Water quality protection goes underground at Barley Neck Road, Orleans

One of the first CCWRRP stormwater projects completed this year was at Barley Neck Road in Orleans. The project took only 10 days to complete.

by Chloe Wardropper, Conservation Intern, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service

So far, this blog has told the story of the fish passage and salt marsh restoration components of the Cape Cod Water Resources Restoration Project (CCWRRP), but there is also a lot of work going on to improve the quality of water that runs off of roads after rainstorms.  This water is referred to as “stormwater,” and when it is not treated, it has the potential to degrade the water quality of our saltmarshes.  

In order to improve Cape Cod aquaculture and environmental health, the CCWRRP has now completed, or will soon complete, 19 different stormwater treatment projects in ten towns across Cape Cod! 

Why is treating stormwater important? The simple answer is that Cape Cod’s economy depends on good water quality.  Shellfishing is a multi-million dollar industry on the Cape, and it is only allowed in areas of excellent water quality.  Shellfishing areas can be compromised when stormwater runoff from developed and paved areas carries contaminants such as nutrients, metals, fertilizers, and bacteria. 

In a 2006 assessment, the Division of Marine Fisheries and town officials identified over 160 stormwater discharge points into shellfishing areas on Cape Cod.  The CCWRRP prioritized 26 of these areas to install infiltration or constructed wetland treatment systems.  When completed, these new systems will protect 7,300 acres of shellfish beds from contamination.

One of the first stormwater projects completed this year was in the town of Orleans at the end of Barley Neck Road on Little Pleasant Bay.  Excellent water quality is a priority in Pleasant Bay as it supports a number of commercial aquaculture operations and many recreational shellfishers.  The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service and the Town of Orleans supervised the installation of two infiltration systems under the road to treat the stormwater from approximately 10,000 square feet of impervious runoff area.

How do these systems work? The design moves water, by a downward grade, along the side of the road to a concrete catchment basin.  Here, the larger sediment sinks to the bottom while fluids flow into two big cement infiltrators (each eight feet wide by eight feet deep) that remove bacteria and other contaminants before releasing treated water into the sandy soil below. 

As added protection, any water that is not caught in the first filter flows into a second catchment basin attached to another infiltration system.  This infiltrator provides the same treatment, but requires less than one quarter of the vertical space of the first system to clean water.  Consisting of a long plastic tube for water retention and filtration, this chamber must be shallower than the first infiltrators because it is closer to groundwater.

Construction of the Barley Neck Road project was completed in July 2011.  It took only 10 days for the contractor to prepare the site, dig holes for the catchment basins and infiltrators, install the systems, and repave the road with appropriate grading. 

Approximately 150 acres of shellfish beds impacted by runoff from Barley Neck Road are now free of stormwater contamination, according to ongoing Division of Marine Fisheries monitoring in Pleasant Bay. 

When you walk by the site, you barely know anything is there. A manhole cover is the only visible evidence of the extensive filter systems doing their important work underground. 

Going with the flow at Cedar Lake

By Abigail Franklin and Chloe Wardropper

Chloe Wardropper prepares to measure stream velocity at Cedar Lake.

On rainy days, Abigail Franklin, the anadromous fish expert for the Cape Cod Water Resources Restoration Project, and Chloe Wardropper, a USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service intern, rush to North Falmouth to take advantage of raised water levels in the small stream connecting Cedar Lake with Rand’s Canal.

They’ve been tracking the stream’s flow since February 2011, taking measurements that will inform the design of a replacement fish ladder and culvert. The project will improve passage from Rand’s Canal, near Megansett Harbor, into Cedar Lake, one of the herring runs on the Buzzards Bay side of Falmouth. 

Stream flow, or discharge, is calculated by multiplying water velocity by the area through which it flows.  United States Geological Survey gauges at the Herring River in Harwich and the Quashnet River in Falmouth provide data on nearby watersheds, but since those rivers are much larger, it is difficult to directly compare them to this small stream.

