The woman jumped into the river to look for the dead after walking to the edge of the boat.
The encrusted remains of ribbed mussels smelled like garbage and felt like mayonnaise when she found them. The muck on the bottom of the river is suffocating the plants there. Ms. Fisher had it close to her waist. She tried to get back on the boat.
Ms. Fisher said she didn't think she would sink that far. Her officers once had to pull a stranded resident out of the gunk by tying him to a boat and opening the engine.
The muck is what becomes of the toxicalga that is taking over more of Cape Cod's rivers and bays each summer.
Warming waters and rising levels of nitrogen in the air are what fuel the algal explosion. curblesscurblesscurblesscurblesscurblesscurblesscurblesscurblesscurblesscurblesscurblesscurblesscurblesscurblesscurblesscurblesscurbless
More waste means more pollution in the Cape's freshwater ponds, where it feeds a type ofbacteria that can cause illness and even death. Pets can be killed by it.
The result was expanding dead zones. Eelgrass is a buffer against storms. The water is not safe to touch. Ms. Fisher describes the smell as "earthy"
The natural features that define Cape Cod have been threatened by the changes.
Massachusetts has proposed requiring Cape communities to fix the problem within 20 years through a mix ofUpgrading the septic tanks used by homes that aren't connected to city sewer systems and building new networks of public sewer lines.
The plan would push housing costs past the means of many residents, according to local officials.
Robert Whritenour, the town administrator of Yarmouth, one of the largest towns on the Cape, told state officials that it was physically, financially and logistically impossible to meet that standard. It isn't fair.
There is an agreement about the nature of flora and fauna. A sweeping United Nations agreement to protect 30 percent of the planet's land and oceans by 2030 was approved by delegates at a meeting in Canada. The agreement comes at a time when the world's population is decreasing at an unprecedented rate.
The beginning of a new era? A group of scientists took a step towards declaring a new interval of geological time called the Anthropocene. The previous geologic period was brought to a close because of humankind's effects on the planet, according to the amended timelines.
A small nation is making diplomatic moves. The nation of Vanuatu has a population of over 300,000 people. The president wants the International Court of Justice to weigh in on whether nations are legally bound to protect themselves against climate risks.
There is a transition to renewable energy. According to the International Energy Agency, there will be double the amount of renewable power in the world in the next five years. Coal is expected to be the biggest source of electricity generation by early 2025, according to the agency.
The waters of Cape Cod need to be allowed to degrade even further if Massachusetts goes ahead with the mandate. As the climate warms and overwhelms infrastructure built for an earlier age, the decision may be a model for other coastal communities.
Paul Haley, a Cape resident who lives on a fixed income, told state officials that he couldn't afford his mortgage. I have to leave if I have to install a new system.
There is no main street or historical district in the town. It does have a lot of things.
The town is bordered by Waquoit Bay to the west, Popponesset Bay to the east, and Nantucket Sound to the south. A Native phrase means "great water."
The water draws larger houses. RobertKraft, owner of the New England Pats, is the most famous homeowner in Mashpee. Ms. Fisher said that they pulled over Rob Gronkowski for speeding on his Jet Ski. They didn't reply to the emails sent to them.
The official with the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe stood near the point where the river enters the bay. The Wampanoag have been living on Cape Cod for thousands of years and have 170 acres of reservation land.
The tribe gets hundreds of thousands of dollars a year from the catch of oysters.
The maximum safe threshold for nitrogen in the river can be reached three times.
In 2007, the water temperature in Popponesset Bay was 68.6 degrees, but this year it's 76.5 degrees. Climate change is the main culprit. She said that the rising muck has created a feedback loop because sunlight warms the river quicker as it gets deeper.
Thealgae have flourished. Their blooms suck up oxygen, suffocating the vegetation around them, and then decomposing, leading to the death of oysters. The area where the clams can grow is decreasing.
The shellfish harvest is an important part of the economy. It is a way for us to get to know each other.
It is gradually losing its charm.
