Nate Hart, high school freshman at Cape Cod Academy and resident on the shores of Oyster Pond, has won a number of Science Fair awards this spring for his project involving Oyster Pond. Nate took core samples of bottom sediment from various locations in the pond; several of these samples reached back to a time when, in place of the pond, there was only a hollow with forested slopes. As the sea level rose following retreat and melting of the continental ice sheet, this forest was drowned and buried with marine mud. In collaboration with the carbon-14 facility at W.H.O.l., Nate dated wood from this drowned forest and found it to be about 3500 years old. Considering the depth below present sea level at which this ancient wood was cored (about 11 feet), Nate caluclated a rate for sea level rise over the ensuing 3500 year period of about 4 inches per century. At that rate, Nate thinks, present-day pond shore residents have little to fear form a further rise of sea level, provided the global warming doesn't trigger a collapse of the West Atlantic ice sheet! Nate's project wona first place award at the Regional Science Fair at Bridgewater State College, a third place award at teh State Science Fair at MIT, and a third place distinguished achievement award at the International Science and Engineering Fair held in Philadelphia. Come see Nate's poster at OPET's annual meeting.
Sandy Williams, Senior Scientist and head of the Laboratory of Coastal and Ocean Fluid Dynamics at WHOI, will develop an instrument to be located at the weir for measuring water flow rate, direction of flow and depth. With a data logger coupled to this instrument, we will be able to monitor these parameters over long periods of time. Combined with OPETs pond salinity measurements, the information will aid us in finding the optimal weir settings for varying conditions.
Dr. Williams has a special and personal interest in Oyster Pond: his mother used to live on its shores and, after having introduced her one day to his recently-widowed WHOI colleague K.O. Emery, the pioneer of Oyster Pond studies, soon found himself to be his colleague's stepson'. Sandy thrives on the challenge of developing instruments for tricky measurements and passes the challenge and enthusiasm on to his WHO students.
OPET will purchase the sensors and underwater cables, the data logger will be a gift to OPET from Onset Computer Company, and Sandy and his students will build, test and calibrate the instrument and do the initial data collection.
Pond Management Activities
Trunk River's jetties have been severely "degraded", causing the Trunk River to badly silt in during storm tides. The Trunk River silt ledge now is higher than the setting of our weir, so it is this ledge and not the weir that currently controls pond level and tidal inflow. To make the weir and not the variable silt the controlling element, Trunk River needs to be repaired.
OPET cooperated with the Falmouth Engineering Department so that at the Fall Town Meeting funds were made available for the design and permitting necessary for the repair. Applied Coastal Research and Engineering, Inc. has the design contract. Their engineers are the ones who designed the weir.
The repair design will hopefully be completed to allow timely submission of the Notice of Intent. The following will also need to be submitted: 1) Water Quality Certification, 2) Chapter 91 License (for jetties), 3) Environmental Notification Forms, and 4) Army Corps of Engineers Permit. We expect permits and design specifications in lime to be able to go to the Fall Town Meeting to ask for the construction funds.
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