State of the Waters Action Plan

Great progress has been made on developing the necessary understanding, scope and nature of estuarine water quality problems as well as the realistic and cost-effective management options. Development of the Cape Cod Commission’s 208-water quality report was the turning point that enabled recent progress on implementation to begin. The 208 report identified, but did not address, the need for an equivalent level of assessment of the water quality of the ponds of Cape Cod. The expanded monitoring APCC has undertaken the last few years underscores and makes plain the need for a Cape-wide assessment of, and strategy for the restoration of, freshwater pond water quality. In 2022, Barnstable County answered APCC’s call by creating funding for the Cape Cod Freshwater Initiative, which resulted in the Cape Cod Commission being able to obtain and undertake an analysis of monitoring data to assess the health of the Cape’s freshwater lakes and ponds. The initiative is helping establish a regional plan for improving the quality of the Cape’s freshwater resources. Since the initiative was created, a lot has been achieved and details on progress can be found on the Cape Cod Commission’s website (Freshwater Initiative Progress).

Of course, public involvement is essential. Residents should support municipal investments in local water quality improvement projects. The participation of citizen groups and individuals is necessary to achieve local and regional water quality improvement goals. Be aware of your role in the health of Cape Cod’s water resources. Individual actions by homeowners and businesses—both by the actions you take on your property and by making sure your voice is heard in the local decision-making process—can make a difference in the protection of Cape Cod’s water resources.

Because the quality of groundwater directly affects the quality of the Cape’s coastal embayments, ponds and drinking water, many of the following recommendations in this action plan focus on groundwater protection and crosscut all three resource areas studied in the State of the Waters: Cape Cod report. Action at the municipal level is most impactful and this plan emphasizes municipal actions and the importance of residents in forcing action at the town level.

Recommended Actions for Coastal Embayments

For Municipalities:
Comprehensive Wastewater Management Planning:

• Towns should proceed with actions detailed in watershed permit applications filed to meet MassDEP’s updated regulations for nitrogen sensitive areas on Cape Cod (https://www.mass.gov/regulations/314-CMR-2100-watershed-permit-regulations). As of August 2025, 14 of the 15 towns on Cape Cod have submitted a Notice of Intent (https://www.mass.gov/doc/watershed-permit-application-table/download).
• Towns with plans that are consistent with the Cape Cod 208 Plan must begin to implement their long-term strategy for managing wastewater and improving water quality in the town’s watersheds.
• Towns whose plans include shared estuary watersheds should adopt intermunicipal agreements that establish nitrogen responsibility and cooperative wastewater management strategies. Obtaining a state-issued Watershed Permit will provide additional accountability and enforceability.
  • Dedicate at least 50 percent of short-term rental tax revenue to infrastructure investments that include wastewater infrastructure and use the revenue to fund appropriate programs.
  • Develop financing plans that take full advantage of 0 percent loans from the State Revolving Fund (SRF) and the principal forgiveness offered by the Cape and Islands Water Protection Fund.
  • Expand monitoring of embayment restoration efforts to assess the effectiveness of management measures. Results should be used for adaptive management and course correction if needed.
  • Adopt local zoning bylaws and planning policies that direct future growth at greater densities in strategic locations where wastewater infrastructure can support additional development. Adopt local zoning bylaws, regulations and policies that direct growth away from sensitive watershed areas that do not have supportive wastewater infrastructure.
  • Prioritize acquisition of permanently protected open space in sensitive watersheds to help minimize additional future nutrient pollution impacts in coastal embayments, consistent with recommendations in APCC’s “Hanging in the Balance” report and the Cape We Shape Campaign.
  • Prioritize water resources protection in municipal regulatory review. Establish consistency across town boards and commissions regarding municipal bylaws and regulations relating to water resource protection. For example, local planning boards, boards of health and conservation commissions should adopt the same regulations for requiring advanced denitrifying septic systems for development and redevelopment in nitrogen-sensitive watersheds.
  • Explore viable, alternative wastewater treatment strategies to augment municipal investments in wastewater infrastructure.
  • Stormwater planning and treatment:
• Complete and implement stormwater plans (i.e., mapping, stormwater pollution prevention plan, bylaws, elimination of illicit discharges, prioritizing stormwater projects, funding maintenance) and include all roads that drain to wetlands and waters. Address both nutrients and bacteria.
• Invest in stormwater remediation efforts in every road project going forward. Prioritize projects with the greatest water quality benefit. Adopt stormwater best management practices that include low impact development techniques.
• Use the revised 208 Technologies Matrix that now includes stormwater Best Management Practices (BMPs) and their removal efficiencies for pollutants (including nutrients, bacteria and solids) to select BMPs for projects.
  • Maintain adequate natural vegetated buffer zones around roads and parking lots near water bodies to capture stormwater runoff.
  • Eliminate fertilizer and pesticide use on municipal properties. Establish fertilizer and pesticide reduction outreach programs for residents and businesses, including a call for residents to eliminate fertilizer use.
  • Upgrade municipal floats to have encapsulated flotation and consider establishing policies and regulations to eliminate exposed Styrofoam flotation for docks and floats. Support ecological restoration programs and projects that will improve water quality and habitat.
  • Incorporate climate change into pond monitoring, planning and protection.

