June 11, 2024 By Maya Hobson, Hingham Middle School 8th Grader
Hello Hingham,
We are students who attend Hingham Middle School. We are currently working on our Civics Project! A civics project is a project that targets making change in our community. Our class comprised some topics we thought needed to be changed in our town.
We ultimately came to a consensus and decided to make an effort to focus on the Hingham Bathing Beach’s water pollution and the beach itself and how it is often trashy. Between the years of 1980 and 1990, Boston Harbour was cleaned. The Harbour was polluted for many years and the government agreed to fund the money to clean it. However, it took years to convince the government to do so. Unfortunately, due to the methods of the cleaning, much of the pollution was pushed out into the surrounding water. Hingham being one of them. We took a survey within the grade and 87.5% said the water quality was between “bad” and “very bad.” Many of us have agreed that if the water and the land at the beach was cleaner, it would be more of an attraction for people. This could bring a surplus of people and the beach could be making more money. This could lower our tax in our town and it could bring in more money for the town. The water is tested everyday but sometimes the beach needs to be closed off due to a high chemical count in the water! Often the quality is exceptional and the results aren’t awful but we want the water quality to always be good in our town and have no problems with it. We read many articles and we found a common theme that many people from out of town are quicker to pollute the land on the beach. They might not throw away their wrappers of any sort and leave their trash behind. They do this because it will usually not affect them in any way. If they don’t live in town then it does not come back to them in their taxes or harm their environment they are living in. Studies have shown that tourists are responsible for about 1.3 billion tons of waste worldwide. It is unfortunate that more people don’t care about our Earth.
Below we have listed a small survey that we urge you to fill out so we can get more data on how citizens of Hingham feel. Thank you so much Hingham and we think that with your incredible help we are able to turn our beach around, in eco-friendly ways and keep our environment fresh and thriving!
Sincerely,
Mrs. Driscoll’s F Block 8th Grade Class
Hingham Middle School
Great article!
What dedicated students!