'Things are worse': Cape Cod water quality is declining, says environmental group's report

Doug /Fraser Cape Cod Times 

Published Jan 11, 2022 

The Association to Preserve Cape Cod has released its third annual State of the Waters report, which evaluates water quality in the Cape's ponds and lakes, bays and drinking water supplies.

What it found is no surprise: continued degradation of both marine and freshwater water quality, as well as issues with two municipal drinking water systems.

The report noted that, for the first time, none of the 21 marine bays and estuaries the APCC monitors along the Cape's south-facing shoreline had acceptable water quality. For the Cape as a whole, only six of 47 bays and estuaries were rated as having acceptable water quality, while 41, or 87%, received a grading of unacceptable. Last year's report had 38 receiving a failing grade, or 79%, and in the 2019 report, 68% failed.

Barnstable Harbor and Quivett Creek, on the Brewster-Dennis line, were newly identified in the report as having unacceptable water quality.

'Reason to be optimistic'

"Things are worse, from an objective measurement perspective," said Andrew Gottlieb, APCC executive director. "But, with the significant rise in (planning, funding, and building) municipal treatment plants there is reason to be optimistic that while there are residual contaminants (in groundwater) ... steps to address the problem are being taken."

Gottlieb and his organization urged municipalities to take advantage of the $1 billion from the federal $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill that will go into the State Revolving Fund managed by the Massachusetts Cleanwater Trust and the Department of Environmental Protection. That money will be made available over the next five years and the feds mandate that 49% of the money goes toward loan forgiveness and 51% to support loans for drinking water and wastewater projects.

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The state tends to put these federal dollars into bond markets and uses the proceeds to fund projects, APCC wrote in a recent letter to Cape towns urging them to have projects ready to take advantage of the new federal money. 

There is already a heavy load of contaminants from septic systems — which is how over 80% of Cape properties treat their wastewater — that are already in groundwater that will not be addressed by new treatment plans. Septic waste is making a slow but steady march to the sea and freshwater ponds and lakes. It also takes years to get approval and funding for wastewater cleanup projects, which are by far the most expensive municipal projects ever undertaken in all of the Cape's towns and fire districts, and will take decades to fully implement.

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Wastewater treatment projects at least a decade away

The Cape may be a decade or more away from the sweet spot where the multi-billion-dollar municipal efforts to clean up wastewater using new and existing wastewater treatment plants, sewering and other technologies and strategies are implemented. The systems are designed to remove nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus from the waste stream that contaminates the region's groundwater supplies and that ultimately results in oxygen-starved water bodies with runaway algal growth. Stormwater runoff and lawn fertilizers also contribute nutrients. 

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The APCC report was based on data from water sampling and monitoring by its researchers and volunteers as well as county, municipal and state organizations. The water quality data is compared to various water quality standards to produce a grading of acceptable or unacceptable.  

APCC tracks freshwater water quality in 109 Cape ponds through its cyanobacteria monitoring program. This year, 38 ponds (35%) were graded as unacceptable. The number of ponds being checked has increased every year, but the percentage receiving a failing grade has remained flat at around a third of ponds tested. 

Gottlieb noted that just 10% of the Cape's 996 ponds and lakes are sampled and monitored, even though it appears the majority are vulnerable to nutrient contamination and the affects of climate change. 

"One consistent element affecting them all is warming," he said.

Worries about rising surface temps in ponds

A 2018 study of ponds in the Cape Cod National Seashore by National Park Service researchers showed two decades of increasing surface water temperatures.  The report found that in a majority of the ponds they studied, layers determined by water temperature and density that occur in the summer had strengthened over time.

Known as thermoclines, these layers inhibit the mixing of oxygen from the surface into bottom layers, which then become oxygen-starved and can kill off marine life and vegetation. 

Gottlieb noted that these conditions promote the chemical exchange of phosphorus into the water that would otherwise be trapped in decaying leaf and other organic matter in bottom sediments. Along with phosphorus from lawn fertilizer and septic effluent, this natural source can promote the growth of algae, especially cyanobacteria, an algae that produces toxins harmful to animals and humans.

Gottlieb pushed for county officials to fund a Cape Cod Commission study that he said would help to develop a model to evaluate the majority of the Cape's ponds according to whether they were receiving nutrients from natural sources like decaying leaf litter or from human sources like septic systems and runoff — or a combination of both. 

"The study would help us to characterize which ones are driven by external and internal loads and come up with management to address them," Gottlieb said.

Kristy Senatori, Cape Cod Commission executive director, said the commission would soon be releasing an update of the 2003 "Cape Cod Pond and Lake Atlas." She said they are engaged in science-based information gathering and planning on a level comparable to the regional 208 wastewater plan that focused mainly on marine water bodies. Senatori said its freshwater initiative should be completed within 12 to 15 months.

