Senator proposes to dump snow into Boston Harbor

BOSTON -- Where to put all that snow has become a big problem, and it's enough to make some take extreme measures for these extreme conditions.

“My proposal would be to have a Boston snow party versus a Boston Tea Party,” said State Sen. Jack Hart.

Senator Jack Hart threw in a little humor on a topic that people are not at all laughing about. The senator is urging Mayor Menino to consider dumping Boston’s snow into the harbor. But it’s not like you can just drive truckloads over there and dump it.

“I understand the environmental piece of it, but when it comes down to public safety I think it’s an important thing,” said Sen. Hart.

The city would have to get permission from the Department of Environmental Protection before any snow was put into the harbor, but in a crisis like this, where the snow piles are extreme, officials say the harbor is now out of the question.

“Boston’s famous for having old chairs and what have you to save spaces during the snow storms, and we don’t want those types of things being dumped into the harbor,” said Ed Coletta, MassDEP. We want to make sure that debris is taken out of the pile.

DEP already gave Logan Airport the okay to blow snow into the harbor twice this month, and although Logan had permission, it wasn’t necessary. So far the same is true with the airport for this storm and Wednesday’s storm, and it something that will have to be evaluated.

“The mayor wants to have as many tools at his disposal as possible and so it will be up to him to decide as to whether they do this,” said Hart.

No formal request to dump the snow into the harbor has been made.

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