Wastewater warnings
by Joseph SantangeloOn a hot summer afternoon along part of Waquoit Bay, vegetation floats on the water surface stretching 30 to 40 feet out from shore. When the wind blows inland and the tide is low, a rubbery bed of green and yellow vegetation forms along the shore and emits a rotten smell.
Nitrogen-enriched waters stimulate rapid growth of algae and other organisms. Excess plant life sucks oxygen from the water, turns streams and coves murky, chokes off underwater eelgrass, kills fish and destroys shellfish beds. Under these conditions, swimming, boating, fishing, kayaking and other recreational uses of the area quickly turn repugnant.
Nutrient loading is strangling coastal waters with increasing frequency along Cape Cod’s 550 miles of shoreline, up and down the Eastern seaboard and in the deeper ocean. Deteriorating bays and streams span Cape Cod from Buzzards Bay to upper Pleasant Bay.
On Cape Cod, where virtually all human, social and economic life revolves around water, the implications could be devastating. If not reversed, degrading coastal waters could strike the Cape like a hurricane, eradicating millions of dollars in economic activity and washing away billions of dollars in property values.
Studies show 40 Cape Cod estuaries are seriously or somewhat degraded by nitrogen seeping its way through sandy soil to the coast. Also, a June 2007 National Estuary Program Coastal Condition Report rates Massachusetts bays from Cape Cod to the New Hampshire border as only fair.
Most of the nitrogen comes from the Cape’s 122,000 home and business septic systems. Separately, many of the Cape’s 360 lakes and ponds exhibit similar problems from excess phosphorus. Rising levels of nitrogen in the Cape’s underground water supply also are generating concern.
For businesses and property owners, this presents a clear and present danger. If Cape Cod develops a reputation for degraded waters, the continuing waves of vacationers, second-home owners and retirees driving Cape Cod’s economy may go elsewhere.
The problem, if not resolved, has enormous financial consequences for business owners, property owners, towns and the entire commonwealth:
* If Cape Cod loses its appeal as a tourist, second-home and retirement destination, much of the $5 billion local economy will drift away to other resort areas.
* About two-thirds of all consumer spending on Cape Cod comes from vacationers, second-home owners and retirees. If that starts to dwindle, the Cape is headed for economic hard times.
* For business, a sudden 10 percent loss in sales and revenue could turn the bottom line quickly into the red. The value of the business will decline, with fewer buyers in line to take over when current management retires.
* If residential and commercial property across the Cape’s 15 towns drops just 5 percent from its current value of about $76 billion, that will create a loss of $3.8 billion. A drop of 10 percent means lost property value of $7.6 billion.
* All property owners, when they try to sell, would be competing for fewer buyers.
* Jobs will be eliminated; unemployment and social service needs will rise.
* Banks will have trouble collecting on mortgages.
* If property assessments shrink, towns will be forced to raise property tax rates in order to continue funding schools and town services.
* Millions of dollars in tax receipts generated for the commonwealth by Cape Cod tourism, sales and jobs will disappear.
“At its core, Cape Cod has an economic interest in solving this problem,” said Andrew Gottlieb, interim executive director of the 15-town Cape Cod Water Protection Collaborative. “Property values and business values are based on the aesthetic and recreation use of the water. If the water is not fishable and swimable, it will drive values down.”
“This also has an impact on financial plans and estate plans,” he added. “If there is a drop in the market, who will be there to buy your property behind you or from you or your estate? How can you sell your business if a significant number of people stop coming to the Cape?”
According to Dr. Clyde W. Barrow, director of the Center for Policy Analysis at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth and an expert on the Cape economy, the Cape Cod hospitality industry directly accounts for 23 percent of the Cape's employment. He added, “Second-home owners account for another 17 percent as a result of their consumer purchases for real estate, home improvements, home furnishings, landscaping, health care, recreational and other retail purchases.”
Add in retirees, with about 20 percent more, and it is clear that the most of the local economy is dependent on continuing to attract people from off-Cape to the Cape’s water-oriented quality of life.
A growing realization: business must pay to address the problem
Businesses and homeowners are beginning to recognize this problem and figure sewage treatment into their financial futures.
Put simply, paying for solutions will have to be built into the budgets of businesses and evaluated in the same way other capital expenses are: A rate on the return of your investment.
In densely populated areas, business can anticipate tax assessments for sewer construction, connection charges to hook up to the system and annual sewer user fees. In remote areas, particularly near water, advanced on-site treatment may be required at significant cost.
All Cape property owners who benefit from cleaner waters, a thriving economy and an exceptional quality of life may be required to make some financial payment, possibly an additional charge when they pay their property taxes or water bills.
On several tracks, business groups are addressing the issue, motivated by enlightened self-interest. Some Cape businesses, as well as schools and nonprofit organizations, have stepped up to the issue, building and operating 44 separate satellite sewage treatment plants each handling up to 300,000 gallons of wastewater a day. (The state standard is 65 gallons user per capita per day.) Most of these state-regulated satellite treatment systems remove not only bacteria but also much of the nitrogen that causes damage to coastal waters.
Commercial and residential property owners also have installed more than 650 enhanced on-site septic systems, which are monitored by county government.
According to County Health and Environment Director George Heufelder – who manages the test center for new, alternative septic systems at the Massachusetts Military Reservation – enhanced biological septic systems now remove up to 65 percent of nitrogen, but they do require regular inspection and maintenance.
After years of public discussion, the wastewater issue is coming to a head. The 15-town Cape Cod Water Protection Collaborative is up and running, with Andrew R. Gottlieb, former head of the Massachusetts Office of Commonwealth Development, as its interim executive director. Its chairman, Paul Niedzwiecki, is assistant town manager of Barnstable, the Cape’s largest town.