For Homeowners/Business Owners:

• Organize locally and demand action by town officials to protect and restore coastal embayments. Demand that town officials to act swiftly in implementing watershed permits consistent with MassDEP’s updated regulations for nitrogen sensitive areas on Cape Cod.
• Press town officials to prioritize municipal acquisition of permanently protected open space in sensitive watersheds to help minimize additional future nutrient pollution impacts in coastal embayments, consistent with recommendations in APCC’s “Hanging in the Balance” report. Support those open space acquisitions at town meeting.
• At town meetings and the ballot box, support municipal investments in wastewater infrastructure and the use of viable, alternative wastewater treatment strategies to augment the development of wastewater infrastructure.
• Don’t dump contaminants down house drains. Household chemicals, paints, thinners, solvents, pharmaceuticals and other hazardous materials can leach into groundwater and pollute water bodies. Properly dispose of hazardous waste during designated collection days at local transfer stations.
• Eliminate the use of fertilizers and pesticides on your property. Reduce, or better yet, eliminate turf grass lawns and replace with native plantings, and where lawn is needed, make it a Cape Cod lawn.
• Encourage your town, local school and golf courses to reduce or eliminate fertilizer and pesticide use.
• For coastal waterfront properties, establish protective buffers of native vegetation at least 100 feet deep along shorelines to reduce the potential for stormwater runoff.
• Work to achieve zero stormwater runoff from your property. Direct roof runoff from downspouts away from paved areas. Install rain gardens to capture runoff, and rain barrels to harvest water for landscape use. Maximize permeable areas and native plantings that help absorb stormwater and prevent water runoff to roadways.
• Work with your neighborhood association to address stormwater problems and ensure proper maintenance of stormwater controls on private roads, especially where stormwater directly discharges into embayments.
• Help your town properly maintain stormwater systems and report problems, remove debris and litter around storm drains. Never dump oil or other contaminants down storm drains.
• Encourage your town to use pervious surfaces where feasible, and allow roadside vegetation to grow instead of mowing, so it can filter stormwater pollutants.
• Be a responsible boater. Never dump trash or debris overboard. Discharge of any boat sewage, whether treated or not, is prohibited by federal and state law in coastal waters. Use designated pump out facilities.
• Upgrade floats to have encapsulated flotation and encourage neighbors and your municipality to do the same. Raise awareness of the threat exposed Styrofoam flotation poses to our waterways from contributing to microplastics into the environment.
• If using an on-site septic system, maintain it properly by having it pumped regularly—every three years is recommended. Consider an advanced wastewater treatment system to treat nutrients.

