Chapter 132A

Section 1. The commissioner of the department of environmental management, hereinafter referred to in this chapter as the commissioner, may receive and hold in trust on behalf of the commonwealth, exempt from taxation, bequests, restitutions or gifts to be used for the purpose of…

Section 11. The secretary of environmental affairs shall establish a program to assist the cities and towns, which have established conservation commissions under section eight C of chapter forty, in acquiring lands and in planning or designing suitable public outdoor facilities …

Section 12. The commissioner on behalf of the commonwealth may acquire by purchase, gift, eminent domain or otherwise such land, including rights-of-way and easements for the purpose of protecting or enhancing scenic beauty, as he may deem necessary to establish, protect and deve…

Section 12A. Sections 12B to 16J, inclusive and section 18 shall be known and may be cited as the Massachusetts Ocean Sanctuaries Act.

Section 12B. As used in sections twelve A to eighteen, inclusive, the following words shall have the following meanings: ''Act'', the Massachusetts Ocean Sanctuaries Act. ''Adjudicatory hearing'', a hearing conducted pursuant to sections nine, ten, ten A, eleven and twelve of cha…

Section 12C. Unless otherwise specified in this chapter, the office shall promulgate such regulations as it deems necessary for the implementation, administration and enforcement of the act. The office shall integrate its implementation, administration and enforcement of the act …

Section 13. There are hereby established the following ocean sanctuaries: (a) The Cape Cod Ocean Sanctuary is described as follows: Beginning at a point three miles west of the mean low-water line along the Bay Closing Line between Brant Rock in the town of Marshfield and Race Po…

Section 14. All ocean sanctuaries as described in section thirteen shall be under the care, oversight and control of the office and shall be protected from any exploitation, development, or activity that would significantly alter or otherwise endanger the ecology or the appearanc…

Section 15. Except as otherwise provided in this section, the following activities shall be prohibited in an ocean sanctuary: (1) the building of any structure on the seabed or under the subsoil; (2) the construction or operation of offshore or floating electric generating statio…

Section 16. Nothing in this act is intended to prohibit the following activities, uses or facilities: In all ocean sanctuaries except the Cape Cod Ocean Sanctuary the planning, construction, reconstruction, operation and maintenance of industrial liquid coolant discharge and inta…

Section 16G. The department may approve a new or modified discharge of wastewater from a POTW to an ocean sanctuary only if clauses 1 through 10, inclusive, are met. (1) The new or modified discharge shall be consistent with the intent and purpose of the act. Any discharge shall …

Section 16H. Discharges may occur within estuaries or coastal embayments from facilities designed to abate existing discharges exclusively from combined sewer overflows, where such facilities have been approved by the division of water pollution control and where such existing di…

Section 16I. An application for a new or modified discharge shall, at a minimum, include: (1) a final CWMP approved by the department and a final environmental impact report and certificate; (2) an evaluation of the receiving water body, including a benthic survey and fish habita…

Section 16J. Upon receipt of an application for a new or modified discharge, the department shall provide public notice, an opportunity for comment and shall hold a public hearing on the application. Individual notice shall be provided to all municipalities bordering the affected…

Section 16K. Any condition adopted by the department in approving a new or modified discharge shall become a condition of the discharge permit issued by the division of water pollution control under chapter 21.

Section 17. There is hereby established in the towns of Ashby, Groton, Pepperell, Shirley, Townsend and Lunenburg a protected area to be known as the Squannacook and Nissitissit Rivers Sanctuary. Said Squannacook and Nissitissit Rivers Sanctuary shall be comprised of the waters o…

Section 18. All departments, divisions, commissions, or units of the executive office of energy and environmental affairs and other affected agencies or departments of the commonwealth shall issue permits or licenses for activities or conduct their activities consistently with th…

[There is no 132A:1A.]

Section 1B. The division of state parks and recreation shall be under the administrative supervision of a director, who shall be called the director of state parks and recreation.

Section 1C. There shall be in the division of forests and parks a bureau of forest fire control under the direction and control of a chief fire warden, a bureau of forestry under the direction and control of a chief forester and a bureau of recreation under the direction and cont…

Section 1D. The bureau of forest fire control shall perform such duties as the director, with the approval of the commissioner, may require, in addition to such other duties as may be required by any general or special laws.

