1991 CCMP

The 1991 Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan

The Buzzards Bay CCMP was updated in 2013. Go to the 2013 CCMP page to see the new management plan.

Finalized August 1991, approved by EPA in January 1992

On this page are links to the chapters and action plans of the original Buzzards Bay Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan completed in 1991, and approved by the US EPA in 1992. The Buzzards Bay NEP was the first National Estuary Program to draft a Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan (“CCMP”). We were the trailblazer. Our sub-watershed approach, the Plan’s focus on so-called “non-point sources” of pollution and land-use management, our approach to nitrogen management, and our focus on action by local government were cutting edge concepts when the document was first drafted in 1989.

In retrospect, our Management Plan was a simple and unassuming document, that lacked many details. The Plan outlined in plain terms the problems facing Buzzards Bay and simple recipes for addressing them.

Subsequent CCMPs by other National Estuary Programs were more polished and refined than ours, but many of our common sense strategies continue to be rediscovered elsewhere. In particular, the trend toward more involvement by local government and grass root groups for accomplishing actions to protect or restore the environment has become an almost universal theme. Though out the 1990’s, there has been a trend toward devolution of government across the US. Federal and state government downsizing has placed a greater burden of responsibility to local government.

In Massachusetts, this trend toward devolution and downsizing of state and federal government can be accommodated since municipalities have long been delegated many of the environmental management responsibilities under the state’s longstanding “Home Rule Amendments”. In our Management Plan, local boards such as Conservation Commissions, Planning Boards, Boards of Health, and Boards of Selectmen are not only the first line of defense in protecting the environment, their cumulative decisions fundamentally define the existing and future environmental conditions of their community.

After the CCMP was finalized in 1991, the focus of the Buzzards Bay NEP became the implementation of the Plan. Because the CCMP focused on actions of local government, the major focus of the Project became assistance of municipalities through grants and technical assistance. Since the CCMP was written, many of the recommended actions have been achieved.

In 2013 the Buzzards Bay NEP updated this landmark plan (go to the 2013 CCMP) to reflect the great progress achieved since that plan was finalized, and to include new goals, objectives, and recommendations to meet the environmental needs for Buzzards Bay and the surrounding watershed throughout the next decade. We hope the new plan will lead to many new successes to protect and restore water quality and living resources throughout the bay and watershed.

1991 CCMP Volume I: Buzzards Bay CCMP

Volume I of the 1991 Buzzards Bay CCMP (234 page main document; 11 MB PDF file, with imperfect OCR translation)

1991 CCMP Volume II: Financial Plan

CCMP Volume II: Financial Plan [5.5 MB pdf version]

1991 CCMP Volume III: Monitoring Plan

CCMP Volume III: Monitoring Plan [3.3 MB pdf version]

CCMP Federal Consistency Report

EPA Federal Consistency Report
This EPA CCMP federal consistency requirement is distinct from NOAA and MCZM federal consistency.