Harwich Pond Coalition Pushes For Cleaner Waters

 HARWICH – The Harwich Pond Coalition, which formed a year ago, has an ambitious agenda directed at protecting the health of the town’s ponds. 
Approximately 50 people attended the group’s annual meeting on Saturday, June 14, where a pond pledge was introduced encouraging regular maintenance of septic systems, embracing Cape friendly lawns and landscaping, and limiting landscape watering and the use of fertilizers and pesticides.
The main focus of the session was on ways to reduce nutrients, such as phosphorus, from reaching freshwater bodies, feeding cyanobacteria algae blooms which can be toxic and can impact the health of people and pets.
Conservation Administrator Amy Usowski said her department has entered into a memorandum of understanding with the Association to Preserve Cape Cod to manage a cyanobacteria monitoring program in Bucks, Hinckley’s, John Joseph, Long, Sand, and Skinequit ponds and the West Reservoir. APCC will be doing sample collection, field observations and result interpretation. APCC is conducting cyanobacteria monitoring programs in 140 ponds across the Cape, including eight in Harwich.
Cyanobacteria algae blooms are becoming more common in ponds on Cape Cod as more nutrients, such as nitrogen and phosphorus, are generated from septic systems, stormwater runoff and fertilizer.
Usowski, who was a panelist at the event, said the latest or earliest bloom the commonwealth has seen in the state occurred last December/January under the ice at Hinckley’s Pond. 
Harwich Pond Coalition President Susan Cyr spoke about the increased efforts to inform residents of the blooms. Residents can access alerts from the health department and APCC, which has a website devoted to cyanobacteria monitoring. The conservation department will post signs at ponds where blooms are found. 
Usowski said based on testing, her department declares when to post advisories on conditions in ponds and whether to mandate pond closures. She said her department works closely with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health and APCC when making assessments. She warned that health issues can arise not just by ingestion of the tainted waters, but through exposure on the skin and even from breathing the air near blooms.   
 Sophia Feuerhake, freshwater science coordinator with the APCC, said there are a number of pond coalitions and associations on the Cape with information that can assist the Harwich coalition in taking steps to curb nutrient intrusion into local ponds.
 Feuerhake said that should someone see anything suspicious, like green patches, in the ponds, to take pictures and send them to APCC and a representative will go out and test the waters. APCC also has maps on its website that show which ponds are experiencing cyanobacteria blooms.
 Harwich Conservation Trust  Executive Director Michael Lach praised the Harwich Pond Coalition for creating a townwide association to protect ponds. He said the trust also has a long history of protecting ponds in Harwich; it started with a quarter acre donation of pond-front property on Mill Pond, off Route 137. He said the trust now protects 800 acres, 350 acres of which are along the shorelines of ponds or in pond watersheds. The trust has land adjacent to 20 ponds in town, he added.
 Understanding pond vegetation and the use of native plants in the buffer zone of ponds is important in protecting ponds. Both Feuerhake and Usowski invited people who live next to ponds to reach out to their organizations and they will make assessments on how to improve buffer zones to ponds.
“I’ll come and talk about what can be done better,” Usowski said, “developing a root system sponge to improve water quality coming off your property.”
Patrick Otton, a member of the coalition’s board of directors and a town meeting advocate for town control of the use of fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides, emphasized the need for home rule control of the chemicals. 
Usowski said the conservation commission prohibits the use of fertilizers and pesticides within a 100-foot buffer zone to water bodies. She said the distance could be increased through a bylaw. Chatham has such a provision, she added.      
 Scott Norum, a coalition board of director, said there is a need for volunteers to assist the town in the water sampling program in place since 2003. The town relies on the volunteers to collect samples through the natural resources department. Norum said there is a volunteers training session set at the natural resources department office at Saquatucket Harbor on June 24 from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. that will be put on by instructors from the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth.
 Coalition vice president Ann Frechette highlighted “Pond Pages” the group has assembled which can be accessed on the coalition's website. She said the pages include 32 named ponds and information such as size, depth, public access and recreation activities. She said the group is looking for information about the ponds.   
 The coalition is hoping to grow its membership as well. It has five subcommittees, including finance, membership, education, science and advocacy.
 “You don’t have to live on a pond to be a member,” Cyr said.