The Town of Orleans is surrounded on all sides by water.  The Atlantic Ocean forms its eastern boundary and Cape Cod Bay lies to the north and west.  The south side bounds on Pleasant Bay, a complex estuary touching the shorelines of Orleans and three adjacent towns (Brewster, Harwich and Chatham).  

Orleans also has 60 freshwater kettle ponds formed after the retreat of the last glacier when chunks of ice were left surrounded by sand.  The ice melted into these depressions forming our ponds and lakes.  Some of these ponds were subsequently joined to the ocean by rising seas.  We know these as Meetinghouse Pond, Arey's Pond, Paw Wah Pond, and Mill Pond.  Enclosed saltwater embayments are the nursery grounds for many salt water fish and shellfish and bring wonderful opportunities for recreation - sailing, fishing, shellfishing - but they also have limited opportunities for flushing with the ebb and flow of the tides.  

What's happening to Cape Cod waters?

The growth of the human population and increased home-building have stressed Orleans coastal waters by the addition of an average of 790,000 gallons of wastewater that escapes from our septic systems into our sandy soils each day.  This wastewater percolates through the soil into the groundwater and then flows toward our ponds and estuaries. It carries with it the dissolved substances that we flush down our drains.  Nitrogen, a product of our wastes, acts as a fertilizer in the salt water environment.  This allows algae, both visible and microscopic, to multiply at rates that overwhelm marine ecosystems.  Nitrogen comes from other sources too such as lawn fertilizers, pollution from our atmosphere, and automobile exhaust.  Wastewater and the use of lawn fertilizers represent the portions of this nitrogen which we can most easily control. Learn more about lawn fertilizers by clicking here.

Managing Our Wastewater

For eight years, Orleans volunteers have been collecting data on our waters and pursuing the development of a wastewater management plan.  The draft of this plan will be brought to the citizens in the fall of 2008.  OPC encourages all citizens to attend the public meetings to learn about the wastewater management planning process and how our waters will be improved by implementation of the plans once the specific elements are chosen.  The schedule of meetings will be posted the Town's website and on the Happenings section of this website.

You are an important part of the solution to improving our increasingly degraded waterways.

Learning More  

To learn more about the science of planning for wastewater remediation, click here.

To learn more about our freshwater ponds, click here.