For State Government:

• Through MassDEP, assist towns in their implementation of watershed permits that provide actionable plans for restoring impaired marine embayments that are consistent with the state’s updated septic regulations for Cape Cod.
• Increase state funding of SRF loans to ensure that towns have continued access to needed capital resources for implementation.
• Utilize and support watershed permitting for municipalities that promotes and addresses effective alternative technologies for wastewater treatment, requires sewering if alternatives do not work, and that also assures enforceability.
• Prioritize investments in stormwater control for state roads that improve water quality by removing nutrients as well as bacteria when allocating funding for state road infrastructure projects.
• Provide timely reporting on the state’s list of impaired waters.
• Support monitoring harmful algal blooms (HABs) in both marine and freshwater environments and address causes of HABs using ecologically safe methods.
• Provide additional state funding to the county and municipalities for water quality improvement projects and for monitoring programs.
• Support ecological restoration programs and projects that will improve water quality and habitat.

For Regional Government:

• Expand investment of resources to focus on regional water quality efforts.
• Invest in monitoring and regional data collection and the dissemination of collected data.
• Provide evaluation of efficacy of alternative Title 5 systems.
• Help focus municipal efforts on water quality restoration on the potential benefits of acting regionally and learning from best practices from across the region.
• Aggressively publicize availability of variable rate (0-4 percent) County loans for sewer connections and septic upgrades.
• Discourage further development in areas not currently or planned to be serviced by sewer.
• Support ecological restoration programs and projects that will improve water quality and habitat.

Recommended Actions for Ponds

For Municipalities:

• Make protection of ponds and restoration of pond water quality a priority. Initiate detailed assessments of water quality for every pond, including promoting and supporting citizen water quality monitoring projects for ponds, including monitoring for cyanobacteria blooms.
• Actively participate in the development, adoption and implementation of the Cape Cod Freshwater Initiative to protect and restore the Cape’s lakes and ponds.
• Participate in the Cape Cod Pond Monitoring Program.
• Accelerate nutrient management, including sewering and use of community scale shared septic systems like Mashpee is doing in the Mashpee Wakeby watershed, of pond watersheds to improve pond water quality.
• Establish and maintain, in partnership with APCC, a cyanobacteria monitoring program and companion public notice protocol that ensures the public is advised of the presence of cyanobacteria blooms and provided with real-time guidance on the need to restrict contact with ponds with high cyano levels.
• Eliminate fertilizer and pesticide use on municipal properties. Establish fertilizer and pesticide reduction outreach programs for residents and businesses, including a call for residents to eliminate fertilizer use.
• Adopt local bylaws and regulations that increase protections of ponds. Require placement of septic systems at least 300 feet back from the edge of a pond when located on the up-gradient side of groundwater flow toward a pond. Develop homeowner financial assistance programs for upgrading wastewater treatment to comply with updated pond-front septic regulations.
• Invest in stormwater remediation efforts around ponds. Adopt stormwater best management practices that include low impact development (LID) techniques. Conduct routine street sweeping and catch basin cleaning to help prevent sediments and contaminants from reaching water bodies through stormwater. Maintain up-to-date GIS mapping and ground-truthing of storm drain locations. Maintain adequate natural vegetated buffer zones around roads and parking lots near ponds to capture stormwater. Conduct the comprehensive stormwater management and implementation described above in the section for coastal embayments.
• Establish consistency across town boards and commissions regarding municipal regulations and bylaws relating to water resource protection. For example, local planning boards, boards of health and conservation commissions should adopt consistent language for septic system technologies and siting in proximity to ponds.
• Weigh the pros and cons of pond management options such as alum treatment, macrophyte (vegetation) removal, or dredging to improve a pond’s water quality. Each pond is unique, therefore methods to address water quality issues should be carefully considered.
• Prioritize permanently protected open space acquisition of pond-front property as well as property within pond watersheds to help minimize additional future nutrient pollution impacts, consistent with recommendations in APCC’s “Hanging in the Balance” report.
• Adopt site plan review standards that take topography into account. Require appropriate setbacks from water bodies and minimize impervious surfaces.
• Incorporate climate change into pond monitoring, planning and protection.
• Support ecological restoration programs and projects that will improve water quality and habitat.
• Sponsor pond education and stewardship programs.
• Consider policies and regulations requiring encapsulated flotation on floats used in ponds.

