If not the world, at least the Mystic River could be Wynn's oyster

If Wynn gets the state's casino license for greater Boston, it says it will pay a local clean-water group to "seed" the Mystic's mouth with up to 250,000 oysters as a natural water-filtration system that could also help re-establish an estuary ecosystem there.

The Massachusetts Oyster Project has been working to bring oysters back to the waters of Boston Harbor because the bivalve's natural feeding habits - basically opening up and letting water flow in - are great at filtering particulates out of the water, some 30 gallons' worth of water a day.

The project says seed oysters go for about 4 cents in bulk, which would mean about about a $10,000 Wynn donation to the oyster project.

Wynn will provide funding for the Massachusetts Oyster Project to create beds of recycled oyster shells in areas of the Mystic River and place live oysters on the beds to establish active oyster reefs. The use of oyster beds is fitting for the site which, in the early 1800s, was the home of the W. Atwood Company's Oyster Farm which supplied oysters to the Atwoods Oyster House - now known as the historic Union Oyster House, America's oldest restaurant. This "living shoreline" will encourage regeneration of the harbor through the re-introduction of more than 100 other fish and wildlife species which oyster reefs attract.

Wynn is competing with Mohegan Sun, which want to build a casino on land owned by Suffolk Downs in Revere.