Amendment ID: S2819-14

Amendment 14

Recommendations of the Ocean Acidification Commission

Messrs. Cyr and Moore, Ms. Moran, Ms. Rausch, Messrs. Timilty and Tarr move that the proposed new text be amended by inserting the following new sections:-

SECTION X. Chapter 6 of the General Laws is hereby amended by adding after Section 15IIIIII the following section:-

Section 15JJJJJJ. The governor shall annually issue a proclamation setting apart the third full week in August as Ocean Acidification Awareness Week and recommending that the day be observed in an appropriate manner by the people, promoting citizen science initiatives and action by the general public not only to preserve the health of the coastline but also to generate valuable scientific data for the Commonwealth.

SECTION X. Section 1 of Chapter 21N of the General Laws is hereby amended by inserting each of the following definitions within the proper place to maintain descending alphabetical order:-

(i) “ocean acidification”, the acidification of the greater Atlantic driven by atmospheric carbon deposition independent of Massachusetts coastal stressors.

(ii) “coastal acidification”, the acidification of Massachusetts coastal waters driven by background ocean acidification, eutrophication, freshwater inputs, atmospheric deposition, and any other natural or anthropogenic stressor.

(iii) “coastal stressors”, eutrophication, nutrient pollution, freshwater inputs, and atmospheric deposition from the coast acidifying coastal waters.

(iv) “coastal waters”, any waters and associated submerged lands of the ocean, including the seabed and subsoil, lying between the coast and the seaward boundary of the commonwealth, as defined in 43 U.S.C. § 1312.

(v)“coastal watershed”, merrimack, parker, ipswich, north coastal, mystic, Neponset, charles, south coastal, cape cod, islands, buzzards bay, taunton, and narragansett waters.

(vi)“eutrophication” , a condition of coastal or freshwaters of having elevated nutrient concentrations. Eutrophication caused by human development is the primary cause of excessive algal growth and deoxygenation of coastal waters.

SECTION X. Section 10 of Chapter 21N of the General Laws, as appearing in the 2020 Official Edition, is hereby amended by inserting after the phrase, “sea level rise and increased storm surge”, the following words:, ocean and coastal acidification.

SECTION X. Chapter 21N of the General Laws is hereby amended by adding after section 11, the following section:-

Section 12

(a) The secretary of energy and environmental affairs shall establish and chair the Ocean Acidification Council. Members shall include the directors or respective designees of the office of coastal zone management, the department of environmental protection, the environmental policy act office, the department of marine fisheries, the division of ecological restoration, and the department of agricultural resources. The council shall include public members appointed by the governor, including a member of a private monitoring organization in the state, a member of the state shellfishing industry, a scientist specializing in coastal conservation, a member of the Massachusetts municipal association.

(b) The council is established to further understand and take action against the threat posed by ocean and coastal acidification. The activities of the council shall include, but not be limited to, engaging with public and private monitoring efforts, aligning data collection and maintaining a central repository for ocean acidification data, and providing monitoring hardware and technical training.  The council shall recommend mitigative interventions for coastal stressors or adaptive technologies for aquaculture, prioritizing nature-based solutions to manage stormwater and reduce nutrient pollution. Funds may target existing programs and novel approaches to restore and buffer marine habitats and resources impacted by acidification, provided that, funds contributed from commercial license fees shall only be used for shellfishing adaptation efforts under this section.

(c) Within one year of this the council’s formation, the council shall have performed and published a gap analysis for ocean monitoring, recommending measures creating an appropriate spatial and temporal resolution to model ocean acidification in coastal waters and project acidification trends. The council shall convene a public workshop with local ocean monitoring groups to ascertain monitoring needs and inform the analysis, and hold two public hearings. The analysis shall identify appropriate monitoring technologies, and select coastal waters where ocean acidification monitoring equipment shall be placed. The monitoring system should not only enable modeling for long term pH changes in coastal waters, but permit short-term monitoring of aragonite saturation in variable and sensitive coastal waters to protect critical habitat and shellfish.

(d) The council shall coordinate implementation of the monitoring system, implementing the system within three years from this act’s passage. The council shall ensure that data derived from the monitoring system is publicly accessible in a standardized format useful for public and private research.