For Homeowners/Business Owners: 

• Organize locally, and demand action by town officials to restore and protect ponds.
• At town meeting and the ballot box, support municipal investments to restore and protect pond water quality.
• Support the adoption of local bylaws and regulations that increase protection of ponds.
• Upgrade your septic system so that it is at least 300 feet back from the edge of a pond when located on the upgradient side of groundwater flow toward a pond.
• Eliminate the use of fertilizers and pesticides on your property.
• Reduce, or better yet, eliminate turf grass lawns and replace with native plantings and where lawn is needed, make it a Cape Cod lawn.
• Encourage your town, local schools and golf courses to reduce or eliminate fertilizer and pesticide use.
• Don’t dump contaminants down house drains. Household chemicals, paints, thinners, solvents, pharmaceuticals and other hazardous materials can leach into groundwater and pollute water bodies. Properly dispose of hazardous waste during designated collection days at local transfer stations.
• Work to achieve zero stormwater runoff from your property. Direct roof runoff from downspouts away from paved areas. Install rain gardens or rain barrels to collect water. Maximize permeable areas and native plantings that help absorb stormwater and prevent water runoff to roads.
• Establish protective vegetative buffers of native vegetation at least 100 feet wide along pond shorelines to reduce the potential for stormwater runoff to a pond.
• Consistent with recommendations in APCC’s “Hanging in the Balance” report, tell town officials to prioritize municipal acquisition of permanently protected open space of property with pond frontage or within pond watersheds, and support open space acquisitions at town meeting. Support open space efforts by local land trusts that protect ponds.
• Help organize and participate in citizen water quality monitoring projects for area ponds, including monitoring for cyanobacteria blooms.
• For homeowners, become active in your local pond association, or if there isn’t one for your pond, start one.
• Work with your neighborhood association to address stormwater problems and ensure proper maintenance of stormwater controls on private roads, especially where stormwater directly discharges into ponds.
• Help your town properly maintain stormwater systems and report problems, remove debris and litter around storm drains. Never dump oil or other contaminants down storm drains.
• Encourage your town to use more pervious surfaces in place of pavement and to allow roadside vegetation to grow instead of mowing it so it can filter pollutants from stormwater.
• Pick up after pets and deposit waste in the trash. Pet waste can introduce harmful bacteria and other pathogens into ponds.
• Do not wash cars on paved driveways or parking lots, which allows oil, fuel and soap to make their way into ponds.
• Be a responsible boater. Never dump trash or debris overboard.
• Attend education workshops to learn more about pond issues and how you and your community can protect ponds.
• Upgrade floats to have encapsulated flotation and encourage neighbors and the municipality to do the same. Raise awareness of the threat exposed Styrofoam flotation poses to our ponds.
• If using an on-site septic system, maintain it properly by having it pumped regularly—every three years is recommended. Consider an advanced wastewater treatment system to treat nutrients.

For State Government:

• Increase funding to municipalities and nonprofits for pond restoration, management and monitoring initiatives. Increase funding to state agencies—e.g., the Department of Conservation and Recreation—for management of ponds under state control.
• Increase state funding levels for the SRF program.
• Develop better protocols for monitoring of, and responding quickly to, toxic cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) blooms that could impact public health and ecosystems. Work with municipalities and environmental nonprofits to develop standardized monitoring and reporting programs.
• Establish Total Daily Maximum Loads (TMDLs) for phosphorus for high priority Cape Cod ponds.
• Support ecological restoration programs and projects that will improve water quality and habitat.
• Provide timely reporting on the state’s list of impaired waters.
• Incorporate climate change into pond monitoring, planning and protection.

For Regional Government:

• Continue support for the Cape Cod Freshwater Initiative, which includes a comprehensive focus on pond water quality similar to the county’s focus on the nutrient problem in Cape Cod embayments.
• Support ecological restoration programs and projects that will improve water quality and habitat.
• Incorporate climate change into pond monitoring, planning and protection.

