Science-based Adaptive Management: The Path for Cape Cod's Wastewater
• Friday, October 1, 2010, 9am-3pm with lunch included
• Sponsored by Rep. Matt Patrick, Clean Water Action, Coalition for Alternative Wastewater Treatment, Sierra Club's Cape Cod and Islands Chapter
• Cape Cod Community College, Lorusso Applied Technology Building, 2nd Floor
o 2240 Iyannough Road (Route 132)
West Barnstable, MA 02668
The US EPA Administrator has announced the Agency's support for Science and Adaptive Management as the approach needed to protect America's waters, saying recently "Stronger protections are going to have to be met with new ideas and cost-effective strategies. If we want our waters to work harder, we have to work smarter."
This workshop will present some of the latest thinking on how strong science and innovation can dramatically enhance efforts to protect ecosystems and water quality. As EPA states, "improved models, monitoring and research can be used to better prioritize, improve on-the-ground practices, assess, and evaluate effectiveness of actions and policies over time".
With an estimated $60,000 per home for conventional gravity sewer projects being proposed to address nitrogen overloading in coastal estuaries, it is vital for Cape Cod communities to get the science right, to be sure that more cost-effective approaches have been objectively studied, and to update strategies as more insights and knowledge are gained on the Cape's ecosystem challenges and on new technologies and designs to address them.