Evaluation of data availability and examples of modeling for ground-water management on Cape Cod, Massachusetts

Cape Cod is a seashore resort area of national renown. It is a hookshaped peninsula which extends 40 miles into the Atlantic Ocean and is separated from the mainland by Cape Cod Canal, a salt-water channel connecting Buzzards Bay and Cape Cod Bay (fig. 1). It is 440 square miles in area and is underlain by unconsolidated earth materials that contain a lens-like reservoir of fresh ground water "floating" on salty ground water. 

The fresh ground-water reservoir is the principal source of supply for the rapidly growing population of Cape Cod. Because of increasing resident population and increasing numbers of summer vacationers, there is local and State concern for problems of meeting increased water demands, deterioration of water quality, changes of water table and pond levels, and changes in ecology owing to changes in salinity of water in brackish-water bodies.