Comprehensive wastewater management planning is well under way in nearly all Cape Cod towns. A massive study called the Massachusetts Estuaries Project is examining Cape coastal waters scientifically and calculating exactly how much nitrogen that each estuary can handle and how much must be removed to reverse water degradation.
Solutions to the problem will vary with specific local conditions and the amount of nitrogen that must be reduced.
“Here’s the very good news,” said Maggie Geist, executive director of the Association to Preserve Cape Cod and a leader on the issue. “For many years, we did not know the science, we did not have the technology, we did not have the management ideas and we did not have the will to do something about it.”
“In the last five years, we have the models to follow, the technology to apply and the state has instituted the Massachusetts Estuaries Project to identify the action that must be taken,” she added. “We also recognized that wastewater crosses town boundaries and the solution requires a coordinated approach among many towns. In late 2005, the collaborative was created involving all 15 towns in the planning process.”
Much of the solution will depend on finding funds and sharing the cost equitably.
“First and foremost,” said Gottlieb, “the focal point of the collaborative is to help communities deal with the financial aspect. The collaborative serves as a way to leverage the strength of the 15 towns as a unit to present to [state and federal] funders a unified case for the Cape.”
Gottlieb added, “The problem has been a long time coming and it will be a long time fixing it, but it’s never too late to get at it. We will begin to see improvements in a relatively short period of time by reducing nitrogen from near shore sources. I wish everybody had started 10 years ago; but whenever we start, we know we will make improvements relatively rapidly. The Cape very much has the ability to turn this issue around.”
Gottlieb anticipates the first stages of improved sewage treatment will be the south side of Cape Cod, where shallow, narrow bays are most threatened. “If we sewer one house below Route 28, it will do as much good as sewering nine house above Route 28,” he said.
How to share the cost among sewer users and the rest of the townspeople who benefit from a cleaner environment remains to be determined, Gottlieb said. In some areas, 70 percent will come from sewer users and 30 percent from other town residents.
What can businesses do?
Gottlieb says they can support town efforts to adopt wastewater management plans and help inform the public that this problem needs to be fixed.
A complex issue involving wastewater from 225,000 residents, a million visitors, 140,000 homes, 10,000 businesses and thousands of public buildings, protecting Cape Cod’s water resources will be enormously costly. Current estimates are that it will take $3 billion to reverse the problem and preserve the future of Cape Cod. But the cost of doing nothing could be far greater in terms of lost business, jobs and property values.
Many businesses already face the expense of wastewater system upgrades if they want to modernize and expand. Connecting to sewers may be a more cost-effective alternative to new, expensive on-site treatment systems.
“It’s sort of a no-brainer,” said Wendy K. Northcross, CEO of the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce. “If we do not address the wastewater issue, businesses are going to have to pay for [water treatment] infrastructure themselves, and the shorelines and ponds will continue to degrade. And who’s going to want to come here? The business community was a prime mover in setting up the collaborative and in finding a solution.”
What’s at stake?
At stake are:
* Saltwater bays, coves and inlets where people swim, fish, boat or just relax amid the aesthetic qualities of water, its tranquility, coolness and beauty.
* Freshwater surface ponds where people kayak, hike, bike and enjoy summer vacations.
* One underground aquifer that feeds public and private wells serving the 230,000 permanent residents and a million or more part-year residents and summer visitors.
* Nitrogen seeping from septic systems into coastal waters promoting the growth of bacteria, algae and other organisms.
* Phosphorous reaching into fresh water encouraging the growth of plant life. Phosphorous is not an issue in coastal areas where it quickly mixes with salt water.
“There are numerous sources on Cape Cod,” said Henry Lind, natural resources officer of the town of Eastham. “Look at the entire water system on Cape Cod. It rains and snows, which feeds into the ground and serves as our drinking water. It cycles through septic systems and leaches out around the edges. A river of water is slowly easing from the middle part of Cape out to the edges. You can see more difference in salt water than fresh water. Water at low tide at the edge of beach is mixed up with effluent, fertilizer, animal waste and water from storm drains.”
The result: too much nitrogen for the water to handle and the rapid growth of nitrogen-loving plant life. In the winter months, the growth dies and decomposes at the bottom of an estuary like a black mud. The process repeats itself year after year as more nitrogen released decades ago migrates to the coast.
Nitrogen in wastewater creates special problems because of Cape Cod’s geography and geology. The Cape’s sandy soils allow nitrogen to flow one to three feet a year, eventually reaching the shoreline. Poorly flushed, narrow estuaries allow nitrogen to build up, rather than wash out to sea. Loss of forests and wetlands, which serve as natural filters of nitrogen, contribute to the problem, as does the spread of impervious, paved surfaces such as roads and parking lots.
“[The wastewater issue] is a huge threat and unfortunately it’s a silent threat,” said Lind. “It doesn’t tap you on the shoulder; it’s not bubbling or oozing so that you say, ‘Oops, we don’t want that.’ It’s subtle to the average resident or visitor. It’s as silent as it is insidious.”
For general information, go to Cape Keepers.org, SaveBuzzardsBay.org and PleasantBay.org.
For more on the Cape Cod Water Protection Collaborative, go to barnstablecounty.org/bbwastewater.htm
For more on eutrophication, go to epa.gov/maia/html/eutroph.html.
To see a priority list of 89 embayments under evaluation, go to oceanscience.net/estuaries/priority.htm.
For a public opinion survey on wastewater, go to umassd.edu/cfpa/docs/wastewater.pdf.
To read the June 2007 National Estuary Program Coastal Condition Report, go to epa.gov/owow/oceans/nepccr/index.html.
Published in Cape Business Sept/Oct 2007.
Joseph Santangelo Joseph Santangelo has been a statehouse bureau chief, a corporate executive and currently works for the Connecticut Legislature. 
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