Wracked Mermaid

Sewage dumped by Land and Sea

Perhaps the enactments of strongly worded, federal environmental laws in the early 1970s, such as the Clean Water Act, comforted the inhabitants of coastal communities into believing that polluting practices would become prohibited and marine resources would be protected.  At least within three miles from the sandy shores.  Beyond that statutory limit, however, raw sewage may still be dumped from the heads of ocean-going vessels without limit, without permit and without treatment.  The recent media attention questioning this practice, particularly the commercial ferries and eco-tour operations, poses the challenge to offer the same solution that local harbors offer to smaller craft:  appropriate pump-out facilities and the designation of 'No Discharge Zones'.  It is just a matter of scale.  Larger flow volumes will require larger holding tanks and properly engineered remediation.

 With the Lower Cape backshore beaches swamped with an increasing and persistant "MUNG" bloom that many disgusted beach-goers anecdotally associate with the off-shore boat disharge in the same way that land-based septic effluent is a widely recognized contribution to the nitrogen enrichment of marine embayments, the time to hault the dumping is none too soon.  It stands to reason that the same nutrient fueling the algae overgrowths which choke out estuarine productivity in less tidally flushed areas may also fertilize the nuisance rafts of that slimy brown stuff showing up in greater distributions and lasting for longer durations these days than ever before.  Anyone remember the 80s, when you could avoid the mung by going further down the beach, and the outbreak would clear up by the end of the week?

Certainly, where the effects of improper sewage disposal are tangible -- in the ocean waters we enjoy recreationally, or in the bays and harbors that support our shellfisheries, we demand a solution.  We want what Congress seemed to promise in passsing the landmark legislative acts now associated with the beginning of the Green Revolution in the early 1970s.  

But what about the improperly disposed sewage flowing from a restaurant, into a neighborhood's common groundwater, posing risk to private wells and migrating into sensitive creeks and wetlands?  (If a certain restuarant closure in a Lower Cape town has reduced your dining options this weekend, consider this rather than feeling inconvenienced).  Or any other land-based septic system failure, contributing our own human share to the pollution problem?  If even the EPA's 'big stick', the Clean Water Act, can fall short of truly providing regulatory and functional resource protection as boats continue to legally dump sanitary wastes in 2007, how many gaps might persist under of the state's Title 5 code and the authorities of local boards that implement on-site sewage disposal laws? 

 Perhaps too many ... it remains culturally easier to point out the anonymous, corporate operator and a practice that conveys a large volume and a sense of violation.  It is much more difficult to see our own small contributions adding up in the aggregate, perhaps polluting more in terms of nitrogen entrained in groundwaters and ultimately received some surface water body -- harbor, bay or ocean.

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Hoist the Jolly Roger

Help the captain of the Pirate Shellfishing Company get well

The townspeople of Wellfleet are showing their support for the recovery of Caleb Potter from his July 4th accident in a myriad of touching ways.  Donations to help his family with the medical expenses of upcoming surgeries are being taken at any Cape Cod Five branch, Caleb Potter Fund, Account 885054528.  Contributions can be mailed to  Cape Cod Five, Main Street, Wellfleet MA 02667.  Follow the example of one young local boy, who has donated his week's wages, which inspired his mother to do the same!

Caleb has been known to many as the Pirate swashbuckling through the center of town every year in the 4th of July Parade, and his aquaculture venture is known as the Pirate Shellfishing Company.  Naturally, the Jolly Roger has been showing up every where:  tied to trees along the road side, trailing from the back of pick-up trucks, planted in the lawn of Town Hall and waving high on an abondoned flagpole in the middle of uninhabited Cannon Hill, visible across from picturesque Uncle Tim's Bridge and all along Commercial Street. 

In this town steeped in the history and lure of piracy stretching back to the sinking of the Whydah on the shoals of South Wellfleet, to the present fascination spawned by serial blockbuster movies and soveigner shop staples, the sudden widespread hoisting of the Jolly Roger now takes on a new and comforting meaning.  It further emphasizes the many handwritten notes posted around town, "Pray for Caleb Potter". 

 And in a truly Wellfleetian demonstration of love, support and sharing of positive energy, friends and family met at the ocean for a "Paddle Out" prayer vigil, covered on the front page of today's CCTimes.  Like ancient Hawaiian holy men returning to the cradle of the eternal sea, a circle of nearly 100 participants gently bobbed on their surfboards, holding hands, and quietly reflecting on Caleb's recovery. 

 The Wracked Mermaid adds her deepest prayers for this young man's gentle recuperation, and wishes that Caleb may feel the peace and presence projected by the community's varied efforts to support him.

Donation cans are popping up in local businesses and events are being planned.  It seems that at times of challenge, even little outpost towns full of pirates and mermaids, a few poets and other off-beat characters can pull together to help one of their own. 

The Mermaid wishes to acknowledge that the first posting here was derived from the blog created and maintained by Skye, one very close to Caleb, and emails circulating with the news of his accident, the initiation of the Cape Cod Five Caleb Potter Fund, and replies reporting contributions to that fundraising effort.  Additonally, the glowing photograph is Skye's, from the blog.

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Update on Caleb Potter

Walk the high tide wrack line on the wild backshore, and look among  the dried seaweeds, shells and ocean tumbled pebbles.  Maybe you will see the natural beauty that lured the mermaid ashore, and kept her here on this little sand bar of a world, to shape home and family, and contribute to community.
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A sad start for my blog

On the fourth of July Caleb Potter was involved in a skateboarding accident. He has serious injuries and needs all of our prayers. This blog is to serve as a space for updates. We will try to post as often as we have new information so that all of you, our friends and family, have the information as it comes.

Zach Rowell, aged 14, is donating one of his paychecks earned from working at Mac's Seafood at Wellfleet Harbor to the Caleb Potter Fund.  We can all do a little something 

We know that everyone wants to be as close to Caleb as possible but it's very important that people DO NOT go up to Boston to visit with him.

He is in a delicate state and needs to keep as calm as possible while his body heals itself (with the help of the doctors of course!).

Please keep checking here for updates.

We'll be keeping you in the loop.  See Caleb's blog here.

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