Chapter 91

Section 1. In this chapter, unless the context otherwise requires, the following words shall have the following meanings: ''Boston harbor'', that part of Boston harbor lying westerly and inside of a line drawn between Point Allerton on the south and the southerly end of Point Shi…

Section 10. The department shall have general care and supervision of the harbors and tide waters within the commonwealth, of the flats and lands flowed thereby, of the waters and banks of the Connecticut river and the banks and waters of the non-tidal portion of the Merrimack ri…

Section 10A. Notwithstanding any contrary provision of law, the harbormaster of a city or town or whomsoever is so empowered by said city or town may authorize by permit the mooring on a temporary basis of floats or rafts held by anchors or bottom moorings within the territorial …

Section 10C. Notwithstanding any contrary provision of law, the harbormaster of a city or town or whomsoever is so empowered by said city or town may authorize by written permit the stationing of commercial vessels to a public commercial dock, pier, wharf, float, raft or mooring,…

Section 10D. No person shall be denied access during daylight hours to commonwealth tidelands across any land available to the public for swimming or recreation which is owned or controlled by the commonwealth or any of its political subdivisions for the purpose of scuba diving o…

Section 11. The department shall undertake such construction and work for the improvement, development, maintenance and protection of tidal and non-tidal rivers and streams, great ponds, harbors, tide waters, foreshores and shores along a public beach as it deems reasonable and p…

Section 11A. The department is hereby authorized to enter into agreements with municipalities, local commissions or local authorities for performance of work necessary for resource protection, navigational safety and protection and development projects approved by the department.…

Section 12. The department may license and prescribe the terms for the construction or extension of a dam, road, bridge, or other structure, or the filling of land, the driving of piles, or the making of excavations, in, over, or upon the waters below high water mark of the Conne…

Section 12A. The department may license and prescribe the terms for the construction or extension of a dam, road, bridge or other structure, or the filling of land, the driving of piles, or the making of excavations, in, over or upon the waters below high water mark of any river …

Section 13. The department may license any person to construct and maintain booms in or across the Connecticut river, for periods of not more than five years, in such locations and upon such terms as it prescribes, or to build and extend a wharf, pier or shore wall below high wat…

Section 14. The department may license and prescribe the terms for the construction or extension of a wharf, pier, dam, sea wall, road, bridge or other structure, or for the filling of land or flats, or the driving of piles in or over tide water below high water mark, but not, ex…

Section 15. Every authority or license granted since eighteen hundred and sixty-eight or hereafter granted by the commonwealth to any person to build a structure or do other work in, over and under the Connecticut River or the nontidal part of the Merrimack River or in, over or u…

Section 16. Every authority or license granted since eighteen hundred and sixty-eight by the general court or by the department or its predecessors to any person to build or extend a wharf or other structure upon, or to drive piles in, or to fill or otherwise occupy, land in tide…

Section 17. No license or other authority to build structures upon or to fill up or enclose any ground mentioned in the two preceding sections shall be construed to interfere with or impair the right of any person affected thereby to equal proportional privileges of approaching l…

Section 18. Upon or prior to applying for a license pursuant to this section, the applicant shall submit to the planning board of the city or town where the work is to be performed, except in case of a proposed bridge, dam or similar structure across a river, cove, or inlet, the …

Section 18A. Upon petition of ten citizens of the commonwealth that in their opinion public necessity requires a right of way for public access to any great pond within the commonwealth, the department and the attorney general or a representative designated by him sitting jointly…

Section 18B. (a) The secretary shall serve as the administrator of tidelands. The secretary may appoint an individual or individuals to assist him in carrying out the duties of his office. The duties of this office may be exercised in combination with other duties, as the secreta…

Section 18C. (a) Notwithstanding any general or special law to the contrary, the department may issue a general license authorizing noncommercial small-scale docks, piers and similar structures that are accessory to a residential use, but not marinas or large-scale docks, piers o…

Section 19. Except as authorized by the general court and as provided in this chapter, no structure shall be built or extended, or piles driven or land filled, or other obstruction or encroachment made, in, over or upon the waters of any great pond below the natural high water ma…

Section 19A. No person authorized or licensed to build any structure, drive piles, fill land or to make any dam or other obstruction or encroachment in, over or upon the waters of any great pond below the natural high water mark, or to make any erection or excavation at any outle…

Section 2. The department shall, except as otherwise provided, have charge of the lands, rights in lands, flats, shores and rights in tide waters belonging to the commonwealth, and shall, as far as practicable, ascertain the location, extent and description of such lands; investi…

Section 20. Whoever is authorized by the general court to build over tide waters a bridge, wharf, pier or dam, to fill flats or drive piles below high water mark, or to build any structures in the Connecticut river, or in the non-tidal part of the Merrimack river, or to build or …

Section 21. The amount of tidewater displaced by any structure below high water mark, or any filling of flats, shall be ascertained by the department, which shall require the person, his heirs or assignees who are responsible for such displacement to make compensation therefor by…

Section 22. If authority or a license is granted by the general court or by the department to a person to build a wharf or other structure upon, or to fill or otherwise occupy, land in tide water, or to build or extend any structure or drive piles, fill land or make any obstructi…

