The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has designated the coastal waters of Nantucket, Vineyard Sounds and the Islands, and Mount Hope Bay in Massachusetts as “No Discharge Areas.” According to EPA, this designation completes the protection of more than 95 percent of Massachusetts coastal waters from boat-generated sewage pollution.
With this designation, discharges of treated and untreated boat sewage are prohibited within the town boundaries of Chilmark, West Tisbury, Tisbury, Oak Bluffs, Edgartown, Gosnold, Falmouth, Mashpee, Barnstable, Yarmouth, Dennis, Harwich, Chatham, and Nantucket as well as within the waters of Mt. Hope Bay. The designation for Mt. Hope Bay means that discharging boat sewage is prohibited within the town boundaries of Dighton, Berkley, Freetown, Somerset, Swansea, and Fall River. Mount Hope Bay is a shared waterbody between Massachusetts and Rhode Island, and in 1998 Rhode Island designated all of its state waters, including Mount Hope Bay, as no discharge.
Many other areas in New England already have designated their coastal waters as No Discharge Areas, including:
- all state marine waters of Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire, and
- Boothbay Harbor, Casco Bay, Kennebunk/Kennebunkport/Wells, the Southern Mount Desert area, and West Penobscot Bay (Camden/Rockport/Rockland), Maine.
For more information on the “No Discharge Areas”, please visit:
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