Waquoit Bay Reserve to Host Workshop on Water Quality Protection Using Buffers

Waquoit Bay in Falmouth is part of the Waquoit Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve.

WEST YARMOUTH – An expert panel will be discussing the capacity of buffers to protect water quality in Cape Cod waters at a workshop hosted by the Waquoit Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve next week.

The panel will focus on the widely acknowledged belief in scientific literature of the capacity of buffers to protect water quality.

However, until now, there has not been a way to quantify the ability of constructed or restored buffers to reduce pollution, or for some New England communities to receive credit for their use under MS4 permits.

A tool has been created through an expert elicitation process that integrates science-based recommendations for calculating the pollutant removal rate of constructed or restored buffers and the ability to compare their performance to other water quality BMPs.

Join the Waquoit Bay Reserve team to learn more about the tool as well as lessons learned from the expert panel process used to guide decision-making. The workshop will discuss if and how this work may be transferable to Massachusetts and how it may fit within the existing regulatory framework. The workshop will also examine how the expert panel process could be applied in other contexts.

The workshop will be held at on June 27 from 10:00 a.m. through 12:30 p.m. at the Cape Cod and Islands Association of Realtors Conference Center, located at 22 Mid-Tech Drive in West Yarmouth.

By TIM DUNN, CapeCod.com News Center 

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