3/13/2014 ENVIRONMENTAL OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE Minutes

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C O Draft Mashpee Nitrogen Control Bylaw (Environmental Oversight Committee; 3/13/14) ' (Highlighted areas are revisions made partly in response to comments by Andrew McManus) 1. Purpose A Town Bylaw to conserve valuable waterways and other resources that increase our property values, that protect our unique environment vital to our economy, and that reduce the financial burden on taxpayers and property owners by regulating the outdoor application of nitrogen. The regulation of nitrogen applications will reduce the overall amount of excess nitrogen entering the town's Resource Areas as defined in The Mashpee Wetlands Protection Bylaw (Chapter 172; Section 2) and Regulations. Reducing excess nitrogen helps protect and improve the water quality of Mashpee's two valuable estuaries—Waquoit Bay and Popponesset Bay and their associated bays, coves and waterways; as well as Mashpee's many ponds and streams This Town Bylaw is also critical to reducing Mashpee's Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) of nitrogen. Mashpee is presently in violation of the Clean Water Act because of excess nitrogen entering the town's estuaries. The Cape Cod Commission has estimated that reducing nitrogen from outdoor applications by fifty percent (50%) would save the taxpayers of Mashpee $40 million dollars in sewering and other wastewater treatment expenses. 2.Applicability This Bylaw shall apply to and regulate any and all applications of nitrogen through fertilizer within the Town of Mashpee. The application of phosphorus in fertilizer and the application of nitrogen in agriculture and horticulture is regulated by the "Plant Nutrient Application Requirements for Agricultural Land and Land Not Used for Agricultural Purposes" recently developed by, the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources pursuant to its authority under G.L. c. 128, Sections 2(k) and Section 65(A), as amended by St. 2012, c. 262. 330 CMR 31.00 3.Definitions "Agriculture" includes farming in all its branches, generally as the cultivation and tillage of the soil, dairying, the production cultivation, growing and harvesting of any agricultural, floricultural, viticultural or horticultural commodities, and shellfishing, including preparations and delivery to storage or to market or to carriers for transportation to market. "Fertilizer" means a substance that enriches the soil with elements essential for plant growth, such as nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium or other substances; fertilizer does not include those nutrients that are normally excluded from fertilizer such as chemicals that are part of dolomite, limestone, or lime. "Impervious surface" means a surface that has been compacted or covered with a layer of material so that it is highly resistant to infiltration by water. "Nitrogen" means an element essential to plant growth. For the purposes of the Bylaw, nitrogen may be available as slow-release, controlled-release, timed-release, slowly available, or water insoluble nitrogen, which means nitrogen in a form that delays its availability for plant uptake and use after application and is not rapidly available to turf and other plants; and/or quick-release, water-soluble nitrogen which means nitrogen in a form that does not delay its availability for turf and other plant uptake and is rapidly available for turf and other plant uptake and use after application.