Special Water Quality Alert - July 2021

Special Water Quality Alert – July 2021

Dear Mashpee Property Owner:

Mashpee's freshwater ponds and saltwater bays, like all surface water resources on Cape Cod, are showing signs of poor water quality. We know the cause is driven by excess nutrients entering the water from septic tanks and other inadequate wastewater treatment systems, stormwater runoff, and fertilizer use on lawns and landscaped areas. The Town has begun efforts to address the long-term issue of wastewater management, but in the meantime the Mashpee Board of Selectmen has voted to encourage all property owners in Mashpee to stop the application of fertilizers on grass and landscaped areas.

Fertilizer encourages plant growth. Regardless of whether you live close to the water or not, your use of fertilizer contributes to water quality decline. When fertilizer is applied to landscaped areas, it makes its way through groundwater to surface waters or by being washed directly to nearby waterways or into storm drains during rain events. When it reaches our ponds and bays, the nutrients encourage algae that occur naturally in the water to grow too much. The result in our bays is excessive amounts of algae that form mats and smother other forms of beneficial aquatic life, causing the collapse of these ecosystems. The result in freshwater ponds, among other adverse impacts, is excessive cyanobacteria growth, aka Harmful Algal Blooms (HABS) that at certain levels cause toxicity that is harmful to human and pet health. The four largest ponds in Mashpee have all been closed to swimming and contact at some point within the last 12 months due to concerns about HAB toxicity.

Eliminating fertilizer use throughout the town will reduce the nutrient pollution impacting our waters. This action will buy us time to develop and implement more permanent solutions to the water quality problems we face. We know that this action, by itself, will not fully cure the problem. However, by asking you to eliminate fertilizer use we are engaging the community in a collective step in the right direction that will help our waters and ultimately make restoring our ponds and bays an easier goal to achieve. The Board of Selectmen encourages you to follow this guidance and to learn more about what we can all do to prevent further declines in water quality and to begin to restore the health of our aquatic systems that are so important to our quality of life here in Mashpee.  -

Sincerely,

RODNEY C. COLLINS, Town Manager