The measurements collected at Cedar Lake will provide an important baseline for the fish ladder project and establish a flow monitoring protocol that can be used for other planned Cape Cod fish passage projects. 

Measurements are taken by dividing the stream into six intervals at right angles to the flow.  Using a Pygmy current meter (a spinning device that is pushed by the water) and wading rod, Abigail and Chloe determine velocity and depth for each segment, and then add them together to get the total flow. 

Since February, stream depths have ranged from 4 to 15 centimeters and discharge has varied, generally following depth, from .012 to .051 cubic meters per second. 

The shallow depth results in slightly aching backs at the end of the day, but the scenery is beautiful, and they never know what might float down the stream: Abigail’s feet recently encountered an unsuspecting muskrat!

Surveying the Holway Axe Dam at Carter Beal Park in Bourne

Dan Barnett and Abigail Franklin surveying the Holway Axe Dam in a dingy.

By Abigail Franklin, Anadromous Fish Restoration Project Manager

One of our recent field work assignments was to survey the upstream side of the Holway Axe Dam, at Carter Beal Park in the Town of Bourne.  We were gathering information for a new fish ladder that will be built at the site. 

Great Herring Pond at Carter Beal Park, Bourne.

Holway Axe Dam has two spillways, and only one of them has a fish ladder. During the Spring upstream migration, adult herring will sometimes swim up the incorrect spillway, and become stuck at the bottom of the dam.  These fish then need to be netted and dropped into the pond above.  This is stressful and time consuming for both the herring and humans involved! 

To fix this problem, the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) is designing a channel and fish ladder that will allow the herring to swim from the spillway with no passage, into the spillway with a fish ladder. Before plans are drawn, we have to survey the dam and determine how strong it is.  The stronger the dam – the closer we can locate the new fish ladder to it.



Nancy Sheard gets ready to set up surveying equipment.



Civil Engineering Technician Nancy Sheard arrived at the site before us, and found thousands of juvenile herring swimming in a tight circle in one of the pools of the pool and weir fish ladder.  These two-inch long fish were born in Great Herring Pond, and were taking their time swimming downstream to the ocean for the first time!

After watching the fish for a few minutes, Civil Engineer Dan Barnett and I hopped into an eight-foot long dingy, and Nancy set up the surveying equipment on the far shore.  Dan rowed transects back and forth along the dam, while I tried to hold the surveying rod in place as the wind pushed us around.  It was a hot day, but a very pleasant place to be.

Watch a video clip of the juvenile fish swimming at Carter Beal Park:

Video: Alewife in the Fast Lane

Fish passage expert Abigail Franklin was taking water level measurements at a project site recently when she heard a small splash downstream. She looked up and saw waves breaking against the stream banks. 

Abigail fumbled for her camera and pushed the video button just in time. She recorded a group of alewife swim by so quickly, they created a wake!

They were swimming upstream on their way to the spawning pond, a voyage that will be made easier when a deteriorating fish ladder is replaced.

The alewife is a species of herring that has been used as a baitfish and for human consumption.

Later they will leave the pond, swim downstream and head back out to the ocean. Hopefully they will survive another year, and come back to spawn again!

Video: An Elvers Sighting

Fish passage expert Abigail Franklin was working at a project site recently when she saw juvenile American eels swimming upstream and resting on the sandy stream bottom. This was exciting because these young eels started life about 1,000 miles away in the Sargasso Sea.

American eels are economically important along the East Coast. They are caught by fishermen and sold as food or bait. Eels help the Atlantic coast ecosystem by eating dead fish, invertebrates, carrion and insects.

Dams and other barriers have caused eel populations to decline. The Cape Cod Water Resources Restoration Project is working to remove these barriers.

Abigail says these "elvers" are very good at making themselves look like sticks and other stream debris. They only got her attention when they started wriggling, so look closely in this video!

These eels will make their home in the pond for years and will not return to the ocean until they are ready to spawn at the end of their lives.

