Association to Preserve Cape Cod

Photo by Sue Machie

What I'm Thinking...

The Fear is Real

by Andrew Gottlieb, APCC Executive Director

There is a very real possibility that the multipurpose machine gun range (MPMGR) will proceed, regardless of the EPA finding that it will contaminate the Upper Cape Water Supply Reserve.

That is the inescapable conclusion that we have come to after reviewing documents turned over to APCC, after much delay, by the Massachusetts National Guard. (See the documents here.) The records, which were not turned over to APCC until the Secretary of State ordered the Guard to comply with state law, contained several major revelations:

The Guard rejects the authority of the EPA to conduct its review under the Safe Drinking Water Act. This is different than their previous stance that the EPA’s findings were incorrect. The Guard has changed how the project is being contracted to take advantage of a nuance in federal law that would exempt the project from EPA review.
The Guard has aggressively, as we expected, pursued approval from the congressional appropriations committees, to add more money to the project budget so that they can cover the inflated cost overruns without a publicly recorded act of Congress.
The Guard has selected a contractor to build the MPMGR using 2018 specifications that fail to take into account any of the groundwater contamination concerns, despite leading the public to think that it was open to mitigations.
The Guard has great urgency to sign a contract to build the MPMGR on or before September 30, 2024 when their money disappears.

Taken together, the revelations clearly show that any public reliance that the federal government would rely on the EPA findings to prevent further contamination of the groundwater were misplaced. It is further worth worrying about the Guard’s commitment to comply with state law requirements that the Environmental Management Commission’s (EMC) must first make a determination that training not be incompatible with protection of the water supply. Real questions have to be asked if the EMC will intervene and exercise its statutory obligation to protect the water supply of the Upper Cape from even more contamination than already exists at JBCC.

The last time we raised this issue many of you asked what you can do. This time we encourage you to contact the three EMC commissioners and demand that they intervene and initiate a full public review and determination of the impact of the MPMGR on the drinking water supply, that they just not rely on the Guard’s self-serving internal environmental assessment, but that they give full weight to the EPA findings and the concerns of the public.

APCC has already reached out to the EMC, but we need you to amplify the message.

Please email the members of the EMC with your concerns. A sample message is provided below.

Bonnie Heiple bonnie.heiple@state.ma.us

Tom O'Shea tom.oshea@mass.gov

Brian Arrego brian.arrego@mass.gov

Dear Members of the Environmental Management Commission:

Your swift and decisive action is urgently needed to avoid irreparable harm to the environment and public health resulting from the Massachusetts Army National Guard’s ill-conceived multipurpose machine gun range proposed for the Upper Cape Water Supply Reserve. I am greatly concerned that the Guard is pursuing contract arrangements for construction of the project, which could render the MPMGR a “done deal” before the EMC has fulfilled its responsibility to evaluate the project’s anticipated impacts on this critical natural resource.

Please move quickly in conducting an evaluation, with opportunity for public comment, of the MPMGR’s anticipated environmental impacts on the Upper Cape Water Supply Reserve’s drinking water supply and other natural resources, including consideration of the June 2023 U.S. EPA Region 1 Sole Source Aquifer report that provisionally determined “the proposed MPMGR has the potential to contaminate the aquifer so as to create a significant public health hazard.” Based on your evaluation, please issue a written determination about the MPMGR’s compatibility with the purpose of the Upper Cape Water Supply Reserve to protect water supplies and wildlife habitat and to develop and construct water supply systems.

At the same time, I also urge the EMC to immediately notify and order the Massachusetts National Guard to refrain from any actions to commence construction of the MPMGR unless and until the EMC has completed a comprehensive evaluation of the project.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

[Your Name and Address]

Herring Continue to Run—Herring Monitors, please continue counting!

As of May 4, 2024, volunteer herring counters reported counting herring in the following herring runs:

Barnstable

Centerville River

No. of herring reported: 553

No. of counts reported: 109

Red Lily Pond

No. of herring reported: 0

No. of counts reported: 71

Brewster

Stony Brook

No. of herring reported: 2,368

No. of counts reported: 158

Dennis

Bound Brook

No. of herring reported:40

No. of counts reported: 157

Scargo Lake

No. of herring reported: 70

No. of counts reported: 215

Eastham

Bridge Pond

No. of herring reported: 217

No. of counts reported: 207

Herring Pond

No. of herring reported: 39

No. of counts reported: 206

Mashpee

Mashpee River

No. of herring reported: 6,479

No. of counts reported: 139

Quashnet River

No. of herring reported: 183

No. of counts reported: 66

Santuit Pond

No. of herring reported: 875

No. of counts reported: 72

Sandwich

Mill Creek

No. of herring reported: 1

No. of counts reported: 19

Wellfleet

Herring River

No. of herring reported: 1,556

No. of counts reported: 149

Total reported to date:

No. of herring reported: 12,381

No. of counts reported: 1,568

Note: The reported counts are counts that volunteers entered into APCC’s herring count data entry system at https://apcc.org/our-work/science/community-science/herring/ as of 5/4/24 and have not been reviewed for quality assurance. They are preliminary data not to be used for final counts.