(e) The council may commission independent studies and agency reports to fill acidification knowledge gaps. The council shall commission such studies and reports as soon as practicable, beginning at a later date if dependent on the monitoring data derived under subsection (d). The council shall avoid duplicating regional efforts, incorporating best available science with data from the state monitoring system established by 12(d) and data from local and private monitoring efforts, where available. These efforts may include:

(i) modeling ocean and coastal acidification trends in coastal waters and project acidification trends;

(ii) studying the effects of acidification on marine species that are ecologically or economically important or understudied, including examination of the impact of multimodal stress on american lobsters, eastern oysters, sea scallops, quahogs, and fin fish;

(iii) clarifying the causal relationship between nutrient pollution, eutrophication, and coastal acidification in coastal waters;

(iv) determining how different coastal stressors contribute to coastal acidification;

(v) estimating the economic impacts of modeled and projected acidification on the Massachusetts economy;

(vi) determining if current total maximum daily loads under the Massachusetts estuaries project are sufficient to keep acidity in Massachusetts embayments within the range required by 314 CMR 4.05 through 2050, and propose any necessary changes to 314 CMR §§ 4, 5;

(vii) performing cost benefit analyses of intervention strategies to determine where pollution reductions will most efficiently reduce acidification;

(viii) developing best practices for the shellfishing industry to adapt to acidification.

(f) If the council determines that eutrophication has more than a de minimis impact on coastal acidification in any given embayment or coastal zone, the council may implement necessary improvements in the most efficient manner to reduce eutrophication. The council may target funds to existing state programs or proposed municipal projects for the following purposes;

(i) financing necessary upgrades to publicly owned treatment works located in coastal watersheds to achieve enhanced nutrient removal;

(ii) replacing septic systems in nutrient sensitive coastal watersheds with connections to new or existing publicly owned treatment works, or upgrading existing systems to nitrogen-reducing systems;

(iii) implementing other appropriate measures including but not limited to, installing permeable reactive barriers and funding salt marsh restoration.

SECTION X. Section 61 of Chapter 30 of the General Laws, as appearing in the 2020 Official Edition, is hereby amended by inserting after the phrase “predicted sea level rise”, the following words: and coastal ocean acidification.

SECTION X. Section 6 of chapter 64H of the General Laws, as appearing in the 2018 Official Edition, is hereby amended by striking out subsection (p) and inserting in place thereof the following subsection:-

(p) (1) Sales of livestock and poultry of a kind which ordinarily constitute food for human consumption; (2) sales of feed, including the bags in which the feed is customarily contained, for livestock and poultry of a kind which ordinarily constitute food for human consumption or are to be sold in the regular course of business or for animals produced for research, testing, or other purposes relating to the promotion or maintenance of the health, safety or well being of human beings or animals or for fur-bearing animals, the pelts of which are sold in the regular course of business; and (3) sales of plants, including parts of plants, suitable for planting to produce food for human consumption or when such plants, including parts thereof or the produce thereof, are to be sold in the regular course of business, including such items as seed potatoes, onion sets, asparagus roots, berry plants or bushes, and fruit trees.

SECTION X. (a) Section 1 of chapter 21N of the General Laws, as appearing in the 2018 Official Edition, is hereby amended by inserting after the definition of “Carbon dioxide equivalent” the following definition:-

“Coastal waters”, any waters and associated submerged lands of the ocean, including the seabed and subsoil, lying between the coast and the seaward boundary of the commonwealth, as defined in 43 U.S.C. § 1312

(b) Said section 1 of chapter 21N of the General Laws, as so appearing, is hereby further amended by inserting after the definition of “Entity” the following definition:-

“Eutrophication”, a condition of coastal or freshwaters of having elevated nutrient concentrations

(c) Said section 1 of chapter 21N of the General Laws, as so appearing, is hereby further amended by inserting after the definition of “Nature-based solutions” the following three definitions:-

“Nutrient dense”, the label which the executive office shall give to fertilizers and liquids that have levels of Nitrogen and Phosphorous the executive office deems too great to be advisable

“Nutrient pollution”, excess amounts of nutrients which can lead to eutrophication

