The short version
At the Waquoit Bay Reserve's 2024 Cape Coastal Conference in Hyannis on June 18, 2024, two senior Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) officials, Gerard Martin and Lealdon Langley, explained where the state's 2023 Title 5 (septic) and watershed permit rules stood. The slides show that 30 Cape Cod watersheds in 14 towns are now treated as nitrogen-sensitive. In those areas, nitrogen-reducing septic systems are required for new construction from July 8, 2024, and for existing systems within five years of the rules, unless a town is working under a 20-year watershed permit or qualifies for a small-contributor exemption. The slides also list approved septic technologies and state grant money. This summary is based on the slide deck, a snapshot of mid-2024.
What the report covers
This is a 19-slide official briefing by MassDEP staff on the rules and how towns can meet them.
- Why nitrogen from wastewater is a problem for Cape estuaries, and which watersheds the rules designate as nitrogen-sensitive.
- What septic owners and towns must do in those watersheds, and the two ways a town can avoid the septic upgrade requirement.
- How a 20-year watershed permit works, and what a watershed management plan must contain.
- The state's definition of the best available nitrogen-reducing septic technology, with tables of approved systems, their nitrogen limits and how many sites use them.
- The status of watershed permit filings across the Cape as of June 2024.
- State and federal grant and loan programs, with MassDEP contacts for questions.
What it found
- 30 watersheds in 14 towns. On July 7, 2023, when the rules took effect, 30 Cape Cod watersheds became Natural Resource Nitrogen Sensitive Areas. A watershed qualifies if it has an EPA-approved nitrogen limit (a total maximum daily load, or TMDL) and falls under the Cape Cod Commission's 2015 regional water quality plan (the 208 Plan) (Martin & Langley, 2024).
- Nitrogen-reducing septic systems, on a schedule. In these areas the best available nitrogen-reducing technology is required for new construction starting July 8, 2024 (the slides note this was moved from January 8, 2024), and for existing systems within five years of the rules taking effect.
- Two ways out of the septic upgrade. A community that operates under a watershed permit is not held to the upgrades, and filing a notice of intent to apply for one pauses them. A town can instead file for a "de minimis" exemption if its share is 3% or less of the controllable nitrogen load reaching the watershed or sub-watershed.
- A 20-year permit with a plan behind it. A watershed permit runs 20 years rather than the usual five and is issued to a town, a regional body or several towns together. It rests on a watershed management plan covering current and projected nitrogen loads, the technologies chosen and what each removes, a backup plan, costs, a monitoring plan and a schedule in five-year steps. Towns may reuse existing approved wastewater plans, use one permit for several watersheds and address pollutants besides nitrogen.
- Most of the Cape is heading for permits. A permit for Pleasant Bay was issued in 2018 to Brewster, Chatham, Harwich and Orleans. Barnstable applied in September 2023 for all seven of its watersheds. Nine towns filed 29 notices of intent covering 27 watersheds, and one town filed two de minimis applications. The slides say permits will cover all but two Cape watersheds. They don't name the towns that filed, other than those above.
- Few systems reach 10 mg/L. The rules define the best available technology as a system certified at 10 milligrams of nitrogen per liter (mg/L) of treated wastewater or less, or, if none has full approval at that level, the best fully approved system. On the slides, the tables list two general-use home systems, each approved at 19 mg/L (the SeptiTech STAAR at 56 sites and the Orenco Advantex AX20 at 97). Home-sized provisional-use systems are listed at 10 mg/L (Nitrex, 8 sites) and 11 mg/L (NitROE, 45 sites). Larger systems of 2,000 to 10,000 gallons a day are listed at 25 mg/L, plus one pilot system at 19 mg/L.
- Money is available but limited. In early 2024 the state awarded $300,000 in nitrogen-sensitive-area grants to five communities, and MassDEP expected two more grant rounds soon: a capital-funded grant of up to $600,000 and a Clean Water Trust grant of at least $400,000. The slides also point to a federal estuary program's watershed grants and the state revolving fund. Demand outran supply: 30 proposals asked for $8.3 million in nonpoint-source (319) funding with about $3.1 million available, and 14 proposals sought $2.3 million in planning (604(b)) funding with $916,000 available.
What it means for Waquoit Bay today
The slides cover the whole Cape. CPWB's earlier summary of the final rules notes that the Waquoit Bay watershed, which spans Falmouth, Mashpee and Sandwich, is among the Cape watersheds they cover (see State finalizes Cape Cod watershed permit and septic rules). Check with Falmouth and Mashpee for the status of their filings. The deck is also a mid-2024 snapshot; for example, MassDEP released a draft Barnstable permit a year later (see MassDEP drafts Barnstable permit).
For neighbors, the practical points are the July 8, 2024 start for nitrogen-reducing systems in new construction, and the fact that a town's filing for a watershed permit can pause the upgrade requirement for existing systems, which is why the content of local watershed plans matters. CPWB has asked Mashpee to require the most effective nitrogen-reducing septic systems (see our letter to the Mashpee Board of Health). The rules leave towns free to choose their mix of fixes, but not every nature-based option carries much weight: a study of Falmouth's restored Coonamessett bogs found the whole site removed well under 1% of the nitrogen flowing down the river (see groundwater seeps in a restored bog).
This talk was given at the Waquoit Bay Reserve's 2024 Cape Coastal Conference. Our conference roundup lists all the talks, with slides and videos.
See the presentation
Martin, G., & Langley, L. (2024, June 18). Title 5 updates and watershed permitting [Conference presentation slides]. Cape Coastal Conference, Waquoit Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, Hyannis, MA, United States. Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection. https://waquoitbayreserve.org/wp-content/uploads/Title-5_Lealdon_Gerard_MassDEP.pdf
License: The slides carry no license statement and are not a US federal work, so we do not host a copy and link to the Waquoit Bay Reserve's copy instead. This is a slide deck, not a paper: the summary covers only what the slides show, not what the speakers said. A video of the talk is on YouTube. The card image is a title card made from the citation.
Drafted with AI assistance from the linked source.
