This new push by the EPA to remove nitrogen is designed to restore the general health of rivers for living creatures. Bruce Rosinoff, environmental protection specialist for the EPA, acknowledges that nitrogen removal is a lot more difficult a sell to communities than bacteria removal. Kids get sick from too much bacteria in the water. Fish get sick from too much nitrogen. But eventually a sick river, periodic fish kills which have been recorded in the Agawam and an unpleasant smell from low levels of oxygen affects everyone's ability to boat, swim and live near a river.
Property values decline and tourists turn away.
Removing nitrogen won't trigger an immediate recovery of the river. But over time, less nitrogen will cut down the mats of green algae scum that suffocate the bottom of the river and wash ashore on the beaches. This in turn will make it easier for tiny crabs, fish and eelgrass to return to clearer waters. And this will bring back larger numbers and greater varieties of fish and birds. Down at the sewage treatment plant off Sandwich Road, assistant operator Lydia Van Hine, a biologist and chemist by training, gives a tour of the operation.