Cleaning Up Our Coastal Waters

Cleaning Up Our Coastal Waters

April 18, 2012
Waquoit Bay Reserve

This workshop is intended to provide local officials, municipal boards, and community members with a solid understanding of nitrogen cycling and pollution budgets (Total Maximum Daily Loads-TMDLs) in the coastal environment. It will provide the background on how human actions are dramatically changing the coastal landscape and why cleaning up our coastal waters is such a big concern. It will delve beyond just explaining how excess nitrogen affects our bays and ponds, to unpacking the nitrogen cycle, sources of nitrogen, how nitrogen moves through watersheds and demonstrating how these issues are inter-related. We will examine why land-based sources of nitrogen need to be controlled and ways to reduce nitrogen loads to coastal ecosystems. Presenters will also address some of the common misconceptions about nitrogen pollution. Participants will learn about TMDLs for water quality, how they are calculated and what they mean for our communities.