The Board of Directors is very excited about 2024. It will be the most productive year in our brief 4 year history. So much has happened since our Incorporation in December 2019. We now have over 300 email subscribers. The Town of Bourne is listening to what we have to say. We have a voice on the Bourne Wastewater Advisory Committee. The Pocasset Water Qualify Coalition (PWQC) has been recognized by many other like minded groups on and around Cape Cod. Our rain garden grant application was accepted by the Southeastern New England Program, a part of the EPA.

2024 will the first year where we begin making visible, physical progress to restore our salt water. Our most exciting news is that we have now joined The Town of Bourne Shellfish Propagation Program. (Link below for a slide show to learn about this exciting program) PWQC Board of Directors voted unanimously to invest $2000 toward growing and eventually harvesting oysters. The oysters are purchased as babies. Our investment will purchase 125,000 oyster babies. Click the link to learn how it all works:

Upweller slide show

By the end of 2024 oysters will be growing in protected baskets in Hen Cove and Pocasset Harbor. A single oyster can filter up to 50 gallons of salt water a DAY. These little mollusks filter out nitrogen from the salt water. Clicking this link will help you learn about the positive benefit of oysters:

How oysters do their work

Kudos to PWQC Senior Vice President and Founder, Frank Gasson. Frank initiated the conversation to get the oyster project off the ground. And to the Bourne Dept. of Natural Resources Director Chris Southwood for his help and council to include PWQC in this great program.

In 2 1/2 to 3 years, when these oysters are fully grown, WE can harvest these oysters ourselves. The only requirement will be a Bourne Shellfish License. The PWQC Board plans to repeat this oyster buying annually to create a constant flow of these Nitrogen filters.

This investment is just the first of several PWQC supported projects for 2024. Our next email will get into the Rain Garden Project details. We are also working with Bourne Town Engineer, Tim Lydon, on a Storm Water containment and public planning for water quality. More to come on work in Pocasset Heights and Hen Cove. Things could happen as early as the Fall of 2024!!!!

Please go to: www.pocassetwaterquality.org click the Donate tab, to pay your 2024 dues and/or to donate to the cause. Checks can be mailed to PWQC PO Box 852 Pocasset, MA 02559-2017

Thank you for your ongoing support