The ecological toll is not restricted to the shoreline. The freshwater kettle ponds were formed by glaciers. Santuit Pond is a 170 acres of water surrounded by houses on hills. The pond looks better in the winter than it did in the summer.
It is an electric-green mess for most of the year.
There is a warning. No swimming, closed. A metal sign by the boat launch warns of the dangers of swimming. There is a sign that tells you how to identify a toxic bloom of cyanobacteria, which can look like foam, scum, mats, or paint on the surface of the water.
It's not a good idea to give it a try if you're not sure about it. Keep your pets out of the water if you see a bloom. Don't play in the water.
Andrew and his two step children live on the shore of the pond. He doesn't have to tell them to stay out of the water It's reminders that they can see what it looks like.
The pond is not poisonous all the time. The time when his children would most like to use it is when it is warm outdoors.
Phosphorous is a component in human urine and can be found in Santuit and other ponds.
The amount of nitrogen and phosphorous entering the ponds, estuaries and the bay would decrease if towns installed a sewage system that collects waste from homes and cleans it at a treatment facility.
Mr. McAdams said it would be worthwhile. It would be great to take the kids out for a fishing trip.
Brian Baumgaertel has a field full of human waste that could be of interest to planners.
Mr. Baumgaertel and his staff run sewage through a variety of contraptions in order to see what comes out of the other end.
A box in the ground is what a septic system is. Every few years, the waste is physically removed. When liquid waste is sent into the ground, gravity pulls it through the soil to remove harmfulbacteria before it reaches the water table below.
In places where homes are too sparse to justify expensive sewer and water treatment plants, the use of a sewage system is a good idea. The majority of the Cape's properties use them. They don't remove nitrogen from the air or water.
Mr. Baumgaertel has an outdoor lab for sewage management.
Mr. Baumgaertel took the cover off the underground chamber. There were wood chips andbacteria in the space. The nitrogen in the chips is turned into gas by a reaction of small bubbles on the surface of the underground gunk. Nitrogen is released into the air.
Mr. Baumgaertel wanted the bubbling human waste not to be photographed.
Nitrogen-capturing systems like the one Mr. Baumgaertel was testing could be a solution for the Cape where development is not dense enough for sewer lines. The cost is more than double the cost of a basic system.
It is too high to be the only solution for the Cape's pollution problem.
The sewer system and treatment plant would reduce the amount of nitrogen in the water to a level that most of the bays would be able to recover from.
Sewage systems are more expensive than other systems.
A few miles east of Mr. Baumgaertel, an excavator was lowering a concrete manhole into a freshly dug, 13-foot-deep trench, where it would be part of a public sewer project.
The first phase of the sewer system will take two years to complete and cost $64 million. According to Ray Jack, the town's wastewater project manager, the town's plan is to eventually build sewer lines. It will cost as much as $450 million, according to him.
The initial plan was for the construction to be spread over 25 years. They would be forced to move faster.
Mr. Jack said that they were asking for an unreasonable time frame. These costs are large.
It is not known who will pay the cost of the sewer installations and septic system upgrades needed to meet the state's water standards. Some of the money could come from a tax on vacation rentals. Some of the cost is likely to come from residents buying new systems or paying higher property taxes.
According to Christopher Kilian, a lawyer at the Conservation Law Foundation, Massachusetts law makes it illegal for towns to allow septic tanks to release pollutants into the water. If the state finalizes the new rule by the middle of January, the foundation will stop its lawsuit.
Mr. Kilian said that the priority should be fixing the problem rather than arguing about the high cost of cleaning the water.
Financial assistance should be given in cases of hardship. Allowing the pollution to continue is not a subsidy that the towns and the state can give.
The Cape's median household income is lower than the state average. A third of the population is 65 years old.
The Nature Conservancy, an environmental group that has been working with Cape officials to address water problems, said the solution needs to be affordable or it won't work elsewhere.
Emma Gildesgame, a climate adaptation scientist with the group, said that they need to be careful not to make the Cape a place where rich people can go and enjoy their clean water. It's a difficult question.
All Rights Reserved © 2024
