Select Board adopts updated Pleasant Bay watershed permit and IMA tying Orleans to regional nitrogen reductions

The Orleans Select Board unanimously adopted revisions to the Pleasant Bay watershed permit and the accompanying intermunicipal agreement (IMA) that binds the four alliance towns to coordinated measures to reduce nitrogen loading to Pleasant Bay.

George Missouri summarized the changes, telling the board that updated estuary modeling (a 2020 update to a 2006 study), 2023 MassDEP rule changes, and new attenuation factors required adjustments to towns’ removal obligations. The revised permit was approved by MassDEP in February 2026 as a 20-year permit.

Carol Ridley, executive director of the Pleasant Bay Alliance, said the IMA clarifies obligations among the member towns and had been reviewed by wastewater-management and advisory committees in each town. Select Board members noted that the final table of town-specific measures is the operational core: Orleans’ row shows fertilizer controls, aquaculture and performance-restoration elements and several sewer phases already implemented.

Select Board members emphasized the need to stay focused on the plan the towns signed up for and to resist pressure to pursue additional (and potentially derailing) demands beyond current regulatory obligations. The board voted to adopt the revisions and authorized execution on behalf of the town.

Why it matters: The IMA updates set concrete, shared performance expectations among the alliance towns and will guide capital and regulatory decisions about sewers, fertilizer controls, stormwater measures and natural-attenuation strategies.