No Discharge Area proposal includes North Shore coast

An application soon to be sent to the US Environmental Protection Agency would designate all state marine waters as a “No Discharge Area,” including three miles of ocean from the North Shore coast that would be off limits to dumped boat sewage.The state Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs Office of Coastal Zone Management made the announcement earlier this month, and the application is currently under a public comment period. The application includes a map of the new “No Discharge Area” (NDA) and proof that there are reasonable and adequate sewage pump-out facilities for vessels traveling through coastal waters.According to a letter from the state agency, 80 percent of state waters are already classified as a NDA. The three final areas in the application, according to the release, are “a strip of waters between two and three miles from shore ranging from Manchester-By-The-Sea to Marshfield, a corridor in Vineyard Sound and a corridor in Nantucket Sound.”Todd Callaghan, coastal and marine scientist for the Office of Coastal Zone Management, said North Shore waters about two miles from the coast are already a designated NDA. The current proposal would fold in the additional mile of ocean from shore under state jurisdiction.Vi Patek, president of Safer Waters in Massachusetts (SWIM), a Nahant nonprofit, said she is thrilled with the application.?This is the jewel in the crown of cleaning up Mass. waters,” she said.Callaghan said his office has been working with local organizations, like SWIM, boat clubs and municipalities to drum up support for the proposal.?We want this to be driven from the ground up,” he said.The NDA rules apply to “every vessel that treads in state waters,” Callaghan said, including cruise ships, recreational boats and tankers.Callaghan said if the EPA sanctions the application, Massachusetts would join Connecticut, Rhode Island and New Hampshire in having a state-wide NDA.?We?re wrapping it all together. The whole state is one NDA,” he said. “Everyone has the same consistent regulations wherever they go, or one state to the next.”The current NDA along the coast from Gloucester to Marshfield, Callaghan said, is “a visual line based on buoys.” But since boats are now equipped with GPS and electronic maps, it was time to push for a state-wide NDA, he said. All prohibited areas are relayed to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and put into its electronic charts, Callaghan said.Patek said the state-wide NDA would have the largest positive effect on beachgoers and people eating seafood from local waters.?Everybody benefits when the sea is clean,” she said.Once the application comment period is over on Feb. 26, Gallagher said the application will be sent by Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Richard K. Sullivan Jr. to the EPA. The EPA will then have its own 30-to-60-day public comment period on the application before making a decision.Gallagher said he is confident in EPA approval.?We work very closely with the EPA and usually show them a draft beforehand so we can get any problems worked out,” he said.Gallagher said he anticipates a joint press release and public event around Memorial Day or Fourth of July.?They?re big boating weekends and people would be paying attention,” he said.Patek said a lot of progress has been made in cleaning up coastal waters, leading up the potential state-wide discharge ban.?It?s just hard to believe that anybody could dump anywhere and nobody really cared,” she said. “And those days are gone.”