Natural Resources and Water Quality

Water Quality Impacts

Important to know areas where there could be breeches in the harbor.
Are cars impacting breeches?
Fertilizers are still contaminating the harbor.
Large increase in pools on the island; the pools are heading into our freshwater.
Wastewater, septic systems, runoff, and direct boat use in the harbor is impacting water quality.
How many more boats are there from 15 years ago? Need a study.
Additional homes exacerbate all water quality issues.
Pesticide roundup; may not be able to stop the sale of roundup; want to eliminate it from the island.
The water quality has gone down in the harbor almost every year since the 1980s.
Recreational boating wastewater could be contributing to water quality problems.
Painters are disposing their toxic materials in the drains; the Town doesn’t want a building where they can put their toxic waste; there are only six toxic waste disposals a year; need a biohazard site.
There are a lot of non-compliant septic systems; they need to get them fixed or pay a fine.
Could it be helpful to flush the harbor occasionally (open it up); should we do a circulation study on this?
Anywhere without a lot of tidal flushing (or pockets) has significantly more pollution (Polpis Harbor); sand has been restricting flushing at the top of the harbor.
Stores are still selling products with phosphorus.

At the top of the harbor, in 2009 there was a small amount of eelgrass, spider crabs, fish, etc.; now there is no eelgrass left, no spider crabs, only algae.
Spartina (salt marshes) have been depleting; we will have storms where sand covers the salt marsh and kills them (spartina is under the dune).
Where is the salt marsh going to retreat to; Nantucket Foundation just started looking more into salt marsh retreating and finding ways for the marsh to migrate back.
Water temperature in the harbor is warming, which is harming the eelgrass.
Should we rest some of the areas from fishing for the eelgrass; and don’t allow some people to anchor in some areas for the eelgrass.
We should plant more native species.

We have a better understanding of what we need to do, but we need more vigor to get it done, and we need to pay for it.
Need clear next steps.
We need to provide enough funding for the town to enforce water quality regulations, including fertilizer use.
Need to make action items measurable.
New regulations should be considered; it is not allowed to dump grey water into the harbor.
Need to prioritize issues and action items.
Need an urgency to move some of the items forward.
How do we improve enforcement; need more funding; could we charge an extra surtax for visitors rather than have the local people pay more for taxes [Hyline is already charging an extra 50 cents that goes to the Town, where does that money go to]; State of Hawaii has a visitor impact fee; look into that.
The permitting you must go through at the state level is prohibitive; is there a way to shorten that and have stricter regulations.
There should be a person who is in charge of implementing the fertilizer regulations; there need to be consequences and it has not been prioritized.
We should microdose fertilizer.

Need more data on total nitrate at various depths in the harbor.
There is a town website with all the water quality data; we should expand some of the monitoring occurring.
The sediment transport study within the harbor will be useful; looking at a couple points on the eastern side and Coatue to figure out how the harbor is circulating; may help make smarter decisions about dredging and resiliency.
During COVID, what was the difference with boats in the harbor.
Could be good to have some additional water quality sampling (some areas closer to shore; right now a lot of the spots are deeper).

Green slime around the harbor, and is concentrated in front of certain properties.
The Land Bank has been putting lifoseed (?) into the harbor to eliminate phragmites.
Need more media coverage and more education of people (including the transient workforce).
Chapter 91 license and oil absorbing pillow (?).
There have been erosion control projects at Pocomo; is that resulting in excessive sand being dumped into the harbor, and reducing circulation?
Madaket Harbor has better water quality than Nantucket Harbor; there is more flushing; but Hither Creek has always been an issue (there have been some wastewater inputs); Tuckernuck also has better water quality.
Can we do some education on 97.7?
Can you have shellfish beds that will improve water quality? We should identify some areas and hang sacrificial oysters at the boat basin.