Turn the Tide Partners

Turn the Tide is a partnership between The Coalition for Buzzards Bay, the Lloyd Center for the Environment, The University of Massachusetts School for Marine Science & Technology (SMAST) and the Town of Dartmouth to restore water quality and living resources in Dartmouth’s estuaries.

The Coalition for Buzzards Bay will work with town officials and the general public, alerting them to the serious challenges facing the watershed and the profound implications of inaction. These outreach efforts aim to create a broad-based constituency that not only understands the need for river restoration, but will support public expenditures to fund its clean up and protection.

SMAST is leading the research effort designed to quantify current levels of pollution, identify and measure its primary sources and create models for managing potential solutions. Despite a decade of water quality monitory data documenting the decline in their health, there exists no clear quantification of pollutant inputs to the estuaries. We know that the bay and river receive more pollution than they can handle, but with the exception of a few obvious sources, we do not know from where the pollutants are derived and in what relative quantities.

In addition, key questions such as the full scale of present habitat destruction and the impacts of reduced freshwater flows and restricted tidal flushing may be having on the health of the estuaries remain unanswered. The applied research approach will provide a firm foundation on which to build our remediation efforts.

The Lloyd Center for the Environment will develop a solid scientific educational program based on the project to raise awareness of students about the serious condition of the estuaries and the need for restoration and preservation of these natural resources.

The Town of Dartmouth will assist the project by providing town professional resources and coordinate any actions that may be necessary with Town Meeting and town agencies.

The combined strengths of these organizations will provide the citizens of Dartmouth and New Bedford with the will and capacity to restore the estuaries so they will once again support aquatic life and recreation for future generations. “Turn the Tide” will provide the information and models necessary to allow our communities to determine the appropriate remediation work and will educate students and their parents about the dangers these conditions create (and our own role in their creation) and what restoration means. Finally, the project will provide the public outreach efforts to create a broad-based constituency to support the restoration of these estuaries.