In The News

It is almost impossible to have not heard something about high cost of housing, if you can find it, here on Cape Cod. The advocates for housing that supports year-round resident s and the economy make a good case and I am not going to repeat it here, as APCC is a part of that discussion in other forums. The point I want to emphasize today is that the need for housing and expanded economic opportunity is all predicated on one critical factor that still does not get the attention it warrants. A clean, healthy, and fully functioning environment is the foundation for everything on Cape Cod.

Without clean drinking water, access to beaches, ponds to swim in, fish to catch, trails to walk, breathable air, open spaces (do we really need to debate their importance after the last 14 months?) and marine waters teeming with life, there is nothing to talk about, or invest in, on Cape Cod. Without these sustaining elements of life there would be no worry about housing shortages and high prices, nor would there be businesses hurting for workers. Why? It’s simple: Our environment drives everything else. Without environmental quality, Cape Cod would be just another example of a place of former glory that consumed and tainted the very things that brought people there in the first place.

We need to remind ourselves while we come together collectively as a community to address issues related to housing and opportunity that the expanded protection of our environmental resources is central to the discussion of how we move forward. While we do things to address our economic future, we must do so in full recognition that it cannot come at the expense of further investment in our environment. Yes, more investment in the protection of important open spaces, more investment in infrastructure to clean our waters, more investment in drinking water protection, more investment in environmental restoration of degraded and altered wetlands and bogs, and greater attention to our role as stewards of the landscape. We need it all because without it, don’t waste your time, energy and resources thinking about building new stuff because without a solid foundation, it will all eventually collapse.

The Massachusetts Army National Guard has secured a key federal environmental approval that potentially puts it one step away from building a machine gun range on Joint Base Cape Cod, CAI has learned.

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Additional Coverage:

Boston Globe: Federal officials approve plan for National Guard to build a new machine gun range on Cape Cod

JOINT BASE CAPE COD — In a clearing in the woods of these sprawling training grounds, First Lieutenant Patrick Foley peered down the barrel of his M4 assault rifle and awaited the command “weapons free.” Then the medevac pilot fired 40 rounds at a series of people-shaped targets that popped up from mounds of dirt in the distance, striking all but eight of them.

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The compounds have been linked to cancer, low infant birth weights, and suppression of the immune system.

The primary source of drinking water for tens of thousands of people on Cape Cod has elevated levels of toxic chemicals, according to a new study. Scientists at Harvard University found that several watersheds on the upper Cape around Mashpee had 40 times more PFAS — known as “forever chemicals” because they never fully degrade — than new state rules allow. The compounds have been linked to cancer, low infant birth weights, and suppression of the immune system.

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Nearly 370 Cape Cod residents emailed the Massachusetts Army National Guard over the summer, most to say they oppose its plan to build a machine gun range on Joint Base Cape Cod.

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APCC obtained, through a public records request, copies of all public comments submitted to the Guard on the machine gun range. APCC provides these comments on this website for the purpose of ensuring a full disclosure of the general public’s response to the project.

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On a sunny day in October, an excavator is digging into a layer of sand and cranberry plants along the Child’s River, near the border of Falmouth and Mashpee. Tree stumps are scattered about, and channels of water are diverted around up-turned dirt piles.

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