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New Bedford, Massachusetts: Formerly a whaling city and producer of fine textiles; a prominent fishing port; a city with a charming historic district that was named a National Historical Park; a city with a wonderful whaling museum; a city with plans to make the waterfront more accessible. New Bedford has an interesting past and an exciting future.
Yet, like most older cities, New Bedford has environmental problems. New Bedford Harbor was named a Superfund site in 1982 and is currently being cleaned up. What are the environmental problems in the harbor, what led to these conditions, and what can be learned from a study of the history of development and its impact on the environment? That's the subject of this web page.
New Bedford Harbor study We studied the history of development in the watershed surrounding New Bedford Harbor and examined how that development impacted environmental conditions in the harbor. The harbor has been subjected to a complex mix of impacts over a number of years. The sediment in New Bedford Harbor is contaminated with high concentrations of metals and organic compounds. The harbor was named a Superfund site in 1982 and scheduled to be cleaned up under that legislation. Our historical analysis shows that impacts to New Bedford Harbor occurred throughout the development period of several hundred years, not just recently. By looking at these impacts over time, we can begin to understand what happened and why.
What's on this web page This web page contains a section on why history is important from an environmental perspective, a description of New Bedford Harbor today, the history of development in the New Bedford area and its impact on New Bedford Harbor, a "How to" section on how to start a historical analysis, information about contaminants in the environment, and a time line to put historical events in perspective. The bibliography lists the many sources we used to put together this web page.
But first here's a little background information to explain the recent shift in thinking about environmental issues.
A shift in thinking about environmental issues Recently, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) adopted a new approach to study and manage environmental problems. Previously, the agency's emphasis was on particular chemicals and their effects on individual species in air, land, and water. But the environment is not a series of compartments, it includes a series of interconnected aquatic and terrestrial habitats. Human activity that affects the immediate environment may also stress areas downstream. Small stresses added over time or space may exert an additive effect. Also, an area may be impacted by multiple stresses from different sources. Implementation of environmental regulations in the past 30 years has reduced pollution from point sources (effluent from the end of a pipe). Today, the major pollution problems are from non-point sources. To address this change in emphasis, EPA has adopted a more comprehensive approach by studying problems in the natural environment, not just at the end of a pipe. The natural unit of study is the watershed, the area drained by a river system.
Community-based environmental protection This watershed approach requires new ways of thinking about protecting the environment. Each watershed has unique conditions and problems, and the people who live there should help plan the solutions. EPA recently began a major effort in doing this with a process called "community-based environmental protection." This approach provides a consensus-building process to identify local environmental issues, evaluate community priorities, create a plan, implement solutions, and assess results. The process is open and inclusive, and is driven by local issues and local people. This type of process requires that the stakeholders (local planners, zoning officials, local business people, and citizens) understand the current problems, realize that there are long-term consequences of development, and are able to envision the possibility and extent of remediation. A historical analysis of the ecological consequences of development can be a valuable educational tool in this process. Citizens get interested in environmental issues when these issues are presented as part of the history of the place where they live.