• Via the Environmental Monitor website: https://eeaonline.eea.state.ma.us/EEA/MEPA-eMonitor/home (search by publication date December 23rd 2025, EEA No. 17025 “The Reserve at Quashnet Valley Country Club”, click the “Comment” button on the right)

Email template:

To the Office of the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act (MEPA):

I am writing to express my concerns about The Reserve at Quashnet Valley Country Club (#17025), a development of 25 houses to be sited above the Quashnet River in Mashpee.  I am especially alarmed at the potential impact of this project on the Quashnet River and Waquoit Bay.

The MEPA filing claims that this development “is not expected to impact coastal water quality”.  However, the developers have committed to installing nitrogen-removing septic systems that are not the best available systems. This means that avoidable nitrogen pollution is certain to enter the Quashnet River and travel downstream into Waquoit Bay further weakening this designated Area of Critical Environmental Concern.  The excess nitrogen from those systems will become the taxpayers’ cost to remediate, rather than the developers’ responsibility not to cause.

In addition, the developers of this project maintain that it will create housing that is “safe, healthy, and attainable for people with different income levels.”  However, with an average building cost per house of $850,000 before profit, these houses will be unaffordable for most Cape Codders.  This is no fix to the housing crisis.

In closing, I believe that the Office of MEPA should only approve this application under the condition that the development be connected to a sewer system or a cluster septic system that will keep the maximum amount of nitrogen possible out of the Quashnet River and Waquoit Bay.

Respectfully submitted,

YOUR NAME

YOUR TOWN