CONTACT | DONATE | EVENTS

Barnstable Clean Water Coalition
  • HOME
  • ABOUT
    • BCWC Board of Directors
    • BCWC Staff
    • Contact Us
  • EVENTS
  • WHAT WE DO
    • Educate
    • Monitor
    • Mitigate
    • Advocate
  • NEWS
  • GET INVOLVED
  • RESOURCES
    • BCWC Video Library
    • A Guide to Clean Water Living on Cape Cod
    • Native New England Garden
    • Cape Cod Water Quality Management Plan (208 Plan)
    • Affiliated Organizations
    • APCC’s Cyanobacteria Monitoring
    • MassDEP
    • Water Quality Information
    • Town of Barnstable Resources
    • Town of Barnstable’s Water Resources Brochure
  • DONATE
  • HOME
  • ABOUT
    • BCWC Board of Directors
    • BCWC Staff
    • Contact Us
  • EVENTS
  • WHAT WE DO
    • Educate
    • Monitor
    • Mitigate
    • Advocate
  • NEWS
  • GET INVOLVED
  • RESOURCES
    • BCWC Video Library
    • A Guide to Clean Water Living on Cape Cod
    • Native New England Garden
    • Cape Cod Water Quality Management Plan (208 Plan)
    • Affiliated Organizations
    • APCC’s Cyanobacteria Monitoring
    • MassDEP
    • Water Quality Information
    • Town of Barnstable Resources
    • Town of Barnstable’s Water Resources Brochure
  • DONATE
Homepage > News > Toxic blooms prompt Cape pond advisories (6/24/19)

Toxic blooms prompt Cape pond advisories (6/24/19)

June 24, 2019 In News

Cape Cod Times
By Doug Fraser
Posted Jun 24, 2019 at 6:19 PM
Updated Jun 25, 2019 at 6:02 AM

Toxic blooms prompt Cape pond advisories

Heavy rains lead to warnings at 5 freshwater spots.

BARNSTABLE — People and their pets are being advised to avoid all contact with the water in three Cape Cod ponds after an unusually wet spring helped cause toxic bacterial blooms.

Water samples revealed cyanobacteria blooms in Santuit Pond in Mashpee, Bearse Pond in Barnstable and Upper Mill Pond in Brewster, and warnings were issued Friday for recreational users to avoid contact with the water, according to a statement Monday from the Association to Preserve Cape Cod. The advisories were issued by the three towns with the backing of the state Department of Public Health, the statement says.

Brewster Health Agent Nancy Ellis Ice said Monday that the advisory on Upper Mill Pond would likely be removed after the most recent testing showed that levels had dropped.

The town of Barnstable also has issued advisories for Lake Wequaquet and Hinckley Pond recommending that pet owners keep animals out of the water.

Cliff Pond at Nickerson State Park in Brewster, Lovells Pond in Barnstable and Scargo Lake in Dennis are “ponds of concern” and are being closely monitored, the statement says.

“Compared to recent seasons, the presence of cyanobacteria and HCBs (harmful cyanobacteria blooms) in ponds across the Cape in 2019 has so far been significantly greater,” the association statement says.

Cyanobactera produce cyanotoxins that can be absorbed through the skin or by swallowing the water and can damage the liver and nervous system in humans in severe cases. In some cases the toxins can be inhaled when downwind of a lake experiencing a bloom.

The Association to Preserve Cape Cod is monitoring 22 Cape ponds in conjunction with the Brewster Ponds Coalition, Friends of Chatham Waterways, Indian Ponds Association, several towns and the University of New Hampshire, and may expand to other locations later in the summer, according to the statement. Barnstable is monitoring another 20 of its own ponds.

Other ponds may be affected but are not yet being monitored. The Cape has about 1,000 freshwater ponds, according to the statement.

Rain washes nutrients, including septic effluent and lawn fertilizer, into ponds and that promotes the growth of these naturally occurring bacteria.

“This will be a problem for all the Cape towns,” said Mashpee Natural Resources Director Richard York, because, although towns can clean up ponds by dealing with nutrient loading and nitrogen in the bottom sediments, it cannot control how much will flow into the ponds from frequent rainstorms, especially the heavy downpours attributed to climate change. Warmer temperatures mean more moisture in the air and a better growing environment for bacteria, he said.

The association has an online interactive map and informational page at apcc.org/cyano.

— Follow Doug Fraser on Twitter: @dougfrasercct.

Cape Cod Times – Toxic blooms prompt Cape pond advisories

Cape Cod Times News
Previous StorySantuit Pond Sounds Alarm On Freshwater (6/20/19)
Next StoryBarnstable Board of Health says no to amended regulations (6/26/19)

Barnstable Clean Water Coalition

  • Email
    info@BCleanWater.org
  • Phone
    508-420-0780
  • Address
    PO BOX 215
    864 Main Street
    Osterville, MA 02655

Recent Posts

  • Newsletter Fall 2022 Winter 2023
    Coalition Quarterly – Special Double Issue – Issue 21 & Issue 22 (Fall 2022 & Winter 2023) Thursday, 22, Dec
  • BCWC Featured on WXTK (12/11/22) Sunday, 11, Dec
  • Thousands of Cape Cod homeowners may need to replace septic systems under new state regulations (11/28/22) Monday, 28, Nov
  • BCWC Summer 2022 Newsletter
    Coalition Quarterly – Issue 20 (Summer 2022) Tuesday, 25, Oct
  • Nitrogen Reclassification Will Put Emphasis On Innovative Systems (8/31/22) Wednesday, 31, Aug

Popular Posts

  • Coalition Quarterly – Issue 15 (Spring 2021) posted 2 years ago
  • Coalition Quarterly – Issue 17 (Fall 2021) posted 1 year ago
  • Neighbors Take Action to Save Their Ponds posted 2 years ago
  • Resources for Upcoming Citizen Forums – Town of Barnstable Sewer Assessment Ordinance Presentation posted 2 years ago
  • Welcome to the Living Laboratory: Come Learn with Us posted 3 years ago

Blog Post Tags

Algae BCWC Projects Books Cape & Plymouth Business Media Cape Cod Groundwater Guardians Cape Cod Online Cape Cod Times Cape Cod Today Cape Media News Cape News Clean Water Mondays Clean Water Wednesdays Coalition Quarterly Cranberry Bogs Design With Nature DNSI EPA Harmful Algal Blooms I/A Septic System Technology MA Oyster Project Mashpee Enterprise Massachusetts Oyster Project MASSTC Michael Egan's Editorials News Newsletter New York Times One Drop Leads to Another PFAS Press Release Sea Level Rise Septic Systems South Coast Today The Barnstable Patriot The Boston Globe The Enterprise Bourne The Falmouth Enterprise The Inquirer and Mirror The Martha's Vineyard Times The Standard Times Three Bays Preservation Newsletter Washington Post Watershed Action Alliance WBUR Wicked Local

Archives

  • DONATE
  • VOLUNTEER
  • SIGN UP FOR OUR EMAILS

Three Bays Preservation, Inc. dba Barnstable Clean Water Coalition is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization. Federal Tax ID#:  04-3338308.

Copyright ©2019 Barnstable Clean Water Coalition, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Privacy | Terms | Sitemap | Site Produced by Coastal Mountain Creative