Meetings Ahead
Most meetings in Wellfleet are remote only, but some are held in person. Go to www.wellfleet-ma.gov/calendar and click on the meeting you want to watch, then follow the instructions on the agenda.
Thursday, June 22
- Zoning Board of Appeals, 7 p.m.
Tuesday, June 27
- Cable, Internet, and Cellular Service Advisory Committee, 10 a.m.
Wednesday, June 28
- Finance Committee, 7 p.m.
Conversation Starter
One-Day Pond Closures
The health dept. issued a public health advisory on June 16 announcing the closure of Duck Pond and the main beach at Gull Pond to swimming due to elevated E. coli counts. The next day, June 17, the dept. issued another statement: both ponds had passed the most recent water quality test and were reopened for swimming.
Interim Health Agent Meredith Ballinger said that there is no identified source of the contamination, but runoff is often the cause of high levels of bacteria after heavy rain. She said that waste from pets and wild animals could be another culprit.
The ponds are tested weekly in the summer with the help of Barnstable County. If a sample exceeds the limit on bacteria counts, a beach sampler retests the beach. If it exceeds the limit a second time, the health dept. closes the beach, Ballinger said.
The beach is then retested every day until the sample shows an acceptable bacteria count, Ballinger said. In this case, it took only one day. —Sam Pollak
