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MITIGATE

Our small but intrepid team of engineers, scientists, seasonal help, and interns implement and test innovative technologies including alternative septic systems, permeable reactive barriers, and nature-based treatment systems. We support municipal treatment projects. By utilizing solution-based initiatives in our mitigation program, we help combat excess nitrogen by using innovative technologies to clean the water.

Solutions-both traditional and new-to cleaning impaired waters in ponds, rivers, and embayments exist through the diverse Massachusetts 208 Plan, named for Section 208 of the federal Clean Water Act. These technologies include aquaculture, which uses oysters to filter and purify water naturally, and Permeable Reactive Barriers (PRBs), which are underground walls that filter impurities from groundwater to combat nitrogen pollution. These are just a few of the innovative methods in which Barnstable Clean Water Coalition is engaged.

In partnership with the Massachusetts Oyster Project (MOP) and the Town of Barnstable, BCWC built and installed an oyster upweller tank at Gateway Marina on Hyannis Harbor during the summer of 2018.

BCWC is working to restore 55 acres of cranberry bogs to natural freshwater wetlands which will reduce nitrogen flow downriver and improve water quality as well as restore habitat.

BCWC is working to reduce nitrogen flow downriver by tackling it at its source. We have a pilot project working to install I/A septic systems. Here is more information about the pilot project.

BCWC is working to reduce nitrogen flow downriver by tackling it at its source. We have a pilot project working to install I/A septic systems. Here is more information about those systems.

Dead Neck Sampson’s Island (DNSI) is a barrier island south of Grand Island in Osterville that is co-owned and managed by BCWC and Mass Audubon. Dredging was completed in 2021.