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Action Plan 16:
Reducing Toxic Pollution

October 17, 2011 draft final

About the new Buzzards Bay CCMP Action Plans
The Buzzards Bay NEP is now updating our 1991 landmark Buzzards Bay Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan (CCMP) to reflect the great progress achieved since that plan was finalized. It will include new or updated goals, objectives, and management solutions to meet the environmental needs for Buzzards Bay and its surrounding watershed throughout the next decade.

On this page is a draft action plan from the updated Buzzards Bay Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan. The text on this page is a public draft provided to invite comment and discussion of the subject by residents and stakeholders. It may contain goals and recommendations that have not yet been endorsed or approved by the Buzzards Bay Steering Committee. The views or information contained here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts or the US Environmental Protection Agency.

We want your feedback on this action plan. First, please read the entire action plan Reducing Toxic Inputs to Buzzards Bay. Then at the bottom of this page click the "Rate the Goals and Objectives now" button to provide comments on each goal, objective and defined management approach contained in this Action Plan. Based on your feedback, we will update and revise all the action plans in the new CCMP.

Reducing Toxic Pollution

Problem

Toxics enter Buzzards Bay from many sources and via numerous pathways. The largest single toxic pollution management problem remains the cleanup of the U.S. EPA Superfund site in New Bedford Harbor, which at the current rate of cleanup may take another 40 years to complete. There are 4 additional Superfund sites in the Buzzards Bay watershed, and 102 hazardous waste sites altogether on the state's Chapter 21E list. All these sites may be cleaned up in a more timely manner.

Beside these known hazardous waste sites, there are many past and ongoing inputs and pathways of toxic contamination to Buzzards Bay and its watershed. A number of embayments are identified in the states 303(d) Integrated List, and will require the development of TMDLs to manage chronic inputs. Some of the environmental impacts of these contaminants are not fully understood, and will require further study. The cleanup of the existing hazardous waste sites and controlling the numerous non-point inputs to the environment remains one of the most complicated challenges that must be addressed in the Buzzards Bay CCMP.

This Action Plan focuses on reducing and eliminating toxic inputs into the bay in order to improve bay conditions and minimize the costs of cleanup and mitigation. Both point and non-point sources of toxics are addressed.

Several other action plans provide recommendations that are directly related to this issue, including those for reducing oil pollution, managing dredging and dredged material disposal, managing wastewater industrial discharges and managing stormwater runoff.

Goal

Goal 16.1. Protect public health and the bay ecosystem from the effects of toxic contamination.

Objectives

Objective 16.1. To reduce the amount of toxic contamination entering Buzzards Bay and water bodies listed under the 303(d) program.

Objective 16.2. To reduce hazardous discharges from point sources of toxic contaminants into the bay.

Objective 16.3. To reduce the discharge of toxic contaminants and contaminants of emerging into wastewater systems (both septic and sewer).

Objective 16.3. To reduce hazardous discharges from nonpoint sources of toxic contaminants into the bay.

Objective 16.4. To meet all state, federal, and local action levels for water and seafood.

Objective 16.5. To improve local, state and federal regulation and control of seafood and sediment quality to protect human health and the environment.

Solutions

Implementing this action plan is complex because it involves industry, residential activity, the choice of products and compounds used, and regulated and non-regulated business activities. However, across all these activities and sectors of the economy, pollution prevention is one of the most important actions for achieving the goals of the action plan.

The second most important element is to ensure proper disposal and recycling of toxic materials. For example, fishing vessel owners often discharge oily bilge water because existing collection services are too expensive. In this regards, DEP could fund the construction of a bilge oil collection facility along New Bedford Harbor that accepts oily bilge water for recycling and treats it at an affordable rate to boaters and the fishing fleet. Expansion of hazardous waste collection days, increased conventional recycling programs, and year round availability of facilities to dispose of waste oil, tires, lead and cadmium battery, and fluorescent tubes.

The failure to have a speedy cleanup of hazardous waste sites, especially federal superfund sites, remains an important need, as these cleanups have been unacceptably slow.

Costs and Financing

The costs associated with implementing this action plan are as varied as the sectors and pollution sources that must be managed. One particularly expensive need is funding for the design, permitting, and construction, of an oily bilge water-collection and treatment facility in new Bedford, which will likely cost $500,000 to build, and tens of thousands of dollars per year to operate. The construction and operation of this facility could be funded by the Massachusetts Oil Spill Act fund.

There are many other costs associated with this action plan. Hazardous material disposal collections are expensive, and municipalities can often only afford one collection event annually, if at all. There are cost to expand conventional recycling programs as well.

Measuring Success

The success of this action plan can be evaluated by the amount of hazardous materials collected, the concentration of toxic contaminants in wastewater facility discharges, and by various programmatic and management action, measures.

To fully understand the basis of these goals and objectives, and possible management approaches, please read the complete Reducing Toxic Inputs Action Plan (October 17, 2011 draft final, pdf file).

Feedback Form

Read the Reducing Toxic Inputs to Buzzards Bay action plan.

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