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DARTMOUTH, MA – During the summer of 2024, Buzzards Bay Coalition became one of a select few organizations nationwide to receive “certified entity” status from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Certification allows eligible entities such as land trusts that have demonstrated experience in preserving agricultural land and participating in NRCS programs administrative flexibility that can streamline projects as they move through application, enrollment and eventually closing. The end result: attracting more federal dollars for farms, getting more projects done and most importantly, more land protected.

As a result of this new status, the Coalition was able to bring the conservation of three farms to the Dartmouth Select Board for approval this fall – Tavares Farm, Jordan Farm, and Wainer Farm. The Tavares Farm conservation restriction (CR) project will protect 148 acres of land along Slades Corner Road, while allowing forestry and agricultural activities to continue. This large CR protects critical wildlife habitat and the Slocums River watershed while adding to the assemblage of protected land in the immediate area.

The CR at Jordan Farm, at the corner of Jordan and Allens Neck Roads, adds to the existing protected farmland in the area and protects the Allens Pond watershed. Farming and forestry along with vegetation management and habitat restoration are all permitted.

The Wainer Farm, also located in South Dartmouth on Barneys Joy Road, contains prime agricultural soils which will be protected by the CR due to the removal of subdivision and further development. This acquisition was done through a “Buy-Protect-Sell” transaction, in which the Coalition purchased the land, protected it with a CR, and will sell the property with the restriction that it remains farmland.

The Buttonwood Brook and Apponagansett Bay watershed was once a healthy thriving ecosystem that supported stream and wetland habitat, a productive shellfishery, and a healthy salt marsh system. Over the last century, increased development and urbanization have profoundly altered how water flows across our landscape. Instead of soaking into the ground and being filtered through soils and slowly flowing towards the Brook and Bay, untreated runoff from roads, parking lots, and roofs is now collected by stormwater pipes and quickly flows into Buttonwood Brook and its tributaries. During rainstorms a surge of polluted runoff overwhelms the Brook, degrading water quality, habitat, and ecological function. Together with groundwater pollution from septic systems, these factors contribute to and expedite the transport of pollutants to receiving waters like Apponagansett Bay, where water quality consistently ranks in the bottom 10% of all 30 major harbors and coves in Buzzards Bay.

Led by the Buzzards Bay Coalition, Buttonwood-to-Bay is a five-year EPA funded project designed to bring together local communities, non-profits, and municipalities to tackle longstanding issues that impact local water quality and community resilience. Now in its third year, Buttonwood-to-Bay represents a once in a generation opportunity to holistically assess the watershed, identify underlying issues, and mobilize the resources required to implement solutions. Buttonwood Brook is the region’s most negatively impacted urban stream flowing through one of the Bay’s most disadvantaged communities. An important goal of this project is to address environmental justice and equity issues through investments in Green Infrastructure and Ecological Restoration that directly benefit underserved communities in New Bedford and Dartmouth.

Working to Restore Habitat and Water Quality

To accomplish this task, Coalition staff have worked with project partners, stakeholders, and contracted engineers to integrate water quality data with community needs and develop a list of potential restoration sites within the watershed. Project partners used multiple criteria to identify project sites that bring the greatest benefit to the community by addressing surface and ground water pollution, climate resilience, habitat restoration, and environmental justice issues. Project partners and local stakeholders teamed up with an experienced engineering firm to prioritize the top sites for implementation over the next few years.

Right now, the Coalition is actively partnering with local municipalities, state and federal agencies, and other non-profits to advance the restoration of Buttonwood Brook and Apponagansett Bay through several grant funded projects that take a variety of approaches to improve water quality, habitat, and community resilience.

Green Infrastructure (GI) projects to reduce stormwater pollution along the Kempton Street Corridor, in Buttonwood Park, and in the Buttonwood Park Zoo. The Coalition, the City of New Bedford, and the Friends of Buttonwood Park have partnered on a project to implement GI and Nature-Based Solutions that will filter runoff and reduce harmful pollutants in local waterways, lower the potential for beach and shellfish closures, and produce important co-benefits like reduced heat-island effect, improved air-quality, and greater resilience to climate change.

