Due to high bacteria counts, the state Division of Marine Fisheries closed portions of two large Island ponds to shellfishing this week - one up-Island and the other down-Island.
The closures are effective immediately in part of the Tisbury Great Pond and at Major's Cove in Sengekontacket Pond, although town leaders have not yet received official letters of notification.
Putting in Place a Plan to Save Our Ponds Costly and Politically Tricky, Forum Hears
By CHRIS BURRELL
By the time anyone notices that a coastal pond or bay is choked with floating drifts of green algae, the events that caused it happened decades ago.
Nitrogen leaching from septic systems and runoff of pollutants from black-topped roadways and parking lots did their damage 20 or 30 years ago, said marine scientist Brian L. Howes, a professor at University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth.
Eight months after town health officials first detected a contaminated plume running beneath Edgartown Meadows subdivision, they are turning their
A new round of private well tests in an Edgartown neighborhood this week intensified the mystery for Island officials working to pinpoint the sourc
Edgartown, Oak Bluffs, Vineyard Haven and West Tisbury town officials received their marching orders this month - recommendations for steps these I
Lagoon Woes Seen Years Ago
1987 Report on Water Quality Found Problems ‘Particularly During the Summer Months'; Recommended Dredging
A comprehensive study documented water quality problems in the Lagoon Pond 16 years ago, but the recommendations from the study - including a dredging program - were never carried out because of a lack of funding.