“Ocean acidification”, the decrease of pH levels in the ocean driven by an increase in carbon dioxide dissolved in the water

(d) Said section 1 of chapter 21N of the General Laws, as so appearing, is hereby further amended by inserting after the definition of “Vulnerability assessment” the following definition:-

“Watershed”, any defined land area drained by a river or stream, karst system, or system of connecting rivers or streams such that all surface water within the area flows through a single outlet

SECTION X. Chapter 21N of the General Laws, as appearing in the 2018 Official Edition, is hereby amended by adding, after section 11, the following section:-

Section 12: The establishment of a blue communities program

(a) The executive office shall establish a blue communities program to incentivize local action to reduce nutrient pollution and ocean acidification in the ocean, coastal waters, fresh waters, and watersheds. The program shall provide technical and financial assistance, in the form of grants and loans, to municipalities and other local governmental bodies that qualify as blue communities under this section.

(b) The executive office may delegate certain initiatives within the blue communities program to certain executive departments, divisions, or offices, including but not limited to, the department of environmental protection, the division of ecological restoration, the division of marine fisheries, and the office of coastal zone management. The executive office may also integrate certain initiatives within the blue communities program with already existing programs, including but not limited to, the green communities division, the municipal vulnerability preparedness grant program, and municipal recycling programs.

(c) To qualify as a blue community, a municipality or other local governmental body shall:

(1) file an application in a form and manner to be prescribed by the executive office;

(2) adopt five of the following nine initiatives:

(i) a liquid hazardous waste program which advertises detergents, cleaning products, and other hazardous or nutrient-dense liquids that cannot safely be thrown away, flushed, or poured down drains and annually collects and properly disposes of such liquids;

(ii) the model groundwater protection regulation proposed by the department of environmental protection or a similar impervious surface zoning bylaw that limits the total area of land covered by impervious surfaces to reduce runoff, particularly in areas closest to coastal waters;

(iii) a rain barrel program which incentivizes and coordinates the implementation of residential rain barrels to collect rainwater and prevent excess runoff;

(iv) a shell collection system for local businesses to return carbonate-containing shells to the ocean;

(v) a shellfish or seaweed regenerative ocean farming operation or shellfish or seaweed restoration project approved by the executive office;

(vi) a water quality monitoring system that must include, but is not limited to, monitoring levels of pH, phosphorus, and nitrogen;

(vii) a plan to eliminate municipal owned sanitary sewer or combined sewer overflows;

(viii) a fertilizer bylaw and lawns program that restricts fertilizer use on grass, educates the public and business-owners on proper lawn care to minimize adverse impacts to coastal waters, and provides contact information for certified professionals to assist in the implementation of these goals; and

(ix) a stormwater utility program to fund upgrades to stormwater infrastructure.

(3) develop a blue community plan that (a) prioritizes implementation in environmental justice communities and (b) outlines specific metrics for each implemented initiative, to be determined by the executive office; and

(4) report the expenditures and results of their blue community plan to the executive office and to the joint committee on environment, natural resources, and agriculture every two years from the date the application is approved by the executive office.

(d) The executive office shall establish a fund to be known as the Blue Communities Fund, which shall be used to finance this program and all or a portion of the costs of studying, designing, constructing, and implementing ocean acidification mitigation programs. The executive office may integrate this fund with the Global Warming Solutions Trust Fund established in section 3 of chapter 209 of the acts of 2018. Funds shall be appropriated annually by the state and include, among other sources, monies obtained from:

(1) offshore wind contributions;

(2) cap-and-invest programs within the commonwealth;

(3) sales tax on fertilizers; and

(4) other sources of revenue related to carbon reduction, the fishing industry, environmental protection and mitigation and ocean acidification.

(e) The executive office shall be responsible for the administration and oversight of the blue communities program, including by:

(1) adopting rules, regulations and guidelines for the administration and enforcement of this section, including, but not limited to, establishing applicant criteria, detailing operations and requirements of the programs in section (b), funding priority, and application forms and procedures;

(2) adopting a structure for communities to receive funding that gives greater amounts of funding to communities that adopt a greater number of initiatives; and

(3) submitting an annual report by September 1 to the clerks of the senate and the house of representatives detailing expenditures and results relative to the blue communities program.