Ecology of Buzzards Bay Ecology of Buzzards Bay : an estuarine profile ecologyofbuzzard00howe Year: 1996 106 BIOLOGICAL REPORT 31 which are more widespread and more difficult to identify and measure, generally reach Buzzards Bay waters through groundwater transport. Point sources have historically been regulated and quan- tified, whereas nonpoint sources are a recent area of research and have a larger error associated with their estimates. Point Sources. The only major point source of nitrogen in the Buzzards Bay watershed origi- nates from sewage. Other potential point sources like major ri
Ecology of Buzzards Bay Ecology of Buzzards Bay : an estuarine profile ecologyofbuzzard00howe Year: 1996 106 BIOLOGICAL REPORT 31 which are more widespread and more difficult to identify and measure, generally reach Buzzards Bay waters through groundwater transport. Point sources have historically been regulated and quan- tified, whereas nonpoint sources are a recent area of research and have a larger error associated with their estimates. Point Sources. The only major point source of nitrogen in the Buzzards Bay watershed origi- nates from sewage. Other potential point sources like major river discharges and large-scale agricul- ture do not contribute to bay waters (cf. Chapters 1 and 5, respectively). Residential and municipal wastes are piped to wastewater treatment facilities in the more heavily populated areas of the water- shed. New Bedford, Wareham, Dartmouth, Fairhaven, Falmouth, and Marion maintain these facilities, and all except Falmouth discharge directly to bay waters (Table ). The Falmouth facility discharges to groundwater by rapid infiltration and spray irrigation. Although the Falmouth facility at- tempts to lower nutrient loading (about 1 of the region's total) to coastal waters by adding a plant uptake and soil nitrogen removal step not used at the other facilities, the facility still 'imports' nitro- gen into Buzzards Bay because the contributing ar- eas are outside of the bay watershed (Howes et al. 1992). In contrast the Marion facility (less than 1 of total nutrient loading) discharges to surface wa- ter at the head of a salt marsh, which performs lim- ited tertiary treatment before discharge to Aucoot Cove, and represents true removal (Howes 1993). Table Nitrogen inputs to Buzzards Bay from sewage treatment plants. Adapted from SAIC (1991). Treatment plant t N/year New Bedford 962 Wareham 29 Dartmouth 57 Fairhaven 140 Falmouth3 15 Marion 7 Total 1,210 Almost all of the treatment facilities' input to the bay is in the New Bedford/Fa
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