Chloe Shelford Jan 27, 2021
The Buzzards Bay Coalition observes water quality at many points across the bay and estuaries. Photo courtesy: Buzzards Bay Coalition
Hydrodynamic modeling shows the currents at the outfall pipe. Photo courtesy: Buzzards Bay Coalition
A proposed regional sewer and wastewater treatment solution, in which Wareham’s sewer plant would treat waste from Bourne, Wareham, Plymouth, Marion and Mass Maritime Academy before releasing cleaned, treated water at an outfall pipe owned by Mass Maritime directly into the canal, was presented at Jan. 26 Bourne Board of Sewer Commissioners meeting.
Scientists from the Buzzards Bay Coalition, Mass Maritime and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute said that the proposal would eliminate 90,000 pounds of nitrogen each year from Buzzards Bay. Nitrogen is one of the primary contaminants from wastewater, which has devastating effects on water quality and the flora and fauna in the ocean.
NEW BEDFORD The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is in its final years of cleaning up one of the nation s largest Superfund sites, the New Bedford Harbor, say agency officials.
The EPA held a public meeting Wednesday evening with about 25 members of the public and local government in virtual attendance. Last year, the agency finished underwater dredging, completed shoreline remediation of certain zones, closed cleaning facilities, and planted salt marshes.
This year, the agency will continue shoreline remediation and salt marsh planting along the Upper Harbor on both the New Bedford and Fairhaven sides.
Contingent on funding, the EPA should complete site cleanup in four to five years, said agency Remedial Project Manager David Dickerson in an interview with the Standard-Times.
By ROBERT J. DWYER
Wesley J. Ewellâs Bourne Musings column in the January 8 Bourne Enterprise supporting the relocation of the outfall for the Wareham wastewater treatment plant into the Cape Cod Canal at Taylor Point deserves extended comment. I agree that eliminating the wastewater overload to the Agawam River (the location of the existing outfall) and nearby Southside water bodiesâand expanding its service area to connect the many unsewered homes and businesses in Bourne, Wareham and Marionâare sorely needed improvements.
However, Mr. Ewellâs extolling the apparent virtues of the large amount of dilution afforded by the high flow through the canal misses a major important pointâthis dilution is not the limiting factor on the capacity of the Buzzards Bay system to handle the remaining nitrogen and perhaps suspended solids and other pollutants in the effluent. It is the assimilative capacity of the whole bay ecosystem, perhaps down as far as Cuttyhunk and
Wickets Island. Photo by: Cyndi Murray
The Buzzards Bay Coalition was awarded a $15,000 state grant to repair a stone pier on Wickets Island in Onset Bay.
The Baker-Polito administration announced that the Buzzard Bay Coalition’s grant was among a series of grants awarded to “improve access to saltwater fishing areas popular with Massachusetts’ recreational fishing community,” according to a press release.
The stone pier that will be repaired with the grant money is part of the Onset Bay Reserve, which is owned and being improved by the Buzzards Bay Coalition. “The Onset Bay Reserve protects over 100 acres of beach, dune, saltmarsh, tidal flats, and coastal forest,” said the press release.
Jan 10, 2021
Editor’s note: This letter is in response to a Dec. 28 letter from Buzzards Bay Coalition President Mark Rasmussen regarding
claims from the Town of Marion over the projected cost of the lining of one of the lagoons at its wastewater treatment plant. The Buzzards Bay Coalition sued the town in 2018 for an alleged violation of the Massachusetts Clean Water Act, saying that nitrogen was reportedly leaking from the lagoons and into the nearby Aucoot Cove. The town denies this claim. The case was dropped in 2019 after the town entered into an agreement with the Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Environmental Protection to line one of the three lagoons.