NAHANT – A cruise liner room tag found among a concentrated amount of sewage discovered on Pond Beach Saturday has led Nahant officials to believe that the liner may have illegally dumped the debris in nearby waters.Harbormaster Rob Tibbo, who found the trash while walking the beach Saturday morning, said in an e-mail to Town Administrator Andy Bisignani that he found”what appears to be macerated sewage and other possible holding tank waste” along with a room tag from the MS Maasdam, a Holland America cruise ship.Bisignani explained in an interview Tuesday that macerated sewage is what occurs when large ocean vessels grind up waste and keep it in a holding tank to be pumped out at designated stations.Vi Patek, president of Safer Waters in Massachusetts, said in an e-mail to her staff that the debris contained a mass of rubber gloves, dental floss, contraceptive and personal hygiene items, and a urinal cake, among other things. She received a report on Sunday from Linda Pivacek, Chairman of the Open Space Committee, that there were “huge masses of brownish foam” along the south shore of Little Nahant. Pivacek added in the e-mail that she could see “toilet paper and other debris ? within the foamy mass.”View a map of where the debris was found.View Trash on Nahant Beach in a larger mapBisignani said such a high concentration of debris could not have come from beachgoers. Patek said Tuesday that idea is “impossible – that’s a fact. This had to have come from a ship. The question for me is whether it came from outside the limit or outside Boston Harbor or what.”Bisignani said that cruise ships leave Boston Harbor every Friday afternoon and travel right by Nahant through the North Channel. “With an incoming tide, [the debris] would have come right in,” he said.In an e-mail alerting Coast Guard Lieutenant Casey Goranson of the situation, Bisignani said, “I personally observed a cruise ship exiting Boston Harbor through the North Channel on Friday afternoon.”Bisignani, who is also an assistant harbormaster, said no vessel is allowed to dump sewage in United States waters inside of the “three-mile limit.” Patek said so far, there is no way to tell how far the debris was carried by the current, and therefore no way to tell if the dumping was illegal.”I don’t know how long it would take to go from three miles out,” she said. “It’s not very far away with currents and what not. It’s a really tough situation ? maybe they did it outside the limit, or the other scenario is that they did it nearby and they shouldn’t have and they could have been fined a ton of money.”Patek said “the biggest problem is enforcement.” Bisignani was told in an e-mailed response from Goranson that “without an eye witness or detailed information of a possible release, our options are limited.”Bisignani said the town is not accusing the cruise ship of illegal dumping. Patek said, “We can’t really accuse them. The evidence looks bad, but what are you going to do?”Patek believes dumped sewage may be related to the two-week closing of Tudor Beach that occurred this summer.Without the ability to enforce the issue, Bisignani and Patek are hoping to increase awareness of illegal dumping. Patek said it’s important “for people to be aware that this happened and be aware that it’s very difficult to make a case against an individual ship but it’s pretty serious and specific evidence.”Patek said Nahant residents are upset about the possible illegal dumping. “People get very upset about their beaches,” she said. “They care really deeply about the quality of the water – we want to know that our water is clean.”Kait Taylor may be reached at [email protected].