Water Quality Shows Signs of Decline in Buzzards Bay | WCAI

Algae in West Falmouth in 2014. Credit: Buzzards Bay Coalition

Overdevelopment, climate change, and outdated wastewater infrastructure around Buzzards Bay have contributed to a decline in water quality, according to the Buzzards Bay Coalition.

Since 1992, the coalition has relied on volunteers and scientists at tϲapp to collect water samples and measure the water’s temperature, salinity, nitrogen levels, and more. Those factors are then combined, and water quality is measured on the , which scores harbors, coves, and rivers on a scale from 0-100, or from degraded to pristine.