Recommended Actions for Drinking Water Supplies

For Municipalities:

• Make protection of water supply sources a municipal priority, with special consideration to climate change impacts (e.g., extended periods of drought).
• Adopt local bylaws and regulations that increase protection of public water supplies, such as natural resource protection zoning, restriction of uses that involve hazardous materials storage or use, standards for construction projects, and waste disposal procedures.
• Prioritize acquisition of permanently protected open space in public water supply areas to protect water quality, consistent with recommendations in APCC’s “Hanging in the Balance” report.
• In addition to new state regulations requiring testing for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), expand public water supply sampling to include testing for unregulated contaminants of emerging concern that are more likely to be present in the region.
• Conduct or update the town’s source water assessment and protection (SWAP) plan to rate the susceptibility of public drinking water supplies compared to the collected inventory of likely contamination threats, such as gas stations, landfills and other uses. Make the assessment available to the public on the town’s website. Adopt measures to address specific risks to the water supply area.
• Promote water conservation and limited outdoor watering to protect source water.
• Encourage and promote homeowners and businesses to use native species in landscaping and to reduce or eliminate lawns to reduce use of fertilizers, pesticides and water. Do the same for municipal properties such as offices, public parks, schools and other landscaped areas.
• Improve water supply infrastructure to ensure high water quality delivery standards for homeowners and businesses.
  Identify and address stormwater runoff sources that could carry contaminants to drinking water supplies.
• Develop, update and implement contingency planning strategies that address water supply contamination or emergency service interruptions.
• Adopt public education programs to increase awareness of threats to drinking water sources, encourage source water protection, and build support for local water protection initiatives. Inform businesses and households that are located within a water supply protection area.
• Incorporate climate change into the town’s water resource planning and protection.

For Homeowners/Business Owners:

• Organize locally and demand action by town officials to protect water supplies.
• At town meeting and at the ballot box, support investments to improve water supply protection.
• Support the adoption of local regulations that increase protection of water supplies, such as natural resource protection zoning, restriction of uses that involve the storage or use of hazardous materials, and other protective measures.
• Tell town officials to prioritize acquisition of open space in water supply areas to protect water quality, consistent with recommendations in APCC’s “Hanging in the Balance” report. Support local land trust efforts to acquire open space that protects water supplies.
• Know where your town’s water supply protection areas are located. If your home or business is located within a water supply protection area, avoid activities in and around your home or business that could pollute the groundwater beneath it. Even a small spill of a hazardous substance (see the list below) can cause major contamination of groundwater.
• Don’t dump hazardous substances down the drain. Household chemicals, paints, thinners, solvents, pharmaceuticals and other hazardous materials can leach into groundwater and drinking water supplies. Properly dispose of hazardous waste during designated collection days at local transfer stations.
• Work to achieve zero stormwater runoff from your property. Direct roof runoff from downspouts away from paved areas. Install rain gardens to capture stormwater, and rain barrels to collect water. Maximize permeable areas and native plantings that help absorb stormwater and prevent water runoff to roads.
• Eliminate the use of fertilizers and pesticides. Reduce, or better yet, eliminate turf grass lawns. Encourage your town, local school and golf courses to reduce or eliminate fertilizer and pesticide use.
• Conserve water usage inside and outside your house or business. For example, avoid watering the lawn during summertime drought conditions. Plant drought tolerant native species and reduce your need for irrigation.
• If using a private well, conduct regular testing, including testing for contaminants of emerging concern that are more likely to occur in the region.
• Maintain your on-site septic system properly by having it pumped regularly—every three years is recommended. Consider an advanced wastewater treatment system to treat nutrients.

For State Government:

• Adopt more protective standards to address unregulated contaminants and contaminants of emerging concern.
• Expand the number of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) regulated by the state that public water suppliers are required to monitor.
• Incorporate climate change into water resource planning and protection. Pass legislation to establish a state drought management plan to protect water supplies.
• Adopt a drought management law that authorizes the state to implement consistent water conservation measures across affected regions during times of drought.
• Enforce requirements that prioritize the protection of the Upper Cape Water Supply Reserve over all other uses.

