60+ Cape Cod Estuaries & Salt Ponds Choking On Algae - Towns Rejected Sewer Systems Decades Ago

[hatrack]

ORLEANS, Mass. — Rising nitrogen levels are suffocating the vegetation and marine life in saltwater ponds and estuaries on Cape Cod, creating an environmental and infrastructure problem that, if left unchecked, will threaten the shellfishing industry, the tourist economy and the beaches that lure so many summer visitors. More than 60 ponds and estuaries on the cape and a few elsewhere in the region have been choked by algae and seaweed. The culprit is nitrogen, much of it leaching out of septic system wastewater that runs through sandy soil into the estuaries. Faced with a federal mandate to fix their polluted waterways, Cape Cod towns have spent years creating plans to clean up the wastewater, largely through sewers and clustered septic systems.

So far, most of the efforts have been to no avail, stifled by disputes over science and over who should pay for such a sprawling and expensive public works project. “This is the biggest environmental issue the cape has ever faced,” said Maggie Geist of the Association to Preserve Cape Cod, a nonprofit environmental group. “And for a long time it’s been a hidden problem.”

The root of the problem lies in the popularity and unchecked growth of Cape Cod over the last 30 years. Towns chose not to install sewers when the government helped subsidize them in the 1960s and ’70s, fearing that it would lead to an influx of people. Newcomers arrived anyway and sprawled out, using individual septic systems to get rid of waste.

“We’ve reached capacity for the watershed,” said Lindsey B. Counsell, executive director of Three Bays Preservation, a preservation group in Barnstable. “We’re a victim of our own geology.” Without remediation, excess nitrogen could decimate shellfish beds and lead to widespread summer fish kills as algae, warm temperatures and cloud cover stifle oxygen in coastal waters, say officials who have examined the problem. Bays will be overtaken with seaweed that rots in the summer, a blow to property values and an environmental concern.

EDIT

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/18/us/18nitrogen.html?_r=1

[rusty quoin]

1. Don't eat the quahogs.

[Warpy]

2. Those estuaries and salt ponds stank to high heaven 40 years ago

so it's not like they haven't known about the problem for a very long time.

I was always amazed that frontage sold for such outrageous amounts of money when it was impossible to enjoy the overpriced deck during the height of the season due to the stench.

[rfranklin]

3. Yeah, that's pretty shitty!

Or not so pretty...

[pscot]

4. Apparently the right to shit in your backyard

without interference from the state is a very big deal to some people. Defective septic systems are a major contributor to the dead zones in hood canal, but the state is too afraid of homowners to enforce their on regulations. Upgrading a septic system costs a lot, so people scream bloody murder at the idea of inspections that might force them to upgrade.

[Nihil]

5. “We’re a victim of our own geology.”? Bullsh*t.

You're "victims" of your own petty greed so screw you.

> Towns chose not to install sewers when the government helped subsidize them
> in the 1960s and ’70s

Enjoy wallowing in your own shit like the shortsighted pigs that you are.