The Mashpee Select Board, this week, decided the time has come to approach the town’s residents about funding a wastewater initiative after being presented data on the condition of the water in Popponesset and Waquoit Bays.
The Mashpee Enterprise reports that water samples taken from the bays indicates the quality has deteriorated significantly with no signs of improvement.
A researcher at UMass-Dartmouth’s School of Marine Science and Technology, Brian Howes, collected the samples during the summer of 2017. He told the board the presence of nitrogen in the bays represents some of the worst conditions he has seen in the twenty years data has been collected.
A new wastewater facility is expected to have an overall price tag of $250 million and take 25 years to complete.