Massachusetts is awarding $2 million in grants for cleaning up coastal waters.
Four projects on Cape Cod will receive most of the money (roughly $1.7 million), which comes from the state's Office of Coastal Zone Management.
Lisa Berry Engler is CZM's Director. She said keeping local waters clean is vital.
“For swimming, for fishing, for aquaculture, and then for recreating... And the Cape communities have really taken the lead for trying to address coastal water quality through many different mechanisms.”
The Association to Preserve Cape Cod is getting about $760,000 of the funds.
They’ll use it to install green infrastructure at public boat ramps to treat stormwater runoff.
Pollutants in stormwater runoff can make their way into the natural environment during heavy rain events. This can lead to local beach closures in the summer.
Yarmouth is also receiving roughly $800,000 from the CZM grants to help with the problem.
Engler said Yarmouth’s stormwater infrastructure project will improve water quality and help keep beaches open.
“Where we can remove those pollutants, we can potentially lessen the numbers of beach closures or at least decrease the amount of time that beaches our closed for.”
Falmouth is also received two grants, totaling around $130,000, to treat stormwater runoff along rivers.
CZM also announced about $8 million in coastal resilience grants, with several recipients on the Cape.