Ecological restoration projects on the lowest segment of Buttonwood Brook. The Coalition is working with the Town of Dartmouth and the Dartmouth Natural Resources Trust to modify several aging dams and culverts, reconnect floodplains, and restore riparian habitat. These efforts will improve water quality and restore habitat, increase community resilience to extreme weather events, and re-establish migratory fish passage into Buttonwood Brook for the first time in over 150 years.

Connecting homes to sewer to reduce nitrogen pollution from septic systems. The Coalition and the Town of Dartmouth are working together to make it easier for residents in areas served by municipal sewer systems to connect their homes and abandon aging septic systems that leach harmful levels of nitrogen into our groundwater and negatively impact sensitive coastal ecosystems like Apponagansett Bay. This project will reduce the potential for the closure of swimming beaches or shellfishing areas caused by harmful algae blooms.

EPA SNEP has been critical to funding this project, but support from our membership and the local community is vital to the project’s success and its long-term sustainability. Join, donate, or get involved today to support our work going forward. If you have questions about the Buttonwood-to-Bay Project please contact the Project Manager, Dan Goulart at goulart@savebuzzardsbay.org or 508-999-6363 ext. 230.

For over 30 years, the Buzzards Bay Coalition water quality monitoring program has tracked trends in water quality throughout the Bay. And for more than half its harbors and coves, the trends are not good. Now the Coalition is working with partners to develop the science necessary to create plans to improve water quality in a couple key areas in Bourne and Dartmouth. 

Waters in Buzzards Bay should be clear and rich in oxygen so that fish, shellfish, and eelgrass thrive. In Apponagansett Bay and Pocasset and Red Brook Harbors, water quality has declined due to nitrogen pollution. When too much nitrogen gets into the water, it fuels the growth of algae blooms that lead to murky water, less oxygen, fewer eelgrass beds, and lower fish and shellfish populations. These conditions harm underwater life, but they also make the water pretty unappealing for people, too.  

 Ten years ago, the state recognized Pocasset Harbor and Red Brook Harbor (including Hen Cove) as having degraded water quality from nitrogen pollution, and even earlier, it identified the nitrogen pollution problem in Apponagansett Bay. Beginning in the early 2000s the Massachusetts Estuaries Project began to develop the science needed to create water quality restoration plans around Southeastern Massachusetts. Unfortunately, when the Massachusetts Estuaries Project ended, it abandoned the science for several Buzzards Bay estuaries including Pocasset and Red Brook Harbors and Apponagansett Bay. 

 In an effort to collect the science needed to create restoration plans, the Coalition began developing partnerships with scientists and researchers and obtaining state and federal grant funding in order to pick up where the Massachusetts Estuaries Project left off. The Coalition is currently working with partners from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the Marine Biological Laboratory, and the Buzzards Bay National Estuary Program on quantifying nitrogen pollution in Pocasset/Red Brook Harbor and Apponagansett Bay. 

The biggest source of nitrogen pollution to both areas is home septic systems. Traditional septic systems remove bacteria, but do little to remove nitrogen. Nitrogen seeps into the groundwater and ends up in our waterways. When there are lots of homes on septic systems in coastal communities, they become a big problem for the health of our waterways. Other smaller sources of nitrogen include stormwater funneling nitrogen from paved surfaces to waterways when it rains, fertilizer running off lawns and farm fields and burning of fossil fuels, which puts nitrogen oxides into the air that eventually fall back onto the land as acid rain. 

Scientists at the Buzzards Bay National Estuary Program are using mapping tools to identify the nitrogen coming from all the sources on land and scientists at the Marine Biological Laboratory are collecting data to determine the amount of nitrogen coming from marine sediments. Oceanographers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution are modeling how ocean tides and currents move the nitrogen once it’s in the water. Coalition scientists will be bringing all this data, along with its water quality monitoring records, together to provide the towns and Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) with the information they need to set targets for how much nitrogen Pocasset/Red Brook Harbor and Apponagansett Bay can handle while remaining healthy. Final reports for both harbors will be released in early 2025. 

