On November 7th 2024, TRC Companies presented their work on the Santuit Pond Project as part of the SNEP Network at the North American Lake Management Society 44th International Symposium in South Lake Tahoe, California/Nevada. The presentation, titled, “Watershed Planning, Partnerships, and Public Education to Address Excessive Nutrients in a Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe Ancestral Pond” demonstrated how partnerships, public engagement and education have been critical to help build consensus and support for action in the broader community.
Santuit Pond is a 176-acre Great Pond on Cape Cod, Massachusetts that suffers from recurring and persistent cyanobacteria blooms, as well as other impairments. The pond is culturally essential to the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, who have been stewards of the pond and surrounding lands for thousands of years. Through partnerships and public engagement, the SNEP Network has assisted with the project which included the development of a watershed-based plan to guide restoration of the pond, which targets an annual phosphorus load reduction of 81% (more than 300 kg). Implementation of watershed engineering and regulatory approaches are now underway to reduce stormwater and wastewater contributions over time. These are complemented by in-lake approaches to address internal loading of phosphorus.
View a copy of the conference presentation “Watershed Planning, Partnerships, and Public Education to Address Excessive Nutrients in a Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe Ancestral Pond”.