Underneath it all: Inside Boston's sewer system

(NECN: Ally Donnelly, Boston, Mass.) - This week the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority scrambling to fix a massive water main break that affected millions of people. But there's a flip side to the MWRA. The authority also manages sewer services for millions of people across the Bay State.

We all know where sewage starts, but where does it end, and how does it get there?


To find out, we went to the Massachusetts Water Resource Authority.

The state agency manages 227 miles of sewer system with 43 communities feeding into it. That's the flushes of more than two million people and thousands of businesses in the Bay State.

The waste starts in your house, goes into your town sewer, feeds into MWRA pipes gets cleaned, scrubbed, treated and eventually heads out into Boston Harbor.

Let's start at the sewer pipe.

We meet up with Harry Winn and his crew on the East Boston/Winthrop line. Every pipe has to be inspected at least once every 5 years.

Most of the pipes in Massachusetts are relatively small so typically crews use a robotic camera on a metal boat to do their dirty work...checking for anything that might stop the flow.

And if the flow stops? There's problems.

For a better idea of what they're talking about, they give us a closer look.