CONTINUING A TRADITION OF CONSERVATION ON THE CAPE AND ISLANDS
By Susan Nickerson
Executive Director
Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound
Over the past three decades, Cape Cod and the Islands have made tremendous strides toward preserving and protecting natural environmental resources, both for their intrinsic value and for the enjoyment of residents and visitors from across the country and around the world. Beginning in the 1970s with adoption of Area-wide Wastewater Management Plans under Section 208 of the Clean Water Act, Cape and Islands communities emerged as national leaders in the effort to identify and control sources of pollution that were degrading the quality of Cape Cod's ground and surface fresh water resources.
With EPA's designation of Cape Cod as a Sole Source Aquifer in 1982 - which recognized that the only source of drinking water for the area was its underground reserves - efforts to manage groundwater pollution flourished across Cape and Islands communities. Nearly every town in the region adopted large-lot zoning in an effort to ensure nitrogen levels in drinking water - associated with septic system discharge - remained below state limits. Wellhead protection areas were delineated and provided increased levels of protection by local communities. Controls on hazardous materials and underground storage tanks were similarly adopted, and some communities set limits on nitrogen loading in watersheds to coastal embayments, in an effort to protect sensitive estuaries.
Concurrent with the growth in planning and regulation in the last few decades came an unprecedented drive to preserve important tracts of open space across the Cape and Islands. Adoption of land banks on Cape Cod and the Islands has provided communities the financial wherewithal to be proactive in identifying and purchasing key parcels of land. In the conservation land acquisition burst since 1983, thousands of acres have been protected. Overall, more than one third of the land on the Cape and Islands has been set aside for open space purposes. Parcels have been preserved for numerous reasons but predominantly to protect ground, surface, and estuarine waters.
Water Quality
While conservation efforts to date have largely been land-based, and driven by a need to protect fresh water resources, there has been growing awareness and concern about the impact of pollutants on the quality of water in the large number of bays and estuaries that characterize the coastline of Cape Cod and the Islands. Organizations like the Waquoit Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve and the Cape Cod Commission have done extensive work to identify priority sources of water pollution in near-shore areas, and have helped to pinpoint key land-based activities responsible for coastal water quality declines.
Today, thanks to the work of a multitude of state, regional, local and non-profit organizations, awareness about the plight of our near-shore waters and offshore environment has reached new heights. It is clear that the time is upon us to take meaningful and prompt action to turn back the tide of pollution affecting our coastal waters before the ever-increasing influx of harmful chemicals and bacteria takes a profound toll on our valuable marine resources, among them finfish, shellfish, marine mammals and marine vegetation. Consider that, according to the Cape Cod Commission, 80 percent of the 12 billion gallons of wastewater generated each year on Cape Cod discharges into the watershed of coastal embayments, making the magnitude of the problem painfully apparent.
Much of the stress on the ecosystems of near-shore waters can be traced to the growth of resident and visitor populations, and the services these burgeoning activities demand. Generally increased use of the lands adjacent to and in the near-shore waters has occurred without the equal development of an infrastructure to support those activities. It almost goes without saying that the impacts of human development on the coastal and marine ecosystems on water quality, habitat viability and ecosystem health easily stress these systems beyond their capacity to cope.
Environmental Pressure
What we are seeing today is that stresses to near-shore waters are evidenced offshore as well, and the whole of Nantucket Sound is coming under increased environmental pressure. For example weir fishermen in the area have noticed increasing amounts of algae fouling offshore nets, a sign that excess nutrients in coastal waters are allowing noxious algae to proliferate.
As an additional stress, our coastal waters are also being scouted for their development potential, as rich resources exist in the offshore environment, and comparatively little land is available or feasible for private exploitation by industries like energy development and finfish and shellfish farming. Clearly, Nantucket Sound is not exempt from such speculation, and it is in the realm of offshore governance that many decisions about the future of the Sound will be dictated.
Today we stand at the edge of one of nature's last frontiers the oceans and consider the enormity of the demands upon us to protect and steward this vast and vital resource. Locally, much has been accomplished to preserve and protect the lands and seaside borders of the Cape and Islands. It is now time to carry that energy and commitment into the watery wilderness of Nantucket Sound.
Nantucket Soundkeeper
In December 2004, the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound earned an important responsibility when it was designated as Nantucket Soundkeeper by the international Waterkeeper Alliance. Our role as Nantucket Soundkeeper is to identify problems that affect the quality of the waters of Nantucket Sound and to initiate action to solve those problems. We take this obligation seriously and intend to carry out our mission in a manner consistent with the tradition of excellence that has characterized the work of Waterkeeper organizations throughout the U.S. and the world.
The coastal and marine waters and lands of Nantucket Sound contain valuable natural resources that are of great scientific, scenic, historical, ecological, environmental, recreational and economic value. Nantucket Sound is a body of water that has long been recognized as deserving of special protection. In the 1970s, the Sound was designated as a Massachusetts Sanctuary. Twice in the 80s, it was nominated as a National Marine Sanctuary and today, it is still on the list of water bodies nominated for national protective status. Such permanent protective status must remain a high priority for Nantucket Sound, today, and in the future.
In our quest for permanent protection of the sound, Nantucket Soundkeeper will keep provisions that help to conserve species and preserve habitats while allowing for appropriate and sustainable uses of the resources. These coastal and marine lands and waters are held in the public trust and as such, should not be used in a manner that could be adverse to public interests.
A Public Trust
The role the Alliance adopted as Nantucket Soundkeeper is consistent with the activities in which we have been engaged over the last four years. Nantucket Sound waters are held in the public trust. Developers and others who usurp these waters and resources for private gain without adequate safeguards for public interests should not be allowed to do so. As we create and implement our Soundkeeper programs in the coming months, we will look to identify problems besetting our waters and resources; we will enforce the regulations that exist to prevent such problems. Further, we will look to promulgate the kind of regulatory regime that will serve present and future generations who hold these waters dear.
The end game of total protection for Nantucket Sound will likely be comprised of many small victories. In the same way that designations like "Sole Source Aquifer" and "Areas of Critical Environmental Concern" have spurred action to take the small steps that lead to victory, the Alliance is committed to pursuit of designated protected status for Nantucket Sound by the federal government. As the future of the Sound plays out on both local and national stages, we, as the Nantucket Soundkeeper, will pursue direct local victories while we work to establish Nantucket Sound as a federally protected marine area.
