| Westport River Water Quality Monitoring | ||
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The Westport River Watershed encompasses parts of Westport, Dartmouth, Fall River, and Freetown in Massachusetts, and Tiverton and Little Compton in Rhode Island. Eighty-five percent of the watershed’s landmass drains into the two branches, East and West, of the Westport River. The river is comprised of two major drowned river estuaries that are connected to Buzzards Bay tidal waters by a single inlet. The Westport River is one of the Commonwealth’s greatest coastal assets in both habitat quality and scenic beauty. Nutrient loading and pathogen contamination are major water quality concerns, particularly in the upper reaches of the 35 mile shoreline. | |
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The health of the Westport River depends on the concentration of specific nutrient species in the water. Nitrogen is the limiting nutrient in estuarine water. The addition of excess nitrogen to estuaries causes the decline in habitat and water quality by eutrophication. The increasing nitrogen found in studies of the Westport River watershed is primarily due to changing watershed land use. This includes converting open space forests and agricultural land to residential housing and associated development. |
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The shift in land use results in increased nitrogen loading from atmospheric deposition, septic systems, fertilizer applications, and runoff from impermeable surfaces. It is critical to quantify nitrogen sources and distributions to examine inputs in order to manage impacts on the river. Water quality assessment is the precursor to determining best management practices to address pollution problems. The data collected will also help to determine the optimum nitrogen loading for large tributaries and eventually the river. | |
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POLLUTION IMPACTS ON THE RIVER: There are approximately thirty commercial fishing boats in the local fishing industry. Among the natural resources of the River are shellfish beds of scallops, oysters, quahogs, mussels, and soft-shell clams. Of the nearly 3,000 acres of shellfish beds in the estuary, 650 acres are permanently closed due to pathogen contamination. Another 1,522 acres are conditionally or seasonally closed. Conditional areas are opened and closed on varying amounts of rainfall. Where 0.2 inches closes most conditional areas and 1.0 inch of rain closes a portion of conditional area in the East Branch. Both branches of the river are listed on the Commonwealth’s 303d list of impaired water bodies for pathogen contamination. In the summer months upper reaches of the river are consistently closed for public swimming due to pathogen contamination. There have also been several beach closures over the past few years due to failures of bathing beach safety standards. Pathogen contamination is due to Nonpoint Source pollution from agricultural runoff, poorly maintained and failing septic systems, and waterfowl congregations. |
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WHAT IS BEING DONE TO ADDRESS THE POLLUTION PROBLEM? At this time, several efforts are underway in the East Branch of the river to correct these problems that have been identified by WRWA’s bacteria monitoring program. The Town of Westport was awarded a Federal 319 Nonpoint Source competitive grant for $264,332 to address the storm water contributions at the Head of Westport in the upper East Branch. The Town of Westport would not have been able to apply for the grant without the water monitoring data collected by WRWA. WRWA is the only organization providing consistent, long-term monitoring in the Westport River watershed and Buzzards Bay. Go to the page on the stormwater project to learn more about the system built at the Head of Westport. |
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WRWA'S MONITORING PROGRAM: WRWA has maintained a bacteria monitoring program in the Westport River since 1991. WRWA’s collection and analysis of samples has been utilized by town and state agencies to document bacterial contamination in the river (see WRWA sampling sites). The fact that 23% of shellfish beds in the Westport River are permanently closed for shellfish harvesting documents the problem of bacterial contamination. 53% of the total shellfish beds are seasonally or conditionally closed. In total, 76% of the harvest potential in the river is limited because of bacterial pollution. Conditions are improving as the amount of rainfall required to trigger a conditional closure is now higher than it was ten years ago, and the duration of rainfall closure has decreased from 8 to 5 days. Combining the bacterial closure problem, and the quality of shellfish habitat, overall river waters suffer from the problem of eutrophication, especially in the upper East Branch. Our continued overall monitoring is essential for evaluating the progress of cleaning up the River. |
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GOALS OF THE WATER QUALITY MONITORING PROGRAM:
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