128 



BIOLOGICAL REPORT 31 



Table 7.1. Land use within the Buzzards Bay watershed. Adapted from Buzzards 

 Bay Project (1990) 



of ecological impact of the existing greater than 60- 

 year-old outfall, it is not ecologically or economi- 

 cally efficient or an example of careful resource man- 

 agement to expend the more than $60 million re- 

 quired to move the outfall. Management must begin 

 to focus on maximizing the resources of the entire 

 bay system, in essence getting the biggest ecologi- 

 cal profit for the investment. In the case of the New 

 Bedford outfall extension, a fraction of the funding 

 required for "the pipe" might be better used to save 

 or remediate an equal area of the bay to full re- 

 source utilization. While a regional focus is difficult 

 to achieve, the first steps have clearly been taken. 

 The potential for success in this area may be in- 

 creased by tiie view that citizens from all of the bay's 

 communities share in the use of the bay proper and 

 are becoming sensitive to the cumulative effects of 

 their local inputs. 



Meeting the demands for public access while 

 ensuring environmental protection is one of the 



biggest challenges facing coastal communities to- 

 day. Joint cooperation between local and regional 

 managers, regulators, and land planners is crucial 

 to accomplishing ecosystem-level environmental 

 protection in the coastal zone. For Buzzards Bay, 

 environmental policy is set at several levels of gov- 

 ernment. Federal and state regulations set the gen- 

 eral framework primarily for point-source pollutant 

 inputs, while local and regional agencies tend to set 

 the standards for nonpoint-source pollutant inputs 

 (e.g., groundwater). Because of the changing land 

 use patterns around Buzzards Bay, environmental 

 management must be directed not only at current 

 demands and problems, but also toward resolving 

 accumulated impacts from the past and to antici- 

 pating future demands, which may either protect or 

 harm coastal resources. Although regulations are in 

 effect to accomplish these objectives, local gov- 

 ernments frequently lack the analytical, administra- 

 tive, or political capacity to implement these 



