The Clean Water Coalition
The Nantucket Shellfish Association is proud to be a co-founder of the Clean Water Coalition, alongside the Nantucket Land Council and the Maria Mitchell Association.
The Clean Water Coalition is a group of island organizations and entities that have identified clean water as a critical issue for Nantucket. Each group represented considers healthy water resources an essential element to our diverse interests and missions. We also recognize that moving the agenda of improving water quality conditions forward, in our harbors and ponds, is a monumental task that will require public private partnerships and broad community support.
Why was this group formed? This spring, after the passing of Article 79 to ban fertilizer, we realized that our community is aware that water quality is an issue on Nantucket and needs to be taken seriously. We wanted to act on the momentum from Town Meeting to continue our educational efforts on water quality and the main factors contributing to its decline. Through conversations between the NSA, NLC, and MMA, we wanted to gather the organizations on island with a stake in water quality to talk about what has been done, what else can be done, and how can we all help.
What is the goal of the Coalition? Well…water quality is a multifaceted and intricate topic. So there are a few!
Between partner organizations, get a better sense of the work currently being done to mitigate water quality issues and support one another in that work. There are so many important initiatives taking place! By coming together as a group, we can hear what’s going on, perhaps share resources and build partnerships.
Work with the Town of Nantucket to ensure that clean water is prioritized with clear, measurable, and focused action items to support water quality on the island.
Educate our community. It can be confusing when acronyms like TMDLs get thrown around without context. Or you hear that “fertilizer is bad” but you don’t know exactly why or what else to do. We want to support our community with resources to better understand water quality, the issues our island is facing, and how to address them.
So what are the things affecting water quality? We have narrowed it down to three major categories that we can work on!
Fertilizer - whether nitrogen in salt water or phosphorus in freshwater, our water bodies are experiencing significant degradation from the overloading of nutrients from fertilizer. The black sludge, also known as lyngbya, that we see coating our eelgrass and smothering marine life is a direct result of fertilizer runoff into the harbor.
Stormwater - try to drive through Town during or after any moderate to high rain event and you will see the massive flooding. Take a closer look and you will find that many stormwater outflow pipes empty directly into Nantucket Harbor. So anything on the roads that gets washed through the drains during rain follows a direct line to the water. Our stormwater infrastructure needs attention and fast!
Wastewater - whether sewer or septic, inspections and improvements are critical, especially in sensitive watershed areas. The increase in population is a strain on already sensitive systems and the continued and increasing development on island means that we need to properly manage these systems.
Why are we starting with these categories?
In 2006, the Massachusetts Estuaries Project (MEP) report for Nantucket Harbor highlighted the Harbor as one of very few embayments in MA with a water quality capable of supporting significant high quality ecological habitats such as eelgrass beds, and capable of sustaining a scallop fishery. It also identified the concern over further degradation of harbor water quality from steadily increasing watershed based nutrient inputs, primarily from fertilizers, on-site septic treatment and increased surface runoff, all associated with increasing coastal development. The MEP report also postulated recovery of eelgrass habitat with implementation of adequate nitrogen management.
So from this report we know that our harbor could support an abundant scallop fishery and robust eelgrass beds.
What has been done so far?
The Town has worked to implement some of those management alternatives, and over the last 18 years has documented areas of the Harbor at or approaching the target nitrogen levels established by the MEP. However, approaching these targets is clearly not, in and of itself, an appropriate metric for success. Eelgrass habitat continues to decline, and macro-algal abundance has increased, both indicative of a nitrogen enriched system. Last winter the scallop yield was at an all-time low of 3,200 bushels.
Our freshwater systems also continue to suffer. Harmful Algal Blooms producing harmful toxins are occurring frequently in many island ponds. These HABs are also directly linked to over-enrichment from nutrients. In many cases legacy nutrients (primarily phosphorus in fresh water) have accumulated in the sediments feeding seasonal HABs year after year. The success of long-term management of these ponds is dependent upon reducing watershed inputs.
What comes next? We have sent a letter to the Town of Nantucket stating our goals and requests to work to address these issues. We are working to identify projects or initiatives that we can take on - as individual groups, a collective, with the Town, or on our own- to start to mitigate some water quality issues. We are also working on educational materials to share with our community to increase awareness and understanding.
Signers
Nantucket Shellfish Association
Nantucket Land Council
Maria Mitchell Association
NSA Fishermen’s Council
Nantucket Islands Land Bank
Great Harbor Yacht Club Foundation
Nantucket Conservation Foundation
Linda Loring Nature Foundation
Mass Audubon
Marine Mammal Alliance
Nantucket Chamber of Commerce
Sustainable Nantucket
UMass Boston Nantucket Field Station
ACKlimate
Press
Nantucket Current
Inquirer and Mirror
Maria Mitchell Podcast
