Today’s release of the seventh annual State of the Waters report is an opportunity to focus on one of the highest priority issues for most Cape Codders. What is happening with our water reflects the land use and waste disposal choices made over the decades.
As has been the story since we started with this reporting, the condition of our surface waters is intolerable. Driven by intense development and alteration of sensitive land near bays and ponds, and exacerbated by reliance on septic systems and poor stormwater management within their watersheds, the decline of water quality is as obvious as it is distressing. Just read the report or see the interactive map on CapeCodWaters.org—the conclusions are obvious.
Existing development is a fact on the ground that we must mitigate through improved wastewater treatment, better management of stormwater, and restoration of wetland resources. All three of these areas have been, and remain, focus areas for APCC, and where we are seeing great progress across the region.
In addition to how mitigation and restoration help reverse the decline in surface water quality, our future is largely dependent on how well we manage and protect the 14 percent of the Cape’s land area that is not yet developed and not protected either. Eighty percent of that 14 percent, some 60,000 acres, is identified by the state as critical lands to be protected to ensure the long-term ecological well-being of Cape Cod. Simply put, if we allow the remaining open space to be developed in the same manner the Cape has been developed historically, future State of the Waters reports will be testaments to our failure.
With the advent of the new year, you can expect APCC to continue to hammer away on water quality improvement, but you can also expect a far greater emphasis on increasing land protection and preservation. With most towns moving forward on measures to reduce nutrient loading from existing development, the water quality game will be won or lost by the decisions we make about the land not yet protected.
Sitting by and hoping for the best is not enough. APCC will be very active on land protection in the years ahead so that we can produce future reports documenting improved water quality and know that we all rose to the occasion.