For Regional Government:

• Maintain, and where possible, improve, rigorous protections of drinking water supply areas within the Cape Cod Commission’s regulatory review jurisdiction.
• Clean up municipal drinking water supplies in locations where county-controlled activities are responsible for contaminating groundwater.
• Incorporate climate change into water resource planning and protection.

Success Stories

Despite the challenges and the need for much greater action in every town, there have been some successes in addressing nutrient pollution. These successes include the following:

• Passage of state legislation in 2018 that established the Cape Cod and Islands Water Protection Fund to provide a non-property tax-based source of funds to help Cape Cod and the Islands pay for necessary wastewater infrastructure and water quality remediation efforts. Through 2025, this fund has provided $309 million to nine towns to assist them with wastewater management and to provide dollar-for-dollar property tax relief to residents of Barnstable County.
• Barnstable County’s alternative septic system testing center has been testing the efficacy of different alternative septic systems and has identified several as being potentially useful.
• Wastewater management projects funded in Chatham, Falmouth, Mashpee, Barnstable, Yarmouth, Dennis, Harwich, Orleans, and Provincetown.
• Alternative wastewater treatment methods are being tested or utilized in towns across Cape Cod.
• Partnering agreements between towns to share public wastewater treatment facilities (e.g., Harwich and Chatham), including first-ever sewers installed in Harwich.
• In response to revisions to Title 5 state’s septic code, 14 of the 15 towns on Cape Cod are seeking a Watershed Permit.
• Intermunicipal agreement between Mashpee, Sandwich and Barnstable for nitrogen load sharing for the cleanup of Popponesset Bay.
• Intermunicipal agreement under development between Mashpee, Falmouth, and Sandwich for nitrogen load sharing mitigation for Waquoit Bay.
• Pond restoration success stories have been compiled by the Cape Cod Commission. Success stories for freshwater ponds are fewer because ponds have not received the attention that coastal embayments have received.
• Cape Cod Commission also has an estuarine watershed report for each major watershed on the Cape.
• Barnstable County Cape Cod AquiFund offers sliding scale 0% to 4% interest betterment loans to Cape Cod homeowners faced with the cost of repairing or replacing failed septic systems, upgrading to alternative septic system technologies, as well as connecting to municipal sewers.
• The following towns have passed home rule petitions (HRPs) to reduce pesticide use: Eastham (2024), Orleans (2023), Truro (2025), and Wellfleet (2024).
• The following towns have passed HRPs to reduce fertilizer use: Orleans (2022) and Wellfleet (2025). Chatham and Falmouth have instituted local fertilizer regulations.
• The town of Orleans also passed a resolution to be a pollinator-friendly community that avoids pesticide use and promotes more native species.
• Additional water quality improvement success stories can be found on the Cape Cod Commission’s website.

Finally, ecological restoration projects provide benefits for water quality as well as ecological benefits for fish and wildlife habitat. There are numerous ongoing wetland and riverine restoration projects on Cape Cod, including but not limited to the Herring River in Wellfleet, Frost Fish Creek in Chatham, and Jones Lane in Sandwich. Additionally, APCC was awarded $15 million through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Transformational Habitat Grant to fund planning and/or implementation of wetland and riverine habitat restoration in Weir Creek Salt Marsh (Dennis), Oyster Pond Salt Marsh (Falmouth, West Falmouth Harbor), Hinckleys Pond (Harwich), and Red Brook and Quashnet River (Mashpee). Several other restoration projects that are completed include Parkers River tidal restoration, Childs River freshwater wetland restoration, Coonamessett River restoration, Sesuit Creek salt marsh restoration, Three Bays stormwater remediation project, and Stony Brook salt marsh and fish passage restoration. APCC’s Ecosystem Restoration Program is involved in many of these projects and provides Cape Cod communities with assistance in planning and implementing successful restoration projects. For more information on restoration projects on Cape Cod, visit APCC’s website.