Without wastewater treatment facilities, Island ponds could be in worse shape. Estuaries suffer from nitrogen overload, coming mostly from septic systems that remove bacteria but not nitrogen.
A few hundred alternative systems are installed on Martha's Vineyard, mostly in Edgartown and Oak Bluffs. The technology could help achieve nitrogen mitigation in Island coastal ponds.
All the saltwater ponds on the Vineyard are impaired to some degree, and each one faces a unique set of conditions. Public interest has reached a tipping point.
Sengekontacket Pond has been closed to shellfishing because of rainfall received earlier this week.
While the Vineyard is perhaps best known for the ocean, Vineyarders have deep ties to the ponds that were carved into the Island landscape some 20,000 years ago.
The draw began with duck hunting in the early 1900s. Tisbury Great Pond was a haven for waterfowl, and wealthy Boston gentlemen took notice.