Abstracts from Environment Cape Cod Volume 1 Number 1, 1997

Introduction
In comparison to many of the estuaries along the U.S. mid and North Atlantic coast, Buzzards Bay stands out as a relatively clean and healthy ecosystem. Although situated within the Washington-Boston metropolitan corridor, Buzzards Bay is surrounded by a relatively non-urbanized watershed still supporting a diversity of land-uses with significant agricultural (cranberries) and coastal wetland areas . The Bay's overall high levels of water quality and abundant natural resources provide the foundation for its characteristically high aesthetic, commercial and recreational values. However, as more and more coastal embayments succumb to water quality degradation resulting from ever-increasing development pressures, the desirability of Buzzards Bay increases, potentially threatening the environmental health of this system in the coming decades. The effect of increased coastal development is already becoming evident by a parallel rise in the number of shellfish closures and increasing eutrophication in the Bay's smaller harbors and embayments. At present, it is the shallow poorly flushed marginal embayments that are the focus of declining water quality. However, the long-term fate of Bay ecosystems is not necessarily one of decline as management and remediation strategies are being developed and implemented for the Bay's watershed and waters.

While the basic ecology of much of the Buzzards Bay system remains in many ways similar to that experienced by early settlers in the region, there has been a major modification affecting the whole of the Bay. A system-wide change has occurred involving terrestrial loadings of nutrients to marginal waters, primarily nitrogen. When Gabriel Gosnold first sailed the waters of Buzzards Bay in 1602, the nitrogen inputs to the Bay systems were substantially lower than today. Population within the watershed, has increased more than 100 fold from early colonial occupation to greater than 250,000 persons today. Nitrogen inputs from the surrounding watershed to Bay waters parallel this development. Given the relatively small contributing area to the Bay (ratio: land/water=2, Table 1), the central regions of Buzzards Bay are unlikely to exhibit ecologically stressful increases in nutrient levels within the near future. However, a pronounced nitrogen increase is found within the shallow marginal embayments which comprise about 15% of the Bay area. In addition, because there can be a considerable lag time before impacts of activities within coastal watersheds become evident in the adjacent waters, the level of degradation associated with present development is not yet known. As we will discuss below, a collateral impact of colonization has been a shift from a "natural" nutrient cycle within some of the Bay's sub-systems to one dominated by anthropogenic inputs (Nixon 1997).

In parallel with the increase in regional development has been a significant increase in atmospheric deposition of nitrogen, although less dramatic than the increase in watershed inputs. The anthropogenic effect on atmospheric loadings to the Bay result primarily from inputs from outside of the watershed (Ollinger et al. 1993). While this loading is important, management is nationally rather than regionally focused.

At present, it appears that some of the Bay's smaller harbors and embayments have reached or exceeded their assimilative capacity for new nitrogen inputs. This is important both to present evaluation of the sources of nutrient loading (new and existing) and in the development and implementation of management plans for the sub-systems to this important coastal system.

Abstract
Wellfleet Harbor, in the Town of Wellfleet, Massachusetts, has recently experienced eelgrass loss and increasing frequency of nuisance algal blooms, which have led to concerns that portions of the Harbor are receiving excess nitrogen. The Cape Cod Commission conducted a four step characterization of the Harbor and its watershed, which included: 1) delineation of the watershed to the Harbor, 2) determination of tidal flushing characteristics and recommended critical nitrogen loading limits, 3) analysis of land uses within the watershed, and 4) a nitrogen loading assessment. This characterization found that inner portions of the Harbor are receiving excessive nitrogen.

Introduction
Among all of the Cape's historically altered estuaries, the Herring River system in Wellfleet is an outstanding example of not only the impacts from extensive human alteration, but also the potential for habitat restoration after many decades of hydrologic and ecologic disturbance. This largest estuary on the outer Cape has a long history of repeated ditch drainage and stream channelization. Roads and a railway have dissected the flood plain; dikes have cut off seawater flow; and residences and a golf course have been built in and around what was once a natural tidal salt marsh. Even before wetland preservation was popular, actions like these that altered the coastal marshes were controversial because of the differing values and conflicting uses associated with the lands and waters by farmers, fishermen and developers. Despite greater environmental awareness since the 1970's, especially regarding the value of natural salt marshes, little recent progress has been made in managing or restoring these natural systems.

There are many reasons for this: 1. reliance of opinion in the absence of scientific information at critical decision points; 2. a reluctance to disturb the environmental status quo, albeit altered from natural conditions; 3. lack of public recognition of inconspicuous, but substantial, adverse effects of the hydrologic alterations; 4. lack of public understanding of the social and environmental benefits of tidal restoration; and 5. legitimate property rights and land use concerns that have developed over time in and adjacent to these systems.

Estuaries comprise some of the world's most productive biological systems. They are nursery areas for many commercial species or their prey. Salt marsh systems produce more biomass per acre than most terrestrial or aquatic systems. Over thirty percent of Massachusetts salt marshes occur on Cape Cod, yet few are truly natural or unaltered. As the outer Cape's largest system, we have a unique opportunity to bring back and influence a significant resource for not only the Cape, but for the Commonwealth and the New England region as a whole.

Recent research into the environmental consequences of diking and alternatives for seawater re-introduction has great potential for resolving long-standing controversy and promoting an active program of habitat restoration. In this report, we summarize management history, both past and present diking effects on salt marsh ecology, and describe the components and likely consequences of planned salt marsh restoration in the Herring River ecosystem.

