If impacts are affecting estuaries, are the groundwater wells protected?
Fresh water bodies and groundwater supply wells are more resilient to nitrogen impacts than salt water embayments. Salt water is much more sensitive to elevated nitrogen levels, and the recommended limits to the estuaries are less than 1.0 mg/l (milligrams per liter), while limits to drinking water are 10 mg/l. There is an order-of-magnitude higher sensitivity in estuarine systems. The most recent five-year average of nitrogen sampling in the Brewster water system is about 0.77 mg/l (nitrate), in part because the Zone of Contribution to the town’s wells have limited development.
