No Discharge Area

Pleasant Bay is a federally designated No Discharge Area. This designation makes it illegal to discharge treated vessel sewage from a Type I or Type II marine sanitation device (MSD). While Type I and Type II MSDs are designed to treat vessel sewage, they do not remove significant amounts of nitrogen from the waste before it is discharged. They also cannot remove all of the bacteria or viruses. It is illegal to discharge untreated vessel sewage in any Commonwealth waters.

The Pleasant Bay/Chatham Harbor NDA includes all of the estuarine surface waters (rivers, ponds, and coves) within the Pleasant Bay Area of Critical Environmental Concern and Chatham Harbor; bounded on the west by mainland Chatham, Harwich, Brewster and Orleans; bounded on the east by Nauset Beach (North Beach) and North Beach Island west of a line drawn across the mouth of the North Inlet across from Minister’s Point (the line running approximately latitude 41.7054/longitude -69.9291 to latitude 41.7037/longitude -69.9292), and west of a line across the mouth of South Inlet (the line running approximately latitude 41.6782/longitude -69.9343 to latitude 41.6657/longitude -69.9418).