Without wastewater treatment facilities, Island ponds could be in worse shape. Estuaries suffer from nitrogen overload, coming mostly from septic systems that remove bacteria but not nitrogen.

A few hundred alternative systems are installed on Martha's Vineyard, mostly in Edgartown and Oak Bluffs. The technology could help achieve nitrogen mitigation in Island coastal ponds.

With only two months to go before the Oak Bluffs wastewater
plant switches into gear, the town has no one to man the
operation.

Island Official's Septic Permit Raises Issues of Zoning Rules

By CHRIS BURRELL

The operator of the Island's only two sewage treatment plants,
who is also a member and former chairman of the Oak Bluffs board of
health, may have sidestepped state environmental regulations when he
applied for permits to have his old house demolished and a new one built
in its place.

Joseph Alosso's property off County road sits in an area of
town called Zone 2, where strict state and local regulations protect the
town drinking water supply.