The herring are here! Next year their passage will be easier.



This degraded fish ladder at Cedar Lake in Falmouth will be rebuilt in time for next year's herring migration.



By Abigail Franklin, Anadromous Fish Restoration Project Manager

The rivers have reached 50 degrees! On Cape Cod, river herring start to swim upstream to their spawning grounds when the temperature of the rivers and streams reaches 50 degrees Fahrenheit.  Migrating river herring have now been seen at all but one of the seven Cape Cod Water Resources Restoration Project fish passage sites. 

It’s exciting to see them after the long winter, and it’s even more exciting to know that when they arrive next year, they will discover new fish ladders and structures that will make it easier for them to swim to the ponds!



For example, this spring at the Marstons Mills River in Barnstable, the river herring are swimming through a flume that is deteriorating.  In the late 1800s the flume was constructed by citizens who wanted to help the fish bypass the cranberry bogs on their way to the spawning grounds at Middle Pond. Because of the sandy soil, the walls of the flume have a tendency to lean and fall into the stream.



Many efforts have been made over the years to repair and reconstruct the structure, and it is time to do so again.  Next year, the river herring will swim through a more structurally stable flume, and will not have to worry about the walls caving in on them!



At Cedar Lake in Falmouth, the river herring are swimming up a fish ladder that is disintegrating, and then through a sloped culvert with baffles under Bay Road. Next spring they will find a brand new ladder, and a level culvert under the road that will allow them to swim upstream faster.

And at Lower Red Brook in Bourne, river herring can only access a culvert under the railroad berm during high tides, and at low tides must wait around and avoid being eaten by big fish and birds.   Next spring, they will be able to reach the culvert during more of the tidal cycle thanks to the construction of rock weirs.

MEET THE STAFF: Abigail Franklin, Anadromous Fish Restoration Project Manager

Abigail Franklin likes to encourage others to see a project from the river herring's point of view.

By Loryn Dion, Public Affairs Intern, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service

Even when Abigail Franklin was a young girl, building pretend-fish ladders out of couch cushions with her brother rather than forts like the other kids, it was already obvious what her career would be. Now working as the Anadromous Fish Restoration Project Manager with the Cape Cod Conservation District in Massachusetts, anyone can tell that Abigail is passionate about what she does.

Abigail is working on the Cape Cod Water Resources Restoration Project (CCWRRP), a collaborative project of the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, the Cape Cod Conservation District, and the Barnstable County Commissioners, with cooperation from other federal, state and local agencies.

The project will restore salt marshes, recover fish passage and improve water quality for shellfish beds. The plan identifies 76 sites throughout Cape Cod for possible restoration including 26 stormwater discharge sites, 26 tidally-restricted salt marshes and 24 obstructed fish passages.

As project manager, Abigail’s job involves keeping track of permits and deadlines, answering questions, and resolving issues, sometimes by just putting people in the same room together to discuss construction plans.  “I also like to encourage others to see the project from the river herring’s point of view,” says Abigail.

River herring are a source of food for commercially and recreationally important species like Atlantic Cod and Striped Bass. The CCWRRP has so many beneficial and diverse projects planned, that it’s difficult for Abigail to pick one that she’s most excited about.

“All of the projects are so different and each important in their own way. The Cedar Lake project in Falmouth will replace a deteriorating fish ladder and road culvert to maintain river herring access to spawning grounds. In contrast, at Lower Red Brook in Bourne, river herring are only able to reach a culvert during high tide, which leaves them vulnerable to predators at low tide. Weirs will be constructed to allow the fish to swim to the culvert during more of the tidal cycle,” says Abigail.

The position was Abigail’s dream job and exactly what she was qualified for with her BA in Natural Science from Hampshire College and her MS from UMass Amherst in Wildlife and Fisheries Conservation. One of her favorite parts of her job is talking with people out in the field.

 “I love being outside and speaking with natural resource managers and citizens who are enthusiastic and so proud and protective of their herring runs.”