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MASSACHUSETTS BAYS 1996 COMPREHENSIVE CONSERVATION AND MANAGEMENT PLAN
Citation:
MASSACHUSETTS BAYS 1996 COMPREHENSIVE CONSERVATION AND MANAGEMENT PLAN. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C., 1996.
Description:
The Massachusetts Bays Program (MBP) was launched 1988 to actively address the mounting environmental threats to the health of Massachusetts and Cape Cod Bays (the Massachusetts Bays). Initial funding of $1.6 million from the Massachusetts Environmental Trust was the result of settlement fines from a suit filed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the City of Quincy against the Commonwealth for violations of the Clean Water Act in Boston Harbor. The same year, Congressman Gerry Studds, acting on behalf of the Massachusetts Congressional Delegation, drafted an amendment to the Clean Water Act, giving priority consideration to Massachusetts and Cape Cod Bays to become part of the National Estuary Program (NEP). The NEP was established to identify nationally significant estuaries threatened by pollution, development, or overuse, and to promote the preparation of comprehensive management plans to ensure their ecological integrity. In June 1989, Governor Michael Ducks formally submitted the nomination package for Massachusetts Bays. In April 1990, EPA Administrator William Reilly accepted the Massachusetts Bays into the National Estuary Program. On November 13, 1990, EPA and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts signed a Management Conference Agreement which set forth work to be accomplished over the next five years.
Today, the program is a federal, state, and local partnership funded by EPA, the Massachusetts Executive Office of Environmental Affairs (EOEA), and other sources. The MBP is administered by the Massachusetts Coastal Zone Management Office (CZM) - an agency within EOEA with technical assistance and planning services provided by the Regional Planning Agencies through grants from the MBP. Grants administration is provided through the Urban Harbors Institute at the University of Massachusetts/ Boston.