've been discussing that because we've been involved in the 
South Essex sewage district and their potential attempts to reapply after their permit 
denial. To address the scientific concerns, we put together a package that would address 
EPA's concerns, which now would include farfield and nearfield effects. To do that, we 
have to understand the circulation of Massachusetts Bay. This would have to be done on a 
basis of where we have at least enough data to examine the principal influence of the 
major forcing factors. That would require seasonal deployment of current meters. For 
example, in the South Atlantic Bight, extensive information has been gathered for the 
Department of Energy program over a number of years. 
A problem with all these waivers is that if the comprehensive studies were 
done initially to develop the lacking rudimentary, fundamental knowledge, we would have 
had a pretty good idea right at the start of what could and could not be tolerated. 
Unfortunately, that information doesn't exist. Just as a ballpark figure, it would cost 3 
million dollars. Well, that’s a lot of money. 
But the cost of just a small South Essex sewage district in going from 
secondary down to primary or up to secondary is 20 million dollars. So it's a small 
investment, in terms of taxpayers' money, to gain that information. But it has to be done 
in the correct fashion. 
Question: What is there about the physical oceanography? Suppose you had all 
this physical oceanographic information and you knew precisely where all the discharge 
was going to go all the time. With that information, how would you decide whether or not 
you would need secondary treatment? 
115 
