Last week the federal
government officially declared Cape Cod
Bay a no discharge zone - boaters will no longer be
allowed to flush marine toilets into Bay waters. 731 square miles is now
protected, an area bigger than the Cape Cod Bay itself. Boston
Harbor received a no-discharge
designation at the beginning of the month.
Dumping sewage from boats into Nantucket Sound is currently still
allowed.
“The goal of
the EPA is one no discharge zone from Casco Bay in Maine
to the Connecticut Border" - Robert Varney,
Regional Administrator of the EPA
Here's the EPA press release:
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Boston, Mass. –
July 14, 2008 – With state and local backing,
EPA is designating Cape Cod Bay as a “No Discharge”
area. This status means that discharges of treated and untreated boat
sewage are prohibited within these Massachusetts state waters,
including the Towns of Provincetown, Truro, Wellfleet, Eastham,
Orleans, Brewster, Dennis, Yarmouth, Barnstable, Sandwich and Bourne.
The designation is for the single largest area of protected coastal
waters in the Northeast.
In May, the Mass. Office of Coastal Zone Management (CZM), in
partnership with the Association to Preserve Cape Cod, the Nantucket
Soundkeeper, and the towns on the Cape Cod Bay side petitioned EPA to
approve the No Discharge designation. Following consideration of the
request, and a 30-day public review and comment period, EPA will
approve the request to protect these coastal waters from boat sewage.
“Cape Cod is cherished by hundreds of thousands of people
throughout New England and beyond. Putting this important protection in
place will help safeguard people’s enjoyment of this special,
beautiful place,” said Robert W. Varney, regional
administrator of EPA's New England Office. “Achieving this
designation for Cape Cod Bay is a major milestone in EPA’s
effort to protect the entire New England coastline from boat sewage.
These Cape communities are leading the way nationally about how we can
better protect our environment.”
"The designation of a No Discharge Zone in Cape Cod Bay is a victory
for the grass-roots organizations on Cape Cod who worked tirelessly on
this issue, for the state as a whole, and for the people who come from
all over the world to visit this special region of the Commonwealth,"
said Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Ian Bowles. "With this
key piece of the puzzle, we are well on our way of achieving Governor
Patrick's goal of a statewide NDA covering all of the state's coastal
waters."
To qualify for a No Discharge designation, the applicant must show
there are enough “pumpout” facilities where boaters
can get their sewage holding tanks pumped out. This particular area has
an estimated 7,000 boats, of which only 3,590 are large enough to have
a head or toilet on board. There are a total of eight pumpout
facilities in the proposed area, five fixed shore-based facilities and
three pumpout boats. In addition, there are two pending pumpout
facilities which should be operational in the summer of 2008. There are
approximately 19 marinas, 14 yacht and five public landings and piers;
and 42 beaches in the area.
Boat sewage can lead to health problems for swimmers, closed shellfish
beds and the overall degradation of marine habitats.
The Association to Preserve Cape Cod, the Nantucket Soundkeeper and MA
Coastal Zone Management (MA CZM) initiated the No Discharge Area
designation process in the summer of 2007 to safeguard local marine
resources. Working together, the groups held informal meetings in the
area where staff presented an overview of the proposed area for
designation, outlined the designation process, described the beneficial
environmental impacts of establishing the No Discharge Area and
received input from the public.
"It's been an honor to work on the NDA designation as part of the
Working Group. We want to thank the towns, harbormasters and
organizations who supported the NDA and made it possible. We look
forward to helping to designate the next NDA on the south side of Cape
Cod," said Maggie Geist, Executive Director of the Association to
Preserve Cape Cod.
"Today's designation is vital not only to protect Cape Cod Bay, but
also to set the stage for another critical NDA designation over on the
other side of Cape Cod, in Nantucket Sound, which we hope can take
place in short order now and create an envelope of protection for both
sides of this peninsula," said Susan Nickerson, Executive Director of
the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound and Nantucket Soundkeeper.
With today’s designation, there will be one continuous No
Discharge Area for the coastline of Massachusetts from Provincetown all
the way to the end of Boston Harbor in Winthrop.
In addition, many other areas in New England already have designated
their coastal waters as No Discharge areas, or are in the process of
doing so. These include:
- All state marine waters of Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New
Hampshire
- In Massachusetts: Harwich, Waquoit Bay, Nantucket Harbor and Buzzards
Bay (including Wareham and Westport), Plymouth/Duxbury/Kingston area,
Scituate, Marshfield and Cohasset, Salem Sound, and Boston Harbor.
- In Maine, Casco Bay;
- Lake Champlain and Lake Memphremagog in Vermont.
More information:
No Discharge Areas in
New England
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