This is a proposed updated Action Plan in the Buzzards Bay CCMP 2024 Update.

Managing Impacts from Boating, Marinas, and Moorings

Problem

In 2000, the Buzzards Bay Action Committee, on behalf of the watershed municipalities, and with technical assistance from the Buzzards Bay NEP, helped establish Buzzards Bay as a No Discharge Zone for boat sewage, the first large area to be designated as such in Massachusetts. However, boats, boat moorings, and marinas can still adversely affect water quality and habitats of Buzzards Bay. These impacts are most pronounced where boat density is greatest or where there are sensitive resources. Boat use and maintenance, and the infrastructure to support those activities, all have potential impacts associated with the release of contaminants, and through physical alterations like propeller wash and anchor chain scour, and through shading of the bottom. Some harbors in Buzzards Bay have more than 1000 moorings. Mooring chains scour the bottom, remove eelgrass, and destroy habitat for benthic fauna. These chains, bouncing on the bottom with waves, resuspend bottom sediments greatly reducing water clarity that can shade out eelgrass beds over large areas and elevate bacteria levels. Some marinas have illicit discharges associated with boat cleaning operations, and 95% of the marinas in Buzzards Bay have not complied with EPA’s MultiSector General Permit for managing stormwater discharges. New FDA rules require mandatory shellfish bed closures around marina’s and mooring areas, so expanding these areas reduces the availability of shellfish. Education is needed about the broader impacts associated with boats, moorings and marinas and how they can be minimized.

Goals and Objectives

Changes: The first goal’s focus was shifted to enforcement rather than elimination. Some objectives were re-worded improve clarity and readability or defined needed actions.

Goal 6.1. Enforce the Buzzards Bay No Discharge Zone to ensure there are no illegal wastewater discharges from boats.
Goal 6.2. Eliminate or minimize impacts of discharges from marina operations.
Goal 6.3. Eliminate adverse environmental impacts associated with mooring fields such as chain scars and sediment suspension.
Objective 6.1. Ensure that each embayment has at least one boat waste pumpout facility.
Objective 6.2. Promote the use of pumpout facilities by educating boaters, making facilities more accessible, and enforcing the regulations.
Objective 6.3. Achieve full compliance of marinas and boat building and boat maintenance facilities with industrial site stormwater discharge permits.
Objective 6.4. Ensure compliance of marina power washing activities with applicable state and federal laws.
Objective 6.5. Encourage municipalities to pilot, demonstrate, and require use of conservation moorings for boat mooring fields.