The Three Bays

The Three Bays watershed, like many coastal estuaries on Cape Cod, is severely degraded by nitrogen and bacteria resulting in poor water quality, impaired habitat, and closures of beaches and shellfish areas. Stormwater runoff and fertilizer use contribute over 20 percent of the nitrogen entering the bays resulting in algal blooms, fish kills, and bacteria contamination that regularly impact fishermen and beachgoers. Through this project, locations for stormwater improvements were identified and prioritized for the town and seven top priority sites addressed through installation of nine “green” infrastructure systems to treat and remove pollution from runoff before the water reaches the bays.

This six-year project was completed as a collaborative effort by APCC, the town of Barnstable Department of Public Works, and Horsley Witten Group with support from many other community and non-profit partners. The team was awarded $1,067,574 by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Southeast New England Program watershed grants through collaboration with Restore America’s Estuaries and $837,896 from the Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management Coastal Pollutant Remediation grant program to support this project.

APCC’s Ecosystem Restoration Program managed the project from start to finish, organized, and conducted outreach activities, coordinated closely with the project team, and tracked project progress and success. The project team also collectively provided a total of over $300,000 additional in-kind contributions bringing the total project value to greater than $2.2 million. 

The Three Bays Watershed Partner Logos

Stormwater Education and Outreach

Throughout the project there were multiple opportunities for the public to get involved to learn more about the impacts of stormwater on water quality in the bays, help with demonstration projects, monitoring and maintenance, and provide input into the project. For more information on the Town of Barnstable water resource management go to: https://barnstablewaterresources.com/stormwater/.