Section 1E. The bureau of recreation shall perform such duties as the director, with the approval of the commissioner, may require, and shall be responsible for such other duties pertaining to administration and management of recreation areas as are now vested in the division of …

Section 1F. The bureau of forestry shall, under the supervision of the director, with the approval of the commissioner perform such duties as respects forest management practices, reforestation, development of forest or wooded areas under the control of the department, making the…

Section 1G. The director may designate any employee of the division to supervise any of the bureaus during the absence or disability of the chief thereof, and they shall have all the powers required to administer such bureaus, provisions in the general laws to the contrary notwit…

Section 1H. The director of the division of state parks and recreation shall devote his whole time during business hours to the work of the division and shall be responsible for the performance of the functions of the division as specified by law. Each subdivision or section of t…

Section 2. The commissioner, with like approval, on petition of any board or commission charged with the care and maintenance of any park or reservation owned by the commonwealth outside of the urban parks district, with the approval of the county commissioners of the county or c…

Section 2A. The commissioner is hereby authorized and directed to establish a long-term program of state parks, state forest recreation areas and state reservations, and for such purpose may improve areas now under the control of the department of environmental management and acq…

Section 2B. It is hereby declared to be the policy of the commonwealth that all such sites acquired or developed by the commissioner shall in so far as practicable be preserved in their natural state; that they shall be in so far as possible collectively self-supporting; and that…

Section 2C. The planning, construction, operation and maintenance of the facilities acquired or developed under section two A shall be under the jurisdiction of the commissioner. In the preparation of plans of said facilities, the commissioner shall have the advice and assistance…

Section 2D. In the development and improvement of state parks, state forest recreation areas and state reservations, the commissioner is hereby authorized and empowered:—(1) To acquire, plan, construct, maintain and operate public recreational facilities, including roads, areas f…

Section 3. The commissioner may, from time to time within the limits of appropriations made therefor, acquire for the commonwealth, by eminent domain under chapter seventy-nine or by purchase, lease or otherwise, any lands suitable for purposes of conservation or recreation lying…

Section 3A. The exercise of the power of eminent domain under the provisions of section three shall be subject to the approval of the stewardship council, and the board of selectmen in any town in which is located any land proposed to be taken by eminent domain. If such board of …

Section 3B. A person shall not acquire any rights by prescription or adverse possession in any lands or rights in lands of the commonwealth under the control of the department of conservation and recreation.

Section 7. The commissioner, in consultation with the director of the division, may make rules and regulations for the government and use of all property under the control of the division, including all roads and highways wholly or in part within the boundaries of such property, …

Section 7A. There is established within the department of environmental management, division of forest and parks, the position titles of chief park ranger and park ranger, provisions of the General Laws or any special law to the contrary notwithstanding. Said positions shall not …

Section 7B. If money, goods or other property which has been stolen, lost, abandoned or taken from a person under arrest comes into the possession of an employee of the division by virtue of his office or employment, he shall deliver the same to the person designated by the divis…

Section 7C. If no person proves ownership of such money, goods or other property within 6 months, the division may cause the goods or other property excepting money unclaimed, to be sold at public auction at a place and time and by a person as the division may designate.

Section 7D. Notice of the time and place of the sale, with a description of the property, shall be given by publishing the same once in a newspaper published in Boston.

Section 7E. The property, if perishable or liable to deteriorate greatly in value by keeping, or the value of which will probably be less than the expense of keeping, may be sold at public auction at a place and at a time within 6 months and by a person as the division may design…

Section 7F. The proceeds of the sale, together with the unclaimed money, after deducting all reasonable charges and expenses incurred on account of the property, shall be accounted for and paid to the commonwealth.

Section 7G. If within 2 years after the sale the owner claims the property and proves ownership to the satisfaction of the division, the amount of the unclaimed money or the proceeds of the sale of the property, after deducting reasonable expenses, shall be paid to him by the sta…

Section 8. The director shall, in an advisory capacity, assist boards and commissions charged with the care and maintenance of parks or reservations owned by the commonwealth outside of the urban parks district, which are not placed under the care and control of the division.

Section 9. The commissioner shall make an annual report of the acts of the division.