Cape Cod Water Protection Collaborative establishes monitoring subcommittee

The Cape Cod Water Protection Collaborative (CCWPC), a partnership between Barnstable County, the Cape Cod Commission and the 15 towns, works to protect Cape Cod’s shared water resources by supporting and promoting cost-effective and environmentally sound water quality initiatives.  The Cape Cod Commission staffs the Governing Board and its subcommittees.   In an effort to establish a regional water monitoring program, the Collaborative recently formed a Monitoring Subcommittee made up of CCWPC Governing Board members, subregional representatives, and MassDEP.

The subcommittee was established to provide guidance regarding coordination of multiple participants engaged in marine water-quality sample collection and analyses associated with monitoring nutrient-related water quality in each of Cape Cod’s 53 coastal embayments. The subcommittee will provide guidance on:

• Documenting existing embayment monitoring efforts Cape-Wide
• An approach for addressing redundancy in sample collection, if necessary
• engagement with the Barnstable County Lab for sample analysis

The subcommittee held the first of four meeting in March to discuss the history of water quality monitoring on Cape Cod. Future meetings will include a conversation with monitoring organizations, a review of sample analysis procedures and possible duplication of efforts, and a discussion with Barnstable County’s Health and Environment department regarding the capabilities of the County Lab.

Final recommendations on addressing redundancies, coordination between monitoring organizations, lab analysis recommendations and a document summarizing the history of water quality monitoring on Cape Cod will be presented to the CCWPC Governing Board by the end of the summer.