Dr. John Todd to speak at the Citizens for the Protection of Waquoit Bay Annual Meeting
Dr. John Todd, one of the co-founders of the New Alchemy Institute and the first winner of the Buckminster Fuller Challenge for, “the best idea to help humanity” will speak at the CPWB Annual Meeting.
Dr. Todd will speak about restoring marine and fresh bodies of water impaired by nutrients. Considering the most recent report on Waquoit Bay and the time it will take for a plan to address waste water pollution at its source, this is an option that must be considered. Historically, Waquoit Bay has been one of the most highly productive estuaries in the Commonwealth. Now, because of ground water pollution from septic systems in its watershed, Waquoit Bay has never been worse according to Dr. Brian Howes of SMAST, the group that has been monitoring the health of Massachusetts bays and estuaries.
At a meeting of the Mashpee Board of Selectmen, Dr. Howes said, “For the first time in 20 years, I have nothing good to say. The enrichment in nitrogen is causing real impairments to not only the water quality with increased algal blooms and low oxygen, but we’ve lost our eel grass and we’re losing our benthic animals, which means we’ll start losing our fish. Or we’ve already started losing our fish and we just don’t know it yet.”
CPWB President, Matt Patrick said, “It will be decades before septic system waste can be intercepted by conventional sewering before it goes into the ground. In the interim, living machines offer the potential to remove nitrogen quickly and economically until we can prevent point sources and nonpoint sources on a larger scale.”
DATE: Wednesday, August 25th
TIME: 6:30 PM
PLACE: WBNERR boat house, 131 Waquoit Hwy., (Rte.28), East Falmouth, MA 02536 or ZOOM
Please RSVP if attending in person and to get Zoom link email CPWB1981@gmail.com
MASKS WILL BE REQUIRED to attend at the Boat House
Dr. John Todd, Ph.D. is the President of Ocean Arks International and Professor Emeritus at the University of Vermont in the Rubinstein School of Environment and Natural Resources. He is a former assistant scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute and the cofounder of the New Alchemy Institute on Cape Cod. He has pioneered ecological design and engineering and applied ecological concepts around the world to help solve major environmental issues. He is the inventor of eco-machines, technologies for wastewater treatment, environmental restoration and for the production of aquatic and terrestrial foods.