5 rules for unincorporated Essex County, Massachusetts.
Verified from official government sources
Every Essex County community manages stormwater under the Massachusetts Clean Waters Act. Chapter 21 bars discharging pollutants into any waters of the commonwealth without a valid permit, and construction disturbing an acre or more triggers a MassDEP and EPA stormwater permit.
MGL c.21 §43
No person shall discharge pollutants into waters of the commonwealth nor construct, install, modify, operate or maintain an outlet for such discharge or any treatment works, without a currently valid permit issued by the director.
Work near any Essex County wetland demands erosion and sedimentation controls. The Wetlands Protection Act bars altering banks, wetlands, or land within the 100-foot buffer without a conservation commission order of conditions specifying silt fences, staked haybales, and stabilized slopes.
MGL c.131 §40
No person shall remove, fill, dredge or alter any bank, riverfront area, fresh water wetland, coastal wetland, beach, dune, flat, marsh, meadow or swamp bordering on the ocean or on any estuary, creek, river, stream, pond, or lake, or any land under said waters or any land subject to tidal action, coastal storm flowage, or flooding...
Building on Essex County tidelands, beaches, or below the high-water mark requires a Chapter 91 waterways license. From Gloucester to Salisbury, structures, fill, piers, and seawalls in tidewaters need state authorization, and coastal wetland work also triggers the Wetlands Protection Act.
MGL c.91 §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...
Essex County's coastal and riverine flood zones are regulated on two tracks. The Wetlands Protection Act covers land subject to flooding and coastal storm flowage, while the Massachusetts State Building Code enforces FEMA elevation and floodproofing standards in mapped special flood hazard areas.
MGL c.131 §40
No person shall remove, fill, dredge or alter any bank, riverfront area, fresh water wetland, coastal wetland, beach, dune, flat, marsh, meadow or swamp bordering on the ocean or on any estuary, creek, river, stream, pond, or lake, or any land under said waters or any land subject to tidal action, coastal storm flowage, or flooding...
Grading and drainage changes near Essex County wetlands fall under conservation commission control. Altering land within the 100-foot buffer zone or redirecting runoff toward a wetland requires an order of conditions, and towns require grading permits that keep drainage on the parcel.
MGL c.131 §40
No person shall remove, fill, dredge or alter any bank, riverfront area, fresh water wetland, coastal wetland, beach, dune, flat, marsh, meadow or swamp bordering on the ocean or on any estuary, creek, river, stream, pond, or lake, or any land under said waters or any land subject to tidal action, coastal storm flowage, or flooding...
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