Water Gives…What If We Give Back

By Emily Reddington

What If We Give Back

Water gives us so much, what if we chose to give back? This reciprocal relationship with water and its creatures is not a new concept. The Wampanoag community has spent the last 12,000 years living the knowledge that giving back to the ecosystem, through gratitude and actions, is a vital part of sustaining life. Wampanoag people have long understood that water itself is life.

Resilience is about giving back more than we take. It is building a surplus of health and well-being and cultivating a stronger ecosystem. Each cut is an opportunity to renew and restore pond ecosystems. It is an opportunity to strengthen the ecosystem and to build resilience by infusing brackish ponds with cool, salty, clear, and clean seawater. 

Excess nitrogen is the greatest driver of impairment in our pond ecosystems. Eventually external nitrogen restrictions will be imposed by the state, as they have been on the Cape, but will the health of our precious ecosystems five years from now? What if we proactively chose to reduce nitrogen? 

Cultivating Community Resilience

Martha’s Vineyard is celebrated for its abundant and beautiful natural spaces, but one of our greatest assets is our strong and resilient community. While the challenges facing our ponds are growing, so is our knowledge of the sources of impairment and the solutions to remediate them. Our community can be the model for other coastal communities by proactively choosing to give back to our waters and cultivate their resilience. 

Please help us keep our local waters alive. We need your support, now more than ever. 

STUDYING MV GROUNDWATER

According to USGS (US Geological Survey)

Groundwater is water that exists underground in saturated zones beneath the land surface. The upper surface of the saturated zone is called the water table.

Contrary to popular belief, groundwater does not form underground rivers. It fills the pores and fractures in underground materials such as sand, gravel, and other rock, much the same way that water fills a sponge. If groundwater flows naturally out of rock materials or if it can be removed by pumping (in useful amounts), the rock materials are called aquifers.

Groundwater moves slowly, typically at rates of 7-60 centimeters (3-25 inches) per day in an aquifer. As a result, water could remain in an aquifer for hundreds or thousands of years. Groundwater is the source of about 40 percent of water used for public supplies and about 39 percent of water used for agriculture in the United States. USGS What is Groundwater?

Great Pond Foundation began a collaboration with The Marine Biological Laboratory, in 2021 to measure and locate nitrogen sources in groundwater surrounding our Island Great Ponds.

Upon completion of the first phase, the study indicated that >50% of nitrogen in our Great Ponds is coming from wastewater and the next biggest contributor is fertilizer. The bad news is that humans caused this problem. The good news is that humans can fix it.

Tracking sources of nitrogen pollution is an iterative process where each round of sampling gets closer to the target of identifying the source. If you think of a pond as a whole and imagine looking at a large circle that represents a concentrated source or plume of nitrogen, with each round of sampling, the circle gets smaller, and you get closer to the target. The next phase of the work, which began in November 2024, is to integrate the targeted transects in Slough and Meshacket Coves into a nitrogen load model for Edgartown Great Pond.

The ultimate goal is to pinpoint the source and magnitude of concentrated nitrogen plumes. Knowing the size, source, and scope of the problem will allow mitigation technologies can capture and transform harmful nitrogen before it reaches ponds.

Learn more in the December 5, 2024 article by Vineyard Gazette reporter, Gwyn Skiles.

If you are curious how individuals can help reduce nitrogen, the Vineyard Conservation Society provides wonderful resources about having naturally beautiful Vineyard Lawns.

For more information about this ongoing groundwater study visit the links below.

Curious about the sources of nitrogen pollution in our Great Ponds?

This is the first installment of the Island Ponds Community Workshop, held on December 2nd, 2021, featuring keynote speaker Dr. Javier Lloret giving a presentation entitled: Using Stable Isotopes to Identify Sources & Effects of Nitrogen Pollution in Great Pond.