ECOLOGY OF BUZZARDS BAY: An Estuarine Profile 83 



some cases, activities aimed toward stimulating eco- 

 nomic growth in coastal areas (such as increased 

 development) can. if not planned with consideration 

 for the potential long-term ecological impacts, ulti- 

 mately result in decreased desirability and overall 

 economic loss to the region. Environmental bound- 

 aries are more easily delineated than economic ones 

 because the success of local economies is generally 

 closely related to that of the surrounding region. In 

 addition to local aesthetics, employment and busi- 

 ness opportunities are important influences on the 

 desirability of an area for development. Nearby 

 metropolitan areas serve both to attract tourists and 

 allow towns to serve as bedroom communities. In 

 that much of the attractiveness of an area depends 

 on its aesthetic appeal, it is somewhat ironic that 

 the inherent beauty of the natural system may so 

 often lead to its environmental decline. One of the 

 primary challenges facing managers and land plan- 

 ners today is to maintain economic growth while 

 ensuring environmental protection; this is difficult to 

 achieve in that both objectives are affected by local 

 as well as regional factors. This is certainly the case 

 for Buzzards Bay, for within its watershed bound- 

 aries lies a wide variety of economic industries and 

 natural resources, each affected to some degree by 

 the other. 



Identifying the sources of pollution and evaluat- 

 ing their potential impacts on the Buzzards Bay re- 

 gion are difficult because, although many point 

 sources exist, the primary inputs are via nonpoint 

 sources widely dispersed throughout the watershed. 

 Another challenge lies in estimating the economic 

 losses caused by pollution and the benefits of 

 remediative measures, which often involve overlap- 

 ping or widely separated political jurisdictions. 

 Because rivers, streams, and groundwater are the 

 transport mechanisms for many types of estuarine 

 contamination, a pollutant's source may originate 

 far from the resulting impact. Responsibility for moni- 

 toring, evaluating, and protecting water quality of- 

 ten lies simultaneously within different levels of gov- 

 ernment: federal, state, and local. The combination 

 of these overlapping political, economic, and envi- 

 ronmental boundaries often interferes with the effi- 

 cient development and implementation of integrated 



environmental management and economic devel- 

 opment plans. With pressures from development- 

 al conservation-oriented interests, along with in- 

 dications of potentially declining water quality in 

 some areas of Buzzards Bay, increased attention is 

 being given to the interrelationship between envi- 

 ronmental and economic factors within the bay and 

 its watershed. 



A study of economic growth and environmental 

 change in Buzzards Bay (Terkla et al. 1 990) has 

 identified population growth as the dominant factor 

 currently affecting the environmental health of Buz- 

 zards Bay. The continued increase in residential 

 development and tourism within the bay's water- 

 shed, as for most coastal communities, represents 

 the leading cause of environmental degradation that 

 is primarily due to increased eutrophication from 

 increased nutrient inputs. This degradation may 

 threaten the economic viability of some traditional 

 agricultural and marine activities. Agricultural ac- 

 tivities are likely to be more restricted as they are 

 implicated as sources of contamination, while ma- 

 rine activities (fishing and recreational uses) are di- 

 rectly affected by water quality. Although the cost 

 of lost revenues caused by poor or restricted fish 

 and shellfish catch can be directly determined, the 

 value placed on aesthetics and recreation is more 

 difficult to quantify, even though these are the source 

 of much of the current demand for improved envi- 

 ronmental quality. 



Terkla et al. ( 1 990) reported that the Buzzards 

 Bay watershed supports five primary economies: 

 residential, manufacturing, tourism, agriculture, and 

 fishing, all in some way influencing the health of the 

 bay. 



Residential. As with many coastal communi- 

 ties, the Buzzards Bay watershed has seen signifi- 

 cant increases in residential development in recent 

 decades, as evidenced by the changes in popula- 

 tion. The region as a whole has seen an average 

 increase of 3 1 people/km 2 since 1 970, with 50% 

 more housing units in 1 988 than in 1 980. This growth 

 in the residential component affects the environment 

 of the bay through increased use of on-site septic 

 treatment of wastes and lawn fertilizers, the primary 



