Chapter 21

Section 1. There shall be a department of conservation and recreation, in this chapter called the ''department''. It shall be the duty of said department to exercise general care and oversight of the natural resources of the commonwealth and of its adjacent waters; to make invest…

Section 11. The division may employ such technical and clerical assistance and consultants as may be necessary to fulfill the responsibilities of the division as specified in section nine. The division may establish rules and regulations as may be necessary for the proper adminis…

Section 12. Applications for assistance under the federal Watershed Protection and Flood Prevention Act shall be initiated by the local organization, and may not be initiated by the division. Such applications shall be filed with the division, which may disapprove the same within…

Section 13. The division shall require, as a condition to providing assistance from the commonwealth for the installation and operation and maintenance of works of improvement, that local organizations shall (1) assume responsibility for all planning for works of improvement to b…

Section 14. At such time as the United States Secretary of Agriculture and the interested local organization have agreed upon a plan for works of improvement, the division may (1) assume such proportionate share of the nonfederal cost of installing any works of improvement involv…

Section 15. At such time as the United States Secretary of Agriculture and the interested local organization have agreed upon a plan for works of improvement, and the local organization has met the requirements for receiving assistance from the commonwealth in installing, operati…

Section 17C. (a) Any person having an interest in land including the structures, buildings, and equipment attached to the land, including without limitation, railroad and utility corridors, easements and rights of way, wetlands, rivers, streams, ponds, lakes, and other bodies of …

Section 17D. An owner of land who permits the public to use such land for the removal of fuel wood without imposing a charge or fee therefor shall not be liable to any member of the public who uses said land for the aforesaid purpose for injuries to person or property sustained b…

[There is no 21:17E.]

Section 17G. (a) For purposes of this section, the words ''nonprofit organization'' and ''volunteer'' shall have the same meaning as used in 42 U.S.C. 14505. (b) The department of conservation and recreation may cosponsor and participate in an event or activity on department prop…

Section 18. The division of conservation services within the office of the secretary of the executive office of environmental affairs shall be under the administrative supervision of a director who shall be called the director of conservation services. The director shall be quali…

Section 19. There shall be in the division a commission for conservation of soil, water and related resources, hereinafter called the state commission. Said commission shall consist of thirteen voting members. The thirteen voting members shall include four ex-officio and nine app…

Section 2. The department shall be under the control of a stewardship council, which shall consist of 13 persons to be appointed by the governor in the manner provided in section 2A for terms of 7 years.

Section 20. The state commission, unless otherwise specified, shall have the following powers and duties:— (1) To encourage and assist educational work in the conservation and development of renewable natural resources, including soil, water, plant life, woodland, fish and wildli…

Section 21. Whenever the state commission receives a petition signed by at least one hundred land occupiers, herein defined as owners, lessees or tenants in possession, residing within an area proposed for the establishment of a conservation district, or whenever the state commis…

Section 22. Within sixty days after the state commission has established a conservation district it shall appoint a board of no less than five no more than seven district supervisors who shall be individual land occupiers residing on or owning land within the district. Supervisor…

Section 23. The supervisors of a conservation district shall be the governing body thereof. They shall designate from their membership a chairman and may from time to time change such designation. They may delegate to one or more of their members such powers and duties as they sh…

Section 24. A conservation district and its supervisors shall, in addition to any other powers granted under sections 21 to 25, inclusive, have the following powers and duties: (1) To conduct surveys, investigations and research relating to the conservation and development of nat…

Section 25. The supervisors of any two or more districts may co-operate and enter into agreements with one another in the exercise of any or all powers conferred by sections eighteen to twenty-five, inclusive.

Section 25A. Conservation district divisions established pursuant to section twenty may exercise any and all powers set forth in sections twenty-one to twenty-five, inclusive.

Section 26. There shall be in the department of environmental protection, a division of water pollution control, hereinafter in this section and in sections twenty-seven to fifty-three, inclusive, called the division. The division shall be headed by a director who shall be appoin…

Section 26A. Unless the context otherwise requires, when used in sections twenty-six to fifty-three, inclusive, the following words shall have the following meanings: ''Abatement facilities'', facilities for the purpose of treating, neutralizing, or stabilizing sewage and such in…

Section 27. It shall be the duty and responsibility of the division to enhance the quality and value of water resources and to establish a program for prevention, control, and abatement of water pollution. Said division shall: (1) Encourage or require the adoption and execution b…

Section 27A. (a) The department of environmental protection shall cooperate with the board of trustees of the Massachusetts Clean Water Trust established by chapter twenty-nine C to achieve the water pollution abatement objectives of the commonwealth intended to be advanced by th…

Section 28. (a) The division is hereby authorized, with the approval of the water resources commission, to propose water pollution abatement districts consisting of one or more cities or towns, or designated parts thereof, for the purposes set forth in section thirty. The distric…

