Charles "Charlie" Button, who, as chief engineer and deputy chief operating officer of the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA), managed significant infrastructure built as part of the court-ordered $3-billion cleanup of Boston Harbor in the 1990s, died on March 17 at age 70.
He told ENR in 1997 that initial local uproar over the harbor cleanup's cost impact on sewer rates changed after the project delivered "a tangible result—a clean harbor—and seeing ... white wakes behind boats.''