SWIM July Meeting
Safer Waters in Massachusetts (Nahant SWIM, Inc.) will meet Monday, July13, 2009, at 7 pm at Northeastern University Marine Science Center, East Point, Nahant. If you love Nahant and the ocean, you are automatically an honorary member of SWIM! You are always invited to SWIM meetings, second Monday, every other month.

SWIM Watches Nahant Shores
A couple of unexpected guests attended SWIM's May meeting: eelgrass experts Dr. John Vavrinec and Kate Hall from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNL) in Washington state.  They were here in Nahant at Northeastern University Marine Science Center for a short time studying eelgrass and transplanting some of Nahant's lush eelgrass into selected sites in Boston Harbor.  (John and Kate were careful not to take too much from any one spot.) 

So SWIM totally revised the evening agenda and invited John and Kate to tell us first about their fascinating project.   It was the best part of the meeting.    Eelgrass is a shelter to many marine species, and one of the most productive ecosystems in the world. Finally, after many questions and comments, SWIM raced through the planned agenda, then many of us stayed late to look at John and Kate’s pictures.  

SWIM Shorts:

* SWIM voted to send a letter of thanks to Friends of Lynn & Nahant Beach (Friends) for planting flowers and perennials in the Nahant Rotary.  Watch for the results as the plants grow.  The Friends also repaired and polished the cannon in the Nahant Rotary. Thank you and well done, Friends!  For more information, see http://www.lynn-nahantbeach.org.

*  Thanks also to Emily Potts, who led SWIMmers in celebrating Earth Hour (lights off in 84 countries!) Emily also spearheaded the Town Meeting Day raffle of a non-polluting clothes dryer (see photo).  Thanks to Susan Maguire, who led the SWIM display at the North Shore Community College Environmental Fair, and to Tracy O'Shea who helped with all these SWIM events.  Susan and Tracy also spoke at the Environmental Fair.  Thanks to all who helped at the SWIM raffle and display on Town Meeting day, including Barbara Powers, Sue Branga, Nancy Wilson, Cait Saunders-White, Phil Joyce, Wendy Buening, Maureen Edison, and Linda Landry.

* The draft Massachusetts Ocean Plan is due at the end of June.  Polly Bradley has attended some of the planning meetings.  The plans seem to emphasize increased human activities in state waters more than restoration of ocean ecology.  See Massachusetts Ocean Partnership web site: http://www.massoceanpartnership.org and Massachusetts Ocean Plan website: Click Here

* The Lower North Shore No Discharge Area is being widely publicized, and flyers are being distributed in Nahant, Swampscott, Lynn, Saugus and Revere informing boaters not to discharge waste in local waters.  Nahant's water will be cleaner this summer.  See http://www.mass.gov/czm/nda.

Tracy O'Shea and Barbara Powers in front of non-polluting, solar-powered, solar-energy, umbrella clothes dryer

Friends of Lynn & Nahant Beach plant flowers and perennials at the Nahant Rotary

Friends of Lynn & Nahant Beach polish up the cannon at the Nahant Rotary

SWIM Discharge Update!
Click here for the uUpdated Discharge Area informational flyer (PDF format)

It's official! Boat pollution is banned in the waters of Nahant, Lynn, Swampscott, Saugus and Revere!

The Federal Register of March 18, 2009 published a determination establishing the Lower North Shore No Discharge Area (NDA). This means that boats are no longer allowed to pump their waste into local waters. Coming as it does just as Spring arrives, the new NDA will be in effect for the coming boating season.  This is particularly important to Nahant because not only local boats, but also boats and ships crossing Nahant waters to enter or leave Boston Harbor will no longer be able to dump on Nahant.  Be sure to read the attached article from today's Lynn Item.

Enforcement of the new no-wastewater area will be made stronger because of a new law signed in January by Governor Duval Patrick giving the Director of Environmental Law Enforcement and all that serve under him the ability to issue an administrative penalty of up to $2000 per infraction for violations of No Discharge Area regulations.  This includes environmental police officers, harbormasters, fish and game wardens, and police officers assigned to patrol the waters of the Commonwealth.

At Thursday's meeting of the Nahant Board of Selectmen, SWIM member Polly Bradley asked the help of the Selectmen in enforcing the NDA requirements.  Brainstorming about possibilities, various ideas were discussed:  handing out notices of the NDA requirements with mooring permits; having lobstermen, fishermen, and assistant harbormasters watch for violations and notify environmental police; requiring use of dye in holding tanks to identify violators; placing markers at the three-mile limit denoting Nahant waters, and various methods of publicizing the law, including a sign at the Town Wharf.

SWIM thanked the Selectmen for their help and support in working to have the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) establish a No Discharge Area around Nahant and neighboring communities.  The Selectmen congratulated SWIM.  Many thanks also go to the 80 people who wrote comment letters to the EPA endorsing the No Discharge Area. 

This year is the 25 anniversary of the founding of Safer Waters in Massachusetts.  SWIM was founded in 1984 by Mike Manning, Bill Coffey, Norma Brooks, and Polly Bradley. SWIM appreciates the strong support of the Town of Nahant and Northeastern University Marine Science Center throughout this quarter of a century.