Section 29. Each district shall be a body politic and corporate and shall have a commission to be known as the district commission. Except as provided in the following paragraph, the district commission shall consist of two members from each town included in whole or in part in t…

Section 2A. The governor shall appoint 11 members of the stewardship council with due regard to geographical distribution, provided that 5 members shall reside within the urban parks district defined in section 33 of chapter 92, at least one of whom shall be a resident of the cit…

Section 2B. Members of the stewardship council may be removed for cause by the governor, with the advice and consent of the council, after due notice and a hearing before the governor, for inefficiency, neglect of duty, misconduct in office, or other cause. A copy of the charge o…

Section 2C. The stewardship council shall meet within the commonwealth within thirty days after appointment and at least once a month thereafter. It shall elect, at least annually, its own chairman and secretary, and shall make the appointments required to be made by it in the ma…

Section 2D. No member of the stewardship council shall hold any other position in the department while serving as such nor for a period of one year thereafter.

Section 2E. Members of the stewardship council shall serve without pay, but shall be reimbursed, out of any funds available for the purpose, for necessary expenses incurred in the performance of their official duties. Such reimbursement shall not in any fiscal year exceed three t…

Section 2F. The director of state parks and recreation shall work in cooperation with the director of the division of fisheries and wildlife within the department of fish and game to establish coordinated management guidelines for sustainable forestry practices on public forest l…

Section 2G. The stewardship council shall develop an oversight strategy of park management plans, capital planning and policy development. Such oversight strategies will be published annually and after a 30 day public comment period will be finalized and submitted to the Secretar…

Section 3. The commissioner of conservation and recreation shall be the executive and administrative officer of the department, and he shall exercise supervision, direction and control over all the divisions of the department in accordance with such programs and policies as may f…

Section 30. A district commission: (i) may act by a majority vote of the full commission; (ii) shall adopt by-laws and regulations for the conduct of its affairs; (iii) shall adopt a name and a corporate seal; (iv) may sue and be sued; (v) may enter into contracts, (vi) may incur…

Section 30A. The division may make grants to public entities for the costs of constructing collection systems. Subject to appropriation, such grants shall be made in accordance with the priority system and list established for this section by regulation of the director, and, in n…

Section 31. A public entity, including regional planning agencies, may apply to the division for a planning or a technical assistance grant by the commonwealth for the following purposes: assisting a public entity in developing a comprehensive water pollution abatement plan for t…

Section 31A. Subject to appropriation, the department of environmental protection shall administer a matching grant program for communities who desire to join the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority or any other regional system for wastewater, drinking water or for both waste…

Section 32. A district shall present a plan for abatement of water pollution to the division within one year after its establishment or such greater or lesser period as the division may prescribe. Such plan shall include detail as to the sources of pollution within the district, …

Section 33. The division may make a grant to a public entity for the eligible costs of a planning, design or construction project for abatement facilities where the federal government has awarded the public entity a grant pursuant to Title II of the FWPCA, as amended. Where (i) t…

Section 33A. Notwithstanding the provisions of section thirty-three, if a town having a population of more than twenty thousand inhabitants according to the latest federal census, has received a grant from the division equal to sixty per cent of the cost of construction, the divi…

Section 33B. If any city, town or special district, or other existing governmental unit authorized to construct, own, operate, extend or improve abatement facilities as defined in section thirty, fails to comply with an order of the director to submit a preliminary engineering re…

Section 33C. When it is necessary for the director of the division of water pollution to take the action referred to in section thirty-three B, said director may, with the approval of the water resources commission, contract for engineering reports or final plans from existing bo…

Section 33D. In order to prevent or reduce discharges to the waters of the commonwealth or to implement comprehensive basin or regional plans approved by the division of water pollution control, the director of the division may order the appropriate municipalities, districts and …

Section 33E. The department of environmental protection may make a grant to a local governmental unit as defined in chapter twenty-nine C for the eligible costs of planning, design or construction of water pollution abatement projects eligible for financial assistance under secti…

Section 34. The division shall supervise the operation and maintenance of treatment works within the commonwealth, and the director may require the person owning and operating such facilities to maintain the facilities in conformance with the provisions of this chapter and any re…

Section 34A. There shall be within the department of environmental protection a board of certification of operators of wastewater treatment facilities. The purpose of the board shall be to insure the proper management, operation and maintenance of wastewater treatment systems and…

Section 34B. The board shall conduct a program of evaluating and certifying individuals who wish to be certified as operators of wastewater treatment facilities. The board may establish classes and categories of certifications, and the minimum qualifications and standards for sai…

Section 34C. No person shall manage, operate or maintain a facility used for the treatment, neutralization or stabilization of wastewater from homes, public buildings, or commercial or industrial sources or any combination thereof, unless the individual in charge of the facility …

Section 35. The district by vote of the commissioners is authorized to issue, from time to time, general obligation serial bonds or notes of the district to pay for its share of the costs of capital outlay required in connection with the project or projects contained in an approv…