Partial support for this work is being provided by grants from the Southeast New England Program (SNEP), MassDEP, and the Zeien Family Foundation. Federal Funds for the project came from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to MassDEP under a s. 604(b) Water Quality Management Planning Grant and to Restore America’s Estuaries under a SNEP Watershed Implementation Grant.  The contents of this article do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of EPA or of MassDEP, nor does the mention of trade names or commercial products constitute endorsement or recommendation for use. 

Building on the momentum of an epic spring, which included more than 400 New Bedford Public School (NBPS) students exploring Buzzards Bay on the Schooner Ernestina Morrissey and 595 young people from the NBPS SeaLab program spending the day on Cuttyhunk, the Onset Bay Center (OBC) had its busiest summer ever. 

The Center’s new launch, christened, ‘Bufflehead,’ arrived just in time for the summer season and immediately became an invaluable resource. The vessel gives OBC far greater flexibility in programming and enables more participants to get out on the water more quickly, including those with disabilities.  

Over $30,000 in scholarship assistance was awarded to summer program attendees, ensuring that the Center continues to fulfill its promise of providing access to outdoor exploration opportunities to those who might not otherwise have them.  The Bay Explorers program and full-day sailing programs operated at maximum capacity for the entire season with a record 777 participants. 

This summer also marked an important milestone for some past program participants, where they “graduated” to OBC seasonal staff roles. 

Diamond Staton, a Bay Explorers Lead Instructor, shared, “I started my journey at the Onset Bay Center from when I was little. As a local kid, I came here as a Bay Explorer and loved every bit of it … and decided I wanted to apply for a job here. I started working as a Junior Instructor and practiced leading the groups, and this summer I was asked to complete some training to become a Lead Instructor. I thought that was a big opportunity! This summer, I led my own Explorer group, and it was so fun! The kids always had smiles on their faces, and there was always laughter in my group.” 

Jorge Orne, also from Wareham, had a similar experience, “When I first started working at the Onset Bay Center in 2023, I was very timid and uncertain of myself in my ability to do a decent job – even though I’ve lived in Onset my entire life, know the Bay like the back of my hand, and have a passion for paddling … We focus a lot on community, and that has really pushed me out of my shell and motivated me to produce my best work at the Onset Bay Center. Being able to educate kids on Onset Bay, doing something that is of value to my community, has been such a big joy in my life, and something I never thought I’d be able to do … The Onset Bay Center has been a wonderful experience, and being employed there has opened me up to new passions, and interests that will pave the way to my future career!” 

The end of the summer season marks a transition, but not an end, to programming at the Center.  The team will continue to work closely with Wareham Public Schools on experiential learning initiatives, including field trips and after-school programs, including Bay Explorers and a youth sailing club. 

As we gear-up for our 18th annual Buzzards Bay Coalition Watershed RIDE on October 6th, we asked 16-year veteran rider and former BBC Board member Drew Dimmick for his thoughts on the ride and what it means to him. 

We are days away from the ASICS Falmouth Road Race, and Team Buzzards Bay is gearing up to make every mile count for our Bay. One of our standout team members, Tony Williams, Director of Monitoring Programs, has been a dedicated part of the Buzzards Bay Coalition since the summer of 1996 when he joined our staff. With over five years of running the Falmouth Road Race with Team Buzzards Bay, Tony’s commitment to both the race and the Coalition’s mission is truly inspiring.

We sat down with Tony to get his perspective on this iconic road race, fundraising, and the Coalition. Read on for this interview as well as how you can donate and support Team Buzzards Bay in the 52^nd running of the ASICS Falmouth Road Race.

Be sure to add Sunday, October 6th to your calendar, and cross the Buzzards Bay Watershed Ride off of your biking bucket list!