"We've seen the degradation of freshwater water bodies and this report (APCC State of the Waters) supports that," Senatori said.

Last year's APCC report on municipal drinking water systems marked a departure from the universally excellent grades for Cape water suppliers in the previous water quality reports. Gottlieb said the downgrading to "good" from "excellent" in some wells in Yarmouth, Barnstable, Sandwich and Bourne, and a boil water order in Wellfleet, reflected correctable maintenance infrastructure issues and not the source water. 

But, Gottlieb said, the next State of the Waters report will include an evaluation of the impact of PFAS (per - and polyfluoroalkyl substances) on drinking water supplies. Last year was the first year the state required public drinking water systems to test for PFAS, which form nearly unbreakable chemical bonds and are heat and water resistant.

PFAS chemicals have been linked to testicular, kidney and other cancers, liver damage, high cholesterol, reduced vaccine efficacy and a host of other maladies. They are used in clothing, food packaging, cookware, adhesives, furniture fabric finishes and particularly in firefighting foams whose use at airports and firefighting academies led to groundwater contamination.

Chatham, Mashpee, Barnstable and other towns have already tested and found PFAS. Some are attributable to known point sources like airports, Joint Base Cape Cod and the now-closed Barnstable County Fire and Rescue Training Academy, but others, like Chatham, have yet to identify a source. 

"We suspect there are more (towns with PFAS problems)," Gottlieb said.

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YOUR TURN: A lame duck’s opportunity to save Cape Cod

Andrew Gottlieb, guest columnist

Published Jan 11, 2022 

Now that Gov. Charlie Baker has decided to not seek re-election, it could make some hard decisions a bit easier. Doing the right thing always comes with a cost, and not having to ask for votes again frees him to do some difficult things as he leaves office.

For Cape Cod and everyone who lives or visits here, the right thing for Baker to do is terminate the National Guard’s deeply flawed plans to build a huge, heavy-caliber machine gun range at Joint Base Cape Cod.

As long as he’s in office, Baker has the power to block the firing range: The governor is commander of the Massachusetts Army National Guard, with direct authority over what happens on JBCC.

He also has leverage with the Environmental Management Commission — the final state regulatory hurdle JBCC must clear before it can start building the range. The EMC, composed of three state agencies that report to Baker, oversees compliance and enforcement of environmental standards on the land at JBCC where the range would go.

And he has precedent. Then-Gov. Paul Cellucci in 1998 canceled the National Guard’s plans to build five training sites on the northern half of Joint Base Cape Cod, specifically to protect the environment and groundwater there — the exact same issues at stake with the machine gun range today.

Bucking a huge, entrenched military bureaucracy is hard — even when it ignores environmental damage and clear opposition from the businesses, local governments and residents who live here. Baker has hinted at his doubts about the firing range but hasn’t committed.

There are many reasons why he needs to come off the fence. Here are four.

First: The environment and public health. The range would be built in the Upper Cape Water Supply Reserve — state-designated specifically to protect the Sagamore lens, the sole-source aquifer for the Upper and Mid-Cape. The reserve was established in 2002 after past military activity seriously polluted the groundwater; mitigating past JBCC groundwater contamination has cost taxpayers more than $1 billion and counting.

The firing range also would clear-cut 170 acres of forest without any replanting and commandeer 5,000 acres as a safety zone. Woodwell (formerly Woods Hole) Climate Research Center estimates losing 170 acres of trees would release 16,895 metric tons in CO2 emissions and eliminate the capacity to remove 313 metric tons of CO2 from the atmosphere each year. In the fight against climate change, this is surrender.

Second: JBCC’s fundamental dishonesty in how it maneuvered to build the Cape Cod machine gun range. JBCC’s chief justification for the range was that no nearby alternative exists for training its troops in heavy weapons use; that argument vaporized when the Army announced this summer it will build yet another new machine gun range at Fort Devens in northeastern Massachusetts. JBCC leadership knew about these plans for an alternative range but failed to disclose or account for it.

Third: JBCC’s deceitful efforts to ramrod environmental approval for the firing range with a quick internal review that blocked input from local governments and residents. After repeated legal action, we discovered why: Emails from Gen. Christopher Faux, JBCC executive director, to U.S. Rep. Bill Keating’s staff revealed that Faux admitted his gun range could not survive an independent environmental impact analysis. Even Faux knew the Guard’s fast-track internal review, claiming “no significant impact,” wouldn’t hold up to external scrutiny.

Fourth: Gen. Faux’s outrageous attempts to silence his critics. In an email to the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce earlier this year, Faux tried to get the chamber to support the range by prohibiting his troops from patronizing Cape businesses unless local shop owners toed his line. But the chamber publicly rejected Faux’s threat and called out JBCC for failing to engage with local communities about the project.

