Laws and Programs 



performance through time, and in initiating enforcement procedures where maintenance 

 schedules are not adhered to and non-point source controls are allowed to become 

 insufficiently effective. 



As an aspect of the preceding responsibility, establish a two-part 

 management oriented water quality standard in which each agency 

 responsible for regulating activities with a potential for contaminating 

 waterbodies would establish both a preventive action limit and an 

 enforcement standard. The preventive action limit would be a small firaction of the 

 companion enforcement standard; violation of this limit would trigger an examination of 

 possible responses by the administrative body having jurisdiction over the source. 

 Depending on the actual or potential seriousness of the contamination, the agency could 

 require site-specific remedial action, revise agency rules to address the problem, or take no 

 action. Violation of the enforcement would trigger an immediate enforcement action against 

 the violator. 



LOCAL GOVERNMENTS 



Strongly consider creating a new town officer position to assist town 

 boards in coordinating health-related, land use, and environmental 

 concerns. The Environmental Protection Officer could be designated an ex-officio 

 member of the planning board or the town council, and would serve as an agent of the 

 town with the flexibility and authority to initiate regulatory and legal action. The 

 Environmental Protection Officer would assist the building inspector and the staff of the 

 building department in ensuring compliance with state and local resource protection 

 requirements. 



The Environmental Protection Officer, and the Officer's staff" assistants would be 

 licensed professionals who had successfully completed training in biology, ecology, 

 environmental science, environmental engineering, forestry, or a related field. 



The officer would serve as a liaison between town and regional bodies having 

 jurisdiction over land use and water quality related concerns, including the town council, 

 the planning and zoning boards, the conservation commission, the wastewater management 

 district, the department of public works, and the soil and water conservation district. The 

 officer would attend board meetings, work with related state agencies, assist applicable 

 boards in reviewing resource inventory assessments and permit applications, and foster 

 communication among these groups. 



Copies of state coastal and wedands alteration permit applications (and odier 

 environmental permit applications as appropriate) would be submitted to the Environmental 

 Protection Officer, who would examine them for completeness and accuracy, identifying 

 application deficiencies requiring correction. Upon payment of a supplemental review fee 

 to cover administrative and research costs, permit applicants would be able to obtain from 

 the officer a preliminary non-binding review of the substantive adequacy of the application, 

 and an assessment of potential adjustments which would likely be necessary in order to 

 comply with state requirements. 



The officer would familiarize himself/herself with state permitting requirements, and 

 would be required to attend periodic workshops held by the state permitting agencies to 

 update environmental protection officers and local building inspectors regarding 



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