Publication Date:
2022-05-25
Description:
Final Report
(W.H.O.I. Proposal No. 2778)
Prepared for the Board of Selectmen
Town of Orleans, Massachusetts
November 14, 1983
Description:
The shores of Town Cove have been settled for three centuries. As for
most of Cape Cod, small, sparsely populated farming and fishing villages of
the eighteenth century have given way to a substantial population of permanent
residents today, with influxes of summer vacation residents and visitors that
can increase the population several fold. Increasing numbers of our senior
citizens retire to life-long vacation homes here or build new ones. Most
people are attracted to the area because of its natural resources---the clean
seaside environment, low wooded hills and the sheltered embayments, such as
Town Cove, with clean shellfish, safe recreation and peaceful vistas.
Along with growth have come many of the problems of increased population
pressure, such as disposal of wastes. Although this problem has several
aspects, the one we are addressing has to do .with sewage, or more
specifically, with the nitrogen compounds associated with sewage that enter
the groundwater and find their way to lakes, ponds, swamps and to the shores
of Town Cove. This report contains our findings and assessment of the impact
and potential impact of nitrogen from human sources on the Town Cove
ecosystem, as well as advice to the Town on the potential impact of diverting
sewage nitrogen destined for Town Cove to a nearby saltmarsh.
The decision on whether or not to spend substantial amounts of money to
install sewers or a septage treatment plant depends on many kinds of
technical, regulatory and economic information and projections into the
future. In the end, it also depends significantly on individual perceptions
of how things should be done and what is valuable. Our study is intended to
fill an existing gap by providing expert technical information on how Town Cove works and what nitrogen has to do with it; we cannot provide the other
information and are not able to make the Town's decision on whether to install
sewers.
Description:
Funded mostly by the Town of Orleans. Funds from the WHOI Sea Grant Program were used to initiate aspects
of our research and paid half of Dr. Gaines' salary on this project. Also,
Dr. Giblin's salary for this project came from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
in the form of a Post Doctoral Fellowship awarded by the WHOI Coastal Research
Center.
Repository Name:
Woods Hole Open Access Server
Type:
Working Paper
Format:
application/pdf
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