With the stroke of a pen, Gov. Baker can rescue JBCC from the PR disaster it has made for itself, prevent the National Guard from wasting $11.5 million on a duplicate machine gun range that it can’t legitimately justify, and protect Cape Cod’s environment, drinking water and residents.

As one of his final acts, it would be a jewel in Gov. Baker’s considerable legacy if he does.

Andrew Gottlieb is executive director of the Association to Preserve Cape Cod.

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'Sink this project': Emails show concern of environmental review on machine-gun range, Chatham calls special town meeting to deal with low water levels and PFAS in drinking water supply

 

'Sink this project': Emails show concern of environmental review on machine-gun range

Jessica Hill Cape Cod Times

Published Sep 8, 2021 

DENNIS — The Association to Preserve Cape Cod is calling on Gov. Charlie Baker to shelve a proposed machine-gun range on the Upper Cape after public records showed the military’s concerns over growing environmental scrutiny. 

The nonprofit environmental organization received emails after a public records request made to  the Massachusetts National Guard that included emails from Joint Base Cape Cod Executive Director Brigadier General Christopher Faux to office staff of U.S. Rep. William Keating, D-Mass.

In one email from March 26, Faux said the military has heard from multiple agencies and has seen numerous news articles about Keating, along with Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Edward Markey, requesting further review of the project from the National Environmental Policy Act in the form of an environmental impact statement.

“If that is the case, we will most likely lose the project and its funding and will have wasted ten years of work,” Faux wrote. 

Faux declined to comment, saying in an email Wednesday morning that per protocol, he forwarded the records request to the public affairs office, which has not responded.

The multipurpose machine-gun range, planned for the site of the base’s existing KD, or “known distance” range, would sit above the Upper Cape Water Supply Reserve and would cost $11.5 million. The range would be used for military training with different weapons, including machine guns, 12-gauge shotguns, grenade launchers and pistols. The proposal calls for clearing 170 acres of forest and disturbing about 199 acres of land.

The National Guard Bureau approved the project April 30 in an environmental study that found no significant impacts from the gun range, but many residents and organizations have expressed concern about the impact the machine-gun range would have on the environment, particularly the Cape’s water supply. 

Previous coverage

• Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe opposes machine gun range project at Joint Base Cape Cod
• Proposed machine gun range on Upper Cape base gets nod from advisory group
• Concerns remain over proposed machine-gun range at Joint Base Cape Cod
• Photo Gallery: Residents rally against proposed machine gun range
• 
  

The Environmental Protection Agency will review the proposed machine-gun range and the potential risks it may pose to public drinking water, Markey, Warren and Keating announced in August. 

Faux wrote in an email to Keating’s office that the Massachusetts National Guard used a fact-based assessment that meticulously followed the NEPA process.

“Comparatively, our adversaries who have yet to provide a single fact that refutes our analysis, will have set a precedent and a deadly blow to the US Military and the safety and security of this great nation based solely on their ‘feeling’ that additional study is required,” Faux wrote. 

Andrew Gottlieb, the executive director of the Association to Preserve Cape Cod, said in a Tuesday statement that the emails reveal both the National Guard’s worry about submitting the machine gun-range project to a thorough environmental review but also demonstrate a “complete disregard of the public’s legitimate concerns about the potential environmental impacts of the project.” 

Association to Preserve Cape Cod filed public records requests

The Association to Preserve Cape Cod decided to file the public records requests after Faux threatened to stop supporting Cape Cod businesses if they did not support the machine-gun range. 

“We were concerned that similar threats may have been made to our elected officials, those who may have influence over the future of the proposed project,” Gottlieb said in the statement.

The emails were turned over to the Association to Preserve Cape Cod after it filed an appeal to the Massachusetts state secretary’s office when the Guard repeatedly withheld the requested information. 

Association to Preserve Cape Cod:  Public records sought from Guard general

“I can now see why the Guard would not want the public to see these emails,” Gottlieb said in the statement. 

In one email to Keating’s office staff, Faux referenced a Cape Cod Times article reporting on Keating’s call to take a closer look at the machine-gun range. He said he understands that Keating must work with every constituent and support his reelection activities, but those who oppose the machine gun range make up less than 0.5% of the Cape’s population, who he claims have provided a “strong campaign of misinformation.” 

Joint Base Cape Cod: Federal pols weigh in on proposed machine-gun range

“We have provided these folks with EVERY possible piece of information they could need to make an informed decision,” Faux wrote in the March 24 email, “which they obviously do not care to make.” 

He said in a March 24 email to Keating's staff that the project would have an overall positive impact to the environment, with copper bullets that would not affect groundwater, mitigation to improve the habitat and eventually sequester carbon, but that “falls on deaf ears in the small fraction of citizens that represent the activists.” 

“Honestly, just the phrase ‘further NEPA review or EIS (Environmental Impact Statement) coming from the (congressional) delegation will sink this project and dramatically impact the MA National Guard,” he said in the email.

