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Yarmouth board tightens draft green-burial rules, asks town counsel to clarify DEP sign-off language
Summary
Board members inserted a requirement that applicants obtain initial DEP review and voted to send the draft green-burial regulations back to town counsel to clarify whether the state agency must have final sign-off. The board also agreed to bar burials when decedents died of certain high-risk infections.
The Yarmouth Board of Health reviewed edits from town counsel to draft local regulations for green burials on private property and took several actions on March 17 to clarify the process and public-safety limits.
Board members agreed to add the word "first" to a provision so that each green-burial application must "first be reviewed and approved by DEP." The change, proposed by a board member during discussion, was approved by the board.
Members also tightened language on infectious-disease risk. The board decided to remove an attorney-proposed clause that had said green burials of infectious cases should not be allowed "pending a decision"; instead the board directed that burials should not be allowed if the decedent had a serious pathogenic disease (for example, highly infectious bacterial or viral illnesses or prion diseases). The board left open the option for applicants to seek variances to the board in exceptional cases, but the policy as revised excludes such infectious-disease burials as a general rule.
On broader process and sequencing, the board voted to send the draft back to town counsel with a specific question asking where counsel found a clause that granted the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) final sign-off. The board's discussion reflected differing interpretations: state guidance available on mass.gov notes that local boards and regional DEP review are part of the process, but counsel's draft included language implying DEP had the final approval role. The board asked counsel to reconcile that language and to include any DEP correspondence that informed counsel's edits.
Other edits the board accepted included deed-recording requirements (a site plan addendum to the deed) and several site- and setback-related clarifications. The board instructed staff to forward the revised draft and the question to town counsel for clarification and to include DEP correspondence in the record.
Ending: The board agreed to return the revised regulation to counsel for a final clarifying review; if council accepts the narrow wording changes then the board expects to schedule a public hearing under the town's regulatory process.
