Grants totaling about $1.5M helping Cape Cod to battle pond pollution, initiate wastewater project

Santuit Pond in Mashpee, GOOGLE Earth

MASHPEE – The Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe has been awarded a $700,000 grant from the state to improve the quality of Santuit Pond by reducing persistent degradation from excessive nutrient loading.

The project will involve sequestering phosphorus over a 145-acre area of sediment where anoxia, the condition where the lack of oxygen suffocates marine life, occurs most frequently. Alum treatment will be applied.

Outreach by the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe and the Town of Mashpee is being conducted with residents in surrounding neighborhoods.

Santuit Pond’s pollution problems have been a point of discussion for years, and are also being addressed with a new wastewater treatment facility and sewer system.

The Healey Administration is also awarding over $400,000 for the Barnstable County Department of Health and Environment to install 25 urine diversion systems in nitrogen-impaired watersheds. The Massachusetts Alternative Septic System Test Center is partnering on the plan to see whether U.D. systems can be included as a general use nutrient management strategy.

Also, $100,000 has been earmarked for the Martha’s Vineyard Commission to “establish an island-wide communications network of local and regional water resource stakeholders, establish a Regional NPS Coordinator to participate in ongoing watershed-based planning, and establish an education and outreach program that will focus on engaging island youth as well as training volunteers for water quality sampling. These goals are intended to ensure that all members of local communities on Martha’s Vineyard have access to key information, resources, and opportunities to have their water resource needs met.”