In February 1992, the Waquoit Bay National Estuary Research Reserve (WBNERR) sponsored the first conference on alternative onsite septic system technology held in Barnstable County. The purpose of this conference was to foster knowledge of and encourage the use of alternative onsite septic system technologies that remove nitrogen from wastewater. At that time, since only a few such technologies were operating in Massachusetts, regulators were understandably skeptical about their use. Since that time however, a number of demonstration projects and individual private installations have enabled state regulators, local boards of health, engineers, septic system installers, and the general public to learn more about the various alternative technologies and understand both the benefits and problems that accompany their use.

For individuals involved in the process of researching, installing, and testing alternative onsite septic systems, the initial hope generated by the WBNERR conference, that alternative onsite septic systems might someday be common, was somewhat dampened by some sobering realities. The first obstacle to widespread alternative onsite septic system (AOSS) use is cost. Despite the grossly inflated costs ($20,000-$30,000) of some initial installations in Gloucester (Anish Jantrania, personal communication), the Buzzards Bay Area (David Janik, personal communication), and the Waquoit Bay Onsite Demonstration Project (Christine Gault, personal communication), it was anticipated that the costs of future installations would be significantly less. In fact, the premise of these demonstration projects was that they would encourage lower construction costs by sharing the lessons learned with other designers and installers. To date, however, after a considerable number of installations in Barnstable County and elsewhere, it is still estimated that AOSS's cost between two and three times the cost of a conventional septic system.

Another fact having direct bearing on the use AOSS in Barnstable County is that many technologies used nationwide were originally developed to address problems uncommon to in Barnstable County. Slowly-percolating soils, common only to the glacial moraine areas of the Cape, are the prime focus of many AOSS technologies. However in the majority of Barnstable County, with its sole-source aquifer and nitrogen sensitive marine resources, it was hoped that new technologies could address issues of nitrogen and pathogens in wastewater. To meet the demand for nitrogen removal from the wastewater, many AOSS developers began the process of modifying their operating parameters to enhance the denitrification processes.

INTRODUCTION
This article represents the first in a series of updates intended to apprise readers of current activities associated with the investigation and remediation of groundwater contamination resulting from past activities at the Massachusetts Military Reservation (MMR). Because this article is the first in a series, it will provide general background and an overview of groundwater remediation activities currently being conducted by the Air Force Center for Environmental Excellence (AFCEE), the military organization responsible for the program. Future articles will focus in more depth on specific remediation activities.

Project Summary
Scudder Lane, Barnstable, runs north from Route 6A to Barnstable Harbor and ends in a parking lot and boat ramp abutting productive shellfish beds in the harbor. Due to the configuration of the road and boat ramp, stormwater from the 2.14 acre watershed flowed in the gutter of Scudder Lane, through the parking lot, down the boat ramp and into the waters above the shellfish beds. As a result, the shellfish beds were receiving high numbers of coliform bacteria in stormwater runoff during rainstorms. These shellfish beds are an important resource for the Town due to their productivity as well as their accessibility. The primary goal of the Scudder Lane stormwater quality mitigation project was to eliminate the high coliform bacterial counts in the coastal waters over the shellfish beds located just offshore from the boat ramp.

After a review of possible alternatives it was decided to install a stormwater infiltration system under the small seven car parking lot adjacent to the boat ramp.. This system was chosen due to the limited space available onsite and the high infiltration capabilities of the soil. A two year storm frequency was chosen as a basis for design. A smaller storm design might have been an option if the site was not as environmentally critical as it is. The bottom of the infiltration system was installed a minimum of 2 feet above the estimated annual high groundwater in order to provide aerated unsaturated soil under the system to aid in removal of bacteria from the storrnwater discharge.

The receiving waters and the road runoff were monitored for fecal coliform before and after the installation of the stormwater infiltration system. As a secondary concern the stormwater and receiving waters were monitored for heavy metal content during and subsequent to two storm events.

Introduction
In the mid 1600's early settlers came upon the rich oyster beds of Wellfleet Harbor. A little more than 100 years later, these naturally productive beds had been all but wiped out. The constant removal of oysters and substrate for both personal use and commercial trade resulted in vast areas of the harbor having insufficient substrate to which larval oysters (spat) could attach. Studies over the ensuing years have concluded that this trend might be reversed by bringing in substrate material, or cultch, to replace what had been lost and recreate a habitat favorable for larval oyster recruitment.

Wellfleet has operated a small scale cultch program for a number of years. However, the sites chosen for the placement of cultch were frequently based on anecdotal information and no systematic follow-up was performed to evaluate which sites were best for oyster recruitment and growth. In 1992 the opportunity to conduct a larger scale experimental cultch program was realized through funding provided by Massachusetts Bays Program Wellfleet Harbor Project, a five year study of the harbor. A team of town personnel, county personnel, local shellfishermen volunteers and others designed and implemented a project to test a number of theories regarding oyster spat recruitment, document what was previously anecdotal site information, and ultimately demonstrate the economic value of a well designed cultching program.

Cape Cod has a reputation for being a water rich peninsula. All of the Cape's freshwater resources are supplied solely by precipitation. Precipitation infiltrates through the sandy soils, recharging the ground water aquifer and surface water bodies. In 1996, record rainfall amounts were responsible for impacting areas on Cape Cod with poorly draining soils or where water table elevations are high. In many areas, roadways, basements and septic system leaching areas were flooded, shellfish beds were closed, and shoreline around lakes and ponds disappeared. This article provides information about precipitation amounts, groundwater levels, and surface water conditions on Cape Cod.