Section 23. Every erection made and all work done within tide water, or within the waters of a great pond or outlet thereof, or on or within the banks of the Connecticut river, or the Merrimack river, below high water mark, not authorized by the general court or by the department…

Section 24. Except as is provided in section six, all moneys received in payment for tide water displaced and for rights and privileges granted in tide water land of the commonwealth and in the commonwealth's land in great ponds, under licenses and permits granted under this chap…

Section 25. The department shall have general supervision of so much of the province lands at Provincetown as lies north and west of a line beginning at a point at or near the shore of Provincetown harbor, in latitude north forty-two degrees, two minutes, and longitude west seven…

Section 26. Section two of this chapter, chapter two hundred and sixty-one of the acts of eighteen hundred and fifty-four, chapter one hundred and forty-four of the acts of eighteen hundred and eighty-six, so much of section one of chapter eleven of the province laws of seventeen…

Section 27. The department shall fix and mark the bounds of the province lands within its jurisdiction and establish regulations for the care thereof. The department may make rules and regulations relative to hunting on or other uses of the province lands; provided, that such rul…

Section 28. This chapter shall not legalize any structure, filling or other occupation or encroachment, made or done without authority, upon the waters in or the land under any great pond prior to May ninth, eighteen hundred and eighty-eight, or in or upon the Connecticut river, …

Section 29. A county or town may appropriate money for the improvement of tidal and non-tidal rivers and streams, harbors, tide waters, foreshores and shores along a public beach within its jurisdiction, and the money so appropriated shall be paid to the state treasurer and be ex…

Section 29A. Any city or town which accepts the provisions of this section may appropriate money for the construction of structures for the protection of private property along shores within its boundaries. Money so appropriated shall be paid to the state treasurer and expended b…

Section 2A. The department, having charge under section two of the lands, pier, structures and other property in the town of Plymouth belonging to the commonwealth which were acquired, built or improved by the Pilgrim tercentenary commission under chapter one hundred and eighty-s…

Section 3. The department shall have all the rights, powers and duties transferred to the directors of the port of Boston under section four of chapter seven hundred and forty-eight of the acts of nineteen hundred and eleven in respect to lands, rights in lands, flats, shores, wa…

Section 30. If it appears to the department that the digging or removal of stones, gravel, sand or other material, upon or from any beach, shore, bluff, headland, island or bar, in or bordering on tide waters, or the destruction of any trees, shrubs, grass or other vegetation gro…

Section 30A. Whoever removes stones, gravel, sand or other material from any natural barrier on land bordering on the sea, which barrier furnishes protection to such land and adjacent upland against erosion by the sea shall be punished by a fine of not more than five hundred doll…

Section 31. The department may make surveys and improvements for the preservation of harbors and may repair damages occasioned by storms or other destructive agencies along the coast line or river banks of the commonwealth, and may take by eminent domain under chapter seventy-nin…

Section 32. The department shall, as funds are appropriated therefor, cause that portion of the Connecticut river lying within the commonwealth to be surveyed and plotted, and a copy of such survey within the limits of Hampden, Hampshire and Franklin counties, respectively, to be…

Section 33. The department may make such surveys and do such other work as may be required by any order of the land court, to reestablish and permanently mark certain triangulation points and stations previously established in connection with the topographical survey of the commo…

Section 34. The department of environmental protection may, after hearing the parties interested, prescribe lines in any harbor of the commonwealth and make report thereof to the general court, not later than the next session, for its action, thereon. If such lines are establishe…

Section 35. The provisions of this chapter relative to great ponds shall apply only to ponds containing in their natural state more than ten acres of land, and shall be subject to any rights in such ponds which have been granted by the commonwealth.

Section 36. The department may apply to congress for appropriations for the protection and improvement of any harbor in the commonwealth.

Section 37. If the commonwealth has the right under stipulations in a deed given in its name to enter upon premises and, at the expense of the party at fault, to remove or alter a building, any of its grantees under similar deeds, their heirs, legal representatives or assigns may…

Section 38. As used in sections 38 to 48, inclusive, the following words shall, unless the context clearly requires otherwise, have the following meanings: ''Abandoned'', unoccupied, deserted, forsaken, derelict, wrecked or sunken vessel or other shipwrecked property, on the shor…

Section 39. It shall be unlawful for any person to willfully abandon a vessel upon public land or the shores or waters of the commonwealth or upon private property or the water thereof adjacent to public land or the shores or waters of the commonwealth without the consent of the …

Section 4. The department shall undertake such work for the improvement, development, maintenance and protection of Boston harbor as it deems reasonable and proper. It may, with the approval of the governor and council, grade and suitably surface any railroad locations or traffic…

Section 40. A claimant wishing to obtain title to a vessel abandoned upon public land or the shores or waters of the commonwealth or upon any private property or the water thereof adjacent to public land or the shores or waters of the commonwealth and not subject to the exclusive…

Section 41. If the owner or lienholder fails to claim the vessel within 90 days after the return receipt is received by the claimant or within 90 days after the last day of notice by publication, whichever is later, and if the commonwealth is not the owner pursuant to section 179…

Section 42. Except as otherwise set forth in this chapter or in section 179 or 180 of chapter 6 or sections 26 to 27D, inclusive, of chapter 9, or any other applicable state or federal law, the office may grant title to an abandoned vessel and any contents therein to a claimant. …