In January 2026, CPWB began a campaign against the Reserve at Quashnet Valley Country Club, a proposed subdivision of 25 single-family houses on a hill above the upper Quashnet River in Mashpee. The project completes a special permit first issued in 1973, and it was then under review by the state’s Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act (MEPA) Office. The Quashnet already carries more than a quarter of the nitrogen that reaches Waquoit Bay.
CPWB president Maggie Megaw wrote a letter to the editor, published in the Falmouth Enterprise on January 16, 2026, and CPWB invited members, neighbors and other local groups to an in-person letter-writing session at Aquatic Brewing in Falmouth on Saturday, January 17, so residents could send comments to MEPA while the public comment period was open.
What CPWB asked for
- No new nitrogen to the Bay. Require the developers, within the limits of available technology, to cut the nitrogen reaching the Quashnet far below what 19 mg/L I/A systems would allow, or eliminate it.
- Developers, not taxpayers, should pay. The cost of dealing with the project’s nitrogen should not be shifted to Mashpee and Falmouth taxpayers, who are already paying to clean up the Bay.
- No approval without that change. Without such an improvement to the plan, MEPA should not approve the project.
The campaign continued after MEPA’s January 29 decision: CPWB wrote to the Cape Cod Commission and to the state’s Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs in support of Trout Unlimited (read CPWB’s letters). In August 2026, Falmouth also asked the state to limit nitrogen from the subdivision (what happened next).
The letter
As published in the Falmouth Enterprise on January 16, 2026, under the headline “Stop This Development From Polluting Waquoit Bay”.
I am writing on behalf of Citizens for the Protection of Waquoit Bay (CPWB) to alert residents of Mashpee and Falmouth to a proposed development of 25 single-family houses to be sited above the Quashnet River in Mashpee. The project is called The Reserve at Quashnet Valley Country Club. CPWB is alarmed at the potential impact of this project on the Quashnet River and on Waquoit Bay. The original permit for this project was issued in 1973, when few understood the environmental impact of nitrogen on our waters. We understand now and should not now knowingly allow new nitrogen to be contributed to Waquoit Bay. We will be hosting an in-person letter-writing session to the state on Saturday, January 17, at 3 PM at Aquatic Brewing (661 Main Street in Falmouth) while the public comment period on this project is open.
In the most recent plan for the project, the developers have committed to installing innovative/alternative systems for all 25 houses, but the legal nitrogen level of 19mg/l in the effluent from these systems (as compared to the maximum allowed in Falmouth of 10mg/l) means there will still be a considerable additional load of nitrogen flowing downgradient from the project into the Quashnet River. This additional nitrogen pollution will risk the reversal of many decades of dedicated work by Trout Unlimited and other groups to restore the river as fish habitat. The Quashnet is already a fragile and deeply impaired ecosystem and can’t afford to be further weakened. And though you wouldn’t know from the filing that the Quashnet River is connected to Waquoit Bay—the bay is not even named in the filing which states that the project is “not expected to impact coastal water quality”—the Quashnet in fact already delivers over 25% of the nitrogen flowing into Waquoit Bay. If the project is built as planned, all the additional nitrogen from those 25 houses will travel to the bay and further degrade an already badly degraded estuary. All this at a time when hundreds of millions of dollars are being spent by Mashpee and Falmouth taxpayers to try to restore the bay to some version of its former condition. It makes no sense.
The developers’ recent filing with the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act (MEPA) Office repeatedly asserts that “the project will result in a net benefit to the surrounding community by increasing the housing supply…that is safe, healthy and attainable for people with different income levels.” While this sounds like a worthy goal, this project does not include either affordable or attainable housing units as currently designed. It is unclear what the market cost of the houses will be, but the overall $22,000,000 cost to build the project pencils out to $850,000 per house before any profit. This doesn’t look to us like a fix for our housing crisis.
What would we like to see? If MEPA believes this is a necessary project, the developers should be required within the limits of available technology to reduce to a far lower level or completely eliminate the nitrogen flowing into the Quashnet River. The developers should not be allowed to shift the cost to the taxpayers of dealing with the nitrogen their project will generate. Without such an improvement to the plan, MEPA should not approve this project.
We hope to see many people join us at Aquatic Brewery on Saturday, 3 PM.
Maggie Megaw
President, Citizens for the Protection of Waquoit Bay
Drafted with AI assistance from the linked source.