Credit: Photo by Erik Pendzich

In a recently released video from the Buzzards Bay Coalition, Emmy and Golden Globe Award-winning actor Sam Waterston warns residents of southeastern Massachusetts that nitrogen pollution from septic systems continues to put serious stress on the Bay’s ecosystem. The video also explains what residents and communities can do to tackle the problem.

In the video, which can be found on the Coalition’s YouTube channel, Waterston explains that in the case of the Bay and nitrogen, “Too much of a good thing is a bad thing,” and that there are actions homeowners can take to mitigate its impact. Nitrogen naturally occurs in the Bay and other waterways, but when overly abundant, it fuels the growth of algae – algae that robs fish, shellfish, eelgrass, and other marine life of the oxygen needed to survive.  The culprit behind all of this – wastewater from septic systems making its way into the groundwater and, ultimately, the Bay.

More than 50,000 homes in the Bay’s watershed are on Title V septic systems, which do nothing to remove nitrogen levels. According to the video, solutions include more homes hooking up to municipal sewer, and where that’s not an option, for homeowners to upgrade their septic system to one that’s purpose-built to reduce nitrogen.  Connecting more homes in our area to modern, municipal wastewater treatment systems, or sewer plants, is the best way to cleanup Bay water quality.

“We’re so grateful that Sam contributed his time and talent to help us spread the word about this important issue. We know that people want to be better stewards of our local environment, and the goal of this video is to give them more information on what that might look like,” noted Coalition president Mark Rasmussen.

The video was edited by Westport-native Chloe Mangold, a film and television producer now working in California. Both Chloe and Sam donated their time to this video project.

In the interest of Swimmer safety, we are required to cancel the 31st Annual Buzzards Bay SWIM scheduled for tomorrow morning, June 22nd. The event has been cancelled due to the threat of discharge of Combined Sewer Overflows (CSO) from the antiquated New Bedford Wastewater Treatment System into the Harbor.

Weather forecasts are calling for more than a half an inch of rain overnight. That volume of rain in a short period of time overtaxes the aging New Bedford sewer system and results in the discharge of raw sewage from up to 27 pipes along the City’s coastline. And when this happens within one tidal cycle of the Swim start, the decision to cancel the Swim becomes not a choice, but an obligation to protect the health of all of our Swimmers.

The City of New Bedford has invested nearly half a Billion dollars in the past 29 years to upgrade and improve its wastewater system. Our Swimmers have seen these improvements in the water first hand; the Harbor is dramatically cleaner than it was when we began the SWIM in 1993, but this problem persists and needs even more advocacy to finish the work of ridding the Bay forever of raw sewage discharges.

Everyone here at the Coalition is disappointed that we had to make this cancellation. We have dodged this bullet for 31 years – never having to cancel the event for this reason until today.

Longtime participant in the Buzzards Bay Swim and Coalition Leadership Council member Larry Fish wanted to do something special for this year’s Buzzards Bay Swim – something that would reflect his love for the event and his desire to get others as excited as he is by the collective difference we make for the Bay.

He has generously offered up a week (seven days/six nights) in Hawaii at his Honolulu home, with airfare paid for two, to help catalyze additional fundraising as we enter the final week before the Swim. In short, any swimmer who’s raised $1,000 or more for the Swim by noon on Friday, June 21^st will be eligible to win the trip to Hawaii, and any individual who makes a gift (or who’s already made a gift) of $1,000 or more prior to that deadline will also be entered. The winner will be drawn at the Swim’s finish line party on June 22^nd.

Support your favorite swimmer or make your own leading gift here.

LOCATION

The two bedroom, two bath residence is located at Hokua, features unobstructed ocean views, and is perfectly situated at the forefront of Kakaako – adjacent to Ala Moana Shopping Center and Ward Village Shops on either side. Ala Moana Beach Park is directly across the street for beach access. Whole Foods and Foodland Farms provide walkable (five minutes) fresh grocery options. High-end restaurants Merrimans and Nobu are a five minute walk in addition to Panya and Tango which are located on the building’s ground floor.