In violation of the Clean Water Act, Quincy has discharged a range of pollutants into the harbor and surrounding waterways, including E. coli and other harmful bacteria, federal officials found.  A 2020 Wollaston Beach John Tlumacki/Boston Globe file photo.

— News about Quincy covered by Quincy Quarry News with commentary added.

The defendant has copped a plea
A Quincy Quarry meme

The Environmental Protection Agency requires the City of Quincy to spend $100 million to reduce the amount of raw sewerage flowing into Boston Harbor.

In what had been a long-pending trial case which the Quincy Quarry newsroom had been wondering when things would hit the fan for the 0 for who only knows how often in court via the long woeful performance by the Koch Maladministration’s City Solicitor “Dim” Timmons, the maladministration ended up opting to cop a plea for a hundred large rather than risk ending whacked even harder at trial given the underlying United States Environmental Protection Agency (“US EPA”) lawsuit against the City of Quincy.

The reason for the lawsuit: at least a decade of both documented as well as said to be still ongoing sewerage and stormwater spills into Boston Harbor from the city’s long known to be leaking sewer pipes as well as an ancient old school and thus also now not compliant stormwater drain system. 

That and Koch Maladministration’s roughly decade-long concurrent stonewalling the EPA by refusing to deal in good faith to address the city’s leaking of sewerage and other hazardous materials into Boston Harbor.

The feds are also unrelenting
An old Desilu Productions image

The settlement agreement is a huge flip from Quincy Mayor Thomas P. Koch’s cocky claim a bit over two years ago that the EPA’s lawsuit was bogus via one of his usual shows of bogus bravado and which was arguably replete with the furious arm-waving of a drowning man about to go down for the last time.

How big was the bravado shoveled by Quincy’s peerless Mayor two years?  The feds filed their suit against the City of Quincy a day or so before a yearlong agreement that the City of Quincy would come up with an acceptable settlement fix-it plan, only to then instead continue to play the “Delay Game” in the foolish belief that the feds would back off pressing its damning case against the Koch Administration’s literally spewing Number Two as well as other pollutants into Boston Harbor.

Then again, such arrogance was only to be expected given his many failures as well as often serial displays of defiance of the rule of law.

Continuing to live a lie
An ill-advised old FaceBook posting

Needless to say, City of Quincy mouthpiece Pinocchio Walkbacker quickly went into full sour grapes spin mode by shoveling it that the Koch Maladministration was not only innocent of any wrongdoing but also that it had long been doing all it could to address the problem of bodily and other wastes ending up dumped into Boston Harbor along Quincy’s waterfront.

So what that the City of Quincy was hit with an at least $100 million fix-it order, $115,000 fine, and over a dozen years of de facto probationary oversight by the EPA.

At the same time, the Quarry can only properly note Pinocchio was speaking the truth for a change that Team Koch was doing what (little, ed.) it is (willing and, ed.) able to do.

The rest of his comments, however, were impure recyclings of bovine byproduct as per his all but assuredly congenital nature.

Spanked yet again in court
An old Columbia Pictures image

For but one directly related example, it must also be noted that this is not the first time that the City of Quincy has been hit with major sanctions for dumping hazardous material into the harbor.

In a matter with which certain Quincy Quarry News personnel were proactively involved, the City of Quincy was dimed out to the Massachusetts Department of Environment Protection (“MassDEP”) almost a decade ago over Quincy’s Department of Public Works (“DPW”) spilling storm drain hazardous material effluent as well as other proscribed materials into the Town River adjacent to the DPW’s corporation yard and thus also impacting the environmentally sensitive Passanageset Park, née Broad Meadows salt marsh restoration project.

“Tommy, Joe here. We have a problem.”
A Pat Ronan/ Patriot Ledger image

While acting on behalf of the US EPA, MassDEP slapped the Koch Maladministrion with a roughly $1 million fix-it ticket, all costs duly counted, as well as a cease and desist order. 

Further, this million-dollar fix-it ticket was not the only prior instance of the City of Quincy’s Department of Public Works ended up busted for illegally disposing of material that it wanted to see go up in smoke or otherwise.

Further yet, Quincy Quarry is also intimately familiar with a second MassDEP fix-it ticket order which likely eventually ran upwards of $100,000 or thereabouts, if not then some if all related costs are duly factored into the mix.

Early morning Yoga class at Wollaston Beach wisely nowhere near the water
A Quincy Quarry News file photo

Further unfortunate, third strike notwithstanding, the EPA did not order Quincy Mayor Koch to henceforth go for a swim at Wollaston Beach both daily as well as year-round until the City of Quincy might actually complete the work ordered and to the EPA’s satisfaction by 2034.

Then again, locals who would like to eventually feel safe going for a swim at local beaches should find some solace by the fact that part of $100 million fix-it ticket agreement includes that the EPA will be riding herd on – if not also riding hard as well as regularly putting away wet – the City of Quincy for the next dozen years or so years until all of the now legally mandated work is completed.

In turn, however, the breaking badly bad news ends up dumping on the locals who will be paying the bill via increases in their water and sewer bills for likely decades to come to cover the debt service on the $100 million in mostly debt to be incurred to pay for the now mandated needed repairs to its sewer and drain systems. 

Koch Tower, koched-up ego trip — whatever
A City of Quincy rendering

That and how one can only assume that this upwards of $100 million more in impending municipal debt will likely not slow Quincy’s vertically challenged mayor’s free-spending ways on his Edifice Complexes.

Also not likely to be slowed are his related money-losing plans to see his pipe dream of a positive tax revenue benefit accrue from his so far well over a couple of hundred million dollars of variously taxpayer-funded funds often spent to variously support as well as incent favored developers with sweet insider deals.

QQ disclaimer

Source: EPA requires Quincy to spend $100 million to reduce sewage flowing into Boston Harbor