He added that the National Guard can meet the desires of Keating and the rest of the delegation in regard to "appeasing" those in opposition by providing a deeper dive into the impacts of the project without adding NEPA action. 

On April 12, Faux sent another email to Keating’s office about an April 9 letter that Keating, Warren and Markey sent to Lt. Gen. Jon Jensen, director of the Army National Guard, that expressed further concerns about the machine-gun range.

“It’s pretty obvious that you have deliberately deceived me and my colleagues and created a false sense of trust,” he said in the email. “I am still shocked that the delegation would abandon the Guard based on comments from a small group of activists that manipulate facts to perpetuate their own anti-military agendas.” 

The Association to Preserve Cape Cod says the project has not been managed legitimately and with fair consideration of public input. 

“The governor has no other choice if he wishes to restore faith in the integrity of the public process under his administration,” Gottlieb said in the statement. 

Chatham calls special town meeting to deal with low water levels and PFAS in drinking water supply

Doug Fraser Cape Cod Times 

Published Sep 9, 2021 

CHATHAM — With the town's drinking water system showing signs of stress from seasonal demand and a continuing drought, Chatham is also struggling with relatively high levels of PFAS in two wells, making it harder to handle demand.  

At their meeting Tuesday night, Chatham Select Board members voted to open a new well (Well No. 4), pending approval from the state Department of Environmental Protection. The public water system's contracted operator Weston & Sampson has been installing equipment and doing tests to prepare it for pumping.

The board also unanimously approved holding a special town meeting at 9:30 a.m. Oct. 23 to ask for $4.5 million to open two new wells (No. 10 and 11) and money to design PFAS treatment facility for two wells (No. 5 and 8). The $4.5 million will include design work to incorporate PFAS and iron and manganese treatment if required in the future.

Both articles are funded from water system money and will not require a separate ballot vote for a Proposition 2½ debt exclusion because they don't impact property taxes.

The select board voted unanimously to endorse both articles.

Thoseactions came tempered with caution that the Lower Cape, and particularly Chatham, need a rainy/snowy winter to rebuild their water supply.

Chatham Natural Resources Director Robert Duncanson said monitoring wells along the Chatham/Brewster line continue to show a downward trend in water levels despite a recent soaking rain that was still less than half what other parts of the Cape experienced from the remnants of Hurricane Ida. The U.S. Drought Monitor shows Brewster, Chatham and Orleans classified as in a severe drought, one step below extreme drought, in its most recent data last week. 

"It's something we worry about if it continues into the fall," Duncanson said. "With no huge snowmelt (this winter), next year could be worse."  

Even though water use was down by 14% in August compared to last year — thanks in part to water restrictions in place since the spring after a dry winter — the town's water division became concerned that three drinking water wells were close to mandatory shutdown levels due to low groundwater. The water division said reopening Well No. 4, which the select board approved Tuesday, was critical to reducing the demand on the other wells.   

Chatham's water problem is complicated by the discovery this spring of PFAS (per - and polyfluoroalkyl chemicals) in three of its nine drinking water wells. Two of those wells had relatively low levels of PFAS but Well No. 5 was shut down in the spring because it tested at twice the level allowed by the state. Testing in August revealed those levels remained high, although just below the state limit. But the adjacent Well No. 8 also tested high for PFAS, but also just below the state standard. 

"The highest levels coming out of Well 8 are rapidly approaching (the state standard) of 20 (parts per trillion)," Duncanson said. "That's very concerning to me."

Additional testing will be done this week, Duncanson said.

Duncanson theorized that the high PFAS levels in Well No. 8 may be due to the two wells being located next to one another. He thought Well No. 8 may be drawing contaminated water down from Well No. 5 since it is shut down. 

The town has talked about blending contaminated well water with water from non-contaminated wells. A treatment facility could also be built that could remove PFAS from drinking water as Barnstable currently does.

Both wells are near the municipal airport in Chatham. Airports have been identified as point sources for PFAS, which was used in firefighting foam, but Chatham airport officials could only find one instance where that foam was used. The town is working on selecting a contractor to identify the source of the chemicals in town wells and Town Manager Jill Goldsmith said she expects to have that contractor selected by the end of next week.

Landfills and septic systems can also serve as a source for those manmade chemicals whose stability, oil and water repellant and heat resistant properties are used in firefighting foam, nonstick pans, stain and water repellant fabrics, polishes, waxes, cleaning products, food containers and many other products. Some of those chemicals have been linked to cancer, compromised immune systems, diabetes, low birth rates and other conditions.

PFAS are known as "forever chemicals" because their durability and stability mean they don't biodegrade. They've been found in the most isolated areas of the world and a 2018 study found PFAS in nearly half of 101 private wells tested on Cape Cod.