The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection has drafted proposed regulations that significantly strengthen the rules governing the use of septic systems and encourage and incentivize towns to obtain watershed management permits. Both sets of regulations are critical, time sensitive and warrant support. It has been evident for decades that septic systems, even legal ones compliant with state and local rules, are the source of, not the solution to, the deterioration of water quality in the Cape’s marine estuaries and bays. Updating the regulation of septic systems has been difficult, as the lack of public wastewater infrastructure in most Cape towns has perpetuated reliance on septic systems even when there was no such system that reduced nutrients sufficiently to meet the needs of our water resources. With the creation of new financing mechanisms over the last decade it is now possible for towns to afford to build the needed collection and treatment systems. At the same time, technological advances in septic technology allow their use in certain areas as a complement to core sewering in dense areas.
APCC Supports Proposed DEP Water Quality Improvement Regulations
