APPENDIX P 



GROUNDWATER MANAGEMENT APPROACHES IN BARNSTABLE AND EASTHAM 



The local role in groundwater protection is absolutely critical because 

 of local control over land-use planning and other important decisions im- 

 pacting groundwater protection. The following discussion of the ground- 

 water management approaches in Barnstable and Eastham and the needs and 

 opportunities open to these communities illustrates the range of 4 options 

 at the local level. 



The land-use study undertaken in a Barnstable wellhead protection area 

 (See Chapter 6 ) highlights the need for a groundwater-management strategy 

 that focuses on the management of diverse existing sources. CCAMP discover- 

 ed that many land-use activities have only incomplete regulatory coverage, 

 or completely fall through the "regulatory cracks". Consequently, local 

 officials must create a comprehensive protection program that controls 

 those specific activities. The land-use study also accentuated the point 

 that political boundaries do not coincide with natural -resource boundaries 

 and that intertown coordination is crutial. 



Although an intensive study was not performed in Eastham, an inventory 

 and "windshield survey" of commercial activities were undertaken, as was an 

 inventory of state-regulated, underground- storage tanks. The small number 

 of these sources and the large amount of vacant and developable land sug- 

 gested that Eastham concentrate its efforts in not siting any threatening 

 land-use activities in proximity to present or future water supplies. In 

 order to undertake such an effort, the town must first map its resources 

 and identify future public-supply wells in order to direct threatening land- 

 use activities away from these areas. 



Proposed Local Planning Process in Barnstable and Eastham 



The investigation in Eastham and Barnstable led CCAMP to document some 

 observations and recommendations for general approaches to groundwater man- 

 agement for any locality. The process, presented in Table 1, is an 

 analysis of how Barnstable's and Eastham' s approaches to groundwater 

 management fit into the general framework. It is not designed as a 

 step-by- step map for local planning. It serves primarily as a general 

 methodology. The approach presented is designed to answer three questions: 

 what needs to be protected?; from what does it need to be protected?; and 

 how should it be protected? While the last question generally generates 

 the most interest, the overall effectiveness of any protection measure is 

 critically linked to how well the first two questions are answered. Thus, 

 special attention must focus on developing a strong technical database and 

 on an assessment of needs which will provide the basis for a strong 

 protection program. 



What needs to be protected ? This first question requires an assessment 

 of the resource in order to identify environmentally sensitive or 



