Deer Island Sewerage Treatment Plant

To aid in protecting the marine fisheries resources of the Commonwealth, MarineFisheries maintains an ongoing Environmental Impact Assessment Program to review activities and alteration projects in coastal waters and advise local, state, and federal regulatory agencies on measures to protect fishery resources and habitat. Progam staff coordinate the efforts of other staff biologists to complete reviews, conduct directed surveys, provide technical assistance, and submit formal recommendations for the reduction and restoration of impacts. Program staff serve on numerous intra and interstate technical and advisory committees.

Working cooperatively with other state, federal, and local agencies, the goals of the Environmental Impact Assessment Program are to 1) seek to avoid impacts to fisheries resources; 2) minimize impacts through project modifications, sequencing, and time-of-year-restrictions; 3) seek restoration of habitat for direct short-term impacts; 4) recommend options for compensatory mitigation. Projects and activities reviewed by the program generally fall into one of three categories:  

1. Effluent Discharge - Discharges regulated under the federal Environmental Protection Agency's National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) include effluent released from wastewater treatment facilities, chemical, and other industrial discharges. Careful consideration is provided to make sure discharge effluent limitations will not impact finfish or shellfish resources in the effluent receiving waters.

2. Power Plant Operations - A special project category under the EPA NPDES program addresses fishery impacts from electrical power generation. Review and advisory activity for these facilities has been increasing since the deregulation of the electric power industry in Massachusetts. Seawater (along with fish eggs, larvae, and adults) is routinely withdrawn from coastal power plants to cool equipment, and then discharged at an elevated temperature. MarineFisheries staffs with extensive experience in field studies of power plant fishery impacts maintain ongoing review and advisory activity for power plants at Brayton Point, Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station, Canal Electric (Sandwich), Salem Station, and other coastal locations.

3. Coastal Alterations - Projects reviewed under this heading generally fall into one of six categories:

1) Docks & Piers
2) Dredging and dredge material disposal
3) Fill projects - revetments, bulkheads, ramps, highway projects
4) Beach Nourishment
5) Harbor Development
6) Special projects - fiber optic cables, pipelines, wind mills, etc.      

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An example of motor boat propeller dredging at a marina

Review of these projects includes close coordination with Federal agencies such as the National Marine Fisheries Service, EPA, and the U. S. Army Corp of Engineers, and State agencies such as the Department of Environmental Protection, Department of Environmental Management, Coastal Zone Management, and others. MarineFisheries staff attend regular joint interagency project review meetings sponsored by the Corps, assist with the identification of fisheries habitat, sit on interagency technical committees, and provide technical assistance to avoid and/or minimize impacts to habitat. To aid in characterization of the resource, Program staff perform directed studies and surveys in the field.

An additional Program activity is the collection of finfish, lobster, and shellfish from Massachusetts coastal waters for contaminant monitoring. As needed, sediment cores and marine vegetation may also be collected for site investigations.

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