With nitrogen pollution a perpetual concern for Vineyard waterways, two towns are hoping that a shellfish experiment will be the latest puzzle piec
The town of Oak Bluffs closed two Lagoon Pond beaches Wednesday morning to swimming. Samples of saltwater taken on Monday tested positive for high counts of a bacteria known as enterococci, a bacteria that can indicate the presence of fecal contamination.
The town closed Medeiros Cove off the Sailing Camp Park and the drawbridge beach at Eastville. A harborside Eastville beach remains open.
A dozen volunteers gathered at the Lagoon Pond last Saturday morning to do something no one could recall being done on the Vineyard. They came to harvest floating mats of algae in Mud Creek in Vineyard Haven. It was both an experiment and a beginning for an expanding effort to manage and improve the water quality in coastal ponds.