Species in the Spotlight: Spartina alterniflora, the "Salt Marsh Engineer"

Above: Before and after photos of the pilot planting at Sesuit Creek marsh.

Spartina alterniflora, commonly known as cord grass, is a native species of perennial grass considered the most abundant in salt marshes across the Atlantic coast. It grows 1–1.5 meters (3–4.9 feet) tall. It has smooth, hollow stems with leaves up to 20–60 centimeters (7.9–23.6 inches) long. Its flowers are yellowish-green, turning brown in winter.

Not only does this species provide food and habitat for a variety of salt marsh species, but this grass also stabilizes shorelines and marsh surfaces. As sediment from our bays and oceans moves across the marsh during high tides and storms, it becomes trapped by the sturdy stems of S. alterniflora. As this salt marsh specialist grows up through the sediment, resulting vertical accumulation on the marsh helps to provides resiliency in the face of large storms and rising sea levels.

APCC’s Ecosystem Restoration Program works to monitor the growth and distribution of this low marsh species in many locations across the Cape. In 2018, APCC completed a pilot planting of S. alterniflora in unvegetated areas of Sesuit Creek salt marsh in Dennis. After returning in 2023, S. alterniflora had proliferated across many previously bare areas, and elevations in vegetated areas had increased. The success of this species is crucial to preserving marsh integrity and encouraging marsh habitat restoration. Check out more ecosystem restoration projects here.

Below: APCC’s Eliza Fitzgerald (right) along with Liz Gorrill of MA Division of Ecological Restoration (left) surveying planted plots of Spartina alterniflora, pictured here flowering.

APCC board member, Meredith Harris, represented APCC at the Cape Cod Chorale's program, What a Wonderful World: Songs of Earth, Sea, and Sky. Meredith is pictured here (left) with chorale director, Danica Buckley (right).

APCC Webinars

Save the Date!

Due to construction at APCC's headquarters,

this year's annual plant sale will be a one day in-person sale.

We are still working on the details, but save the date:

Friday, June 7th

The Jewels of Cape Cod - Our Freshwater Ponds

Cape Cod Ponds Network

If you are not already on our email list and would like to attend quarterly Zoom meetings, sign up here.

Any questions can be directed to Kristin Andres at kandres@apcc.org or Dr. Julie Hambrook at jhambrook@apcc.org.

Events Hosted by Others

Resilient Roots hosts APCC's education director, Kristin Andres

The 2023 State of the Waters: Cape Cod report content can be viewed on this dedicated website: CapeCodWaters.org

Guidelines for Cape-friendly Landscapes - an APCC publication

The Guidelines gives homeowners steps they can take in the design and maintenance of their properties that will support pollinators and birds, manage stormwater, conserve water, and protect the Cape's water quality. This 40-page booklet is beautifully illustrated by Marcy Ford with content that is easily digestible and supported by numerous resources for additional learning.

Thank you for this important book! Hopefully everyone of us with a yard will read it and put it to use! - Vicky Titcomb of Titcomb Bookshop

We've enjoyed creating it and hope it will help you with ideas to help you steward your piece of Cape Cod and maybe foster an environmental ethic in the decisions we all make in our own managed landscapes. Get your copy here—and maybe one for a friend?

We are grateful for the several retail shops that are partnering with us to make this publication more widely available: Brewster Book Store, Birdwatchers General Store, Crocker Nurseries, Wellfleet Audubon Wildlife Sanctuary, Cape Abilities Farm, Cape Cod Museum of Natural History, the Cape Cod Lavender Farm, Heritage Museums and Gardens, Titcomb's Bookshop, Sea Howl Bookshop, Soares Flower Garden Nursery, and Eight Cousins Bookshop.

If you are a retailer and would like to sell this publication at your store, contact Kristin at kandres@apcc.org.

You can also view the book's content as a pdf on our website.

The Pollinator Pathway Cape Cod is a group of organizations promoting native plants and pollinator-friendly land care practices to create a boat load of safe oases for our native bees, butterflies and a whole host of other pollinators that are crucial to the health of our ecosystems.

Join us! It's easy. There are no fees. You just need to pledge to ADD native plants, SUBTRACT a little lawn, AVOID yard chemicals, especially pesticides, and LEAVE the leaves. And, help us spread the word. Please get on the map to show your support of pollinators on Cape Cod!

You can purchase now your 9-inch aluminum Pollinator Pathway Cape Cod sign at Hyannis Country Garden, Crocker Nurseries, Brewster Book Store, and Cape Abilities Farm.

If you are a retailer, and you would like to sell the signs, you can order online here, or email pollinators@apcc.org.

APCC Merch