On July 20, at a celebration at Aselton Park in Hyannis, Massachusetts, Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA) Richard K. Sullivan Jr. was joined by US Senator John Kerry, EPA Regional Administrator Curt Spalding, state Senator Dan Wolf, state Representative Randy Hunt and other officials to announce that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has approved the state’s proposal to designate the South Cape Cod and Islands No Discharge Area (NDA).
This designation prohibits the discharge of any treated or untreated boat waste in an 807-square-mile area of state waters south of Cape Cod and surrounding Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard. With the approval of the Mt. Hope Bay NDA last month, virtually the entire state is now designated as an NDA.
“With this designation, nearly all of our coastal waters are protected from boat pollution, providing clean resources for tourism and recreational activities like swimming and fishing and habitat for marine life,” said Sullivan. The South Cape Cod and Islands NDA designation caps more than five years of extensive work by CZM and area communities to ensure that the necessary waste pumpout facilities are available. These 14 communities are Chilmark, West Tisbury, Tisbury, Oak Bluffs, Edgartown, Gosnold, Falmouth, Mashpee, Barnstable, Yarmouth, Dennis, Harwich, Chatham, and Nantucket. There are now 29 boat sewage pumpout facilities available in accessible locations throughout the area, making compliance with the no discharge requirements convenient for boaters. Several of these communities have at one time received reimbursement for 75 percent of the cost of purchasing and operating their pumpout facilities via the Commonwealth’s Clean Vessel Act Program, administered by the Division of Marine Fisheries (MarineFisheries). For details, see the EEA Press Release. Also, check out flickr photos from the Aselton Park event. For more on NDA activities along the coast, see CZM’s NDA website.
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