Power and Authority

Power and Authority

Agencies Operating Under the Provisions of Chapter 252 of

The General Laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts

The Northeast Massachusetts Mosquito Control and Wetlands Management District operates under the authority of Ch 252 of the GLC and as such has broad authority to operate in wetlands environments by exemptions legislatively mandated by Ch 131, the Wetlands Protect Act. Local conservation commissions are prohibited from any action relative to activity conducted under the authority of Ch 252. The following is a summary of Massachusetts General Laws and other board of health regulations relative to agencies operating under the authority of Ch 252.

MGL, Chapter 40. Powers and Duties of Cities and Towns

Section 8C. Conservation commission; establishment; powers and duties.

"No action taken under this section shall affect the powers and duties of the state reclamation board or any mosquito control or other project operating under or authorized by chapter two hundred and fifty-two or restrict any public access."

MGL, Chapter 130. Section 105

"No action by the commissioner of environmental protection or the department of environmental protection under this section shall prohibit, restrict or impair the exercise or performance of the powers and duties conferred or imposed by law in the department of highways, the Massachusetts water resources authority, the state reclamation board or any mosquito control or other project operating under or authorized by chapter two hundred and fifty-two."

MGL, Chapter 131. Section 40. The Wetlands Protection Act, Subsection 15.

"The provisions of this section shall not apply to any mosquito control work done under the provisions of clause (36) of section five of chapter forty, of chapter two hundred and fifty-two or any special act…"

MGL, Chapter 40. Clause 36.

"For the improvement of low lands and swamps and the eradication of mosquitoes under chapter two hundred fifty-two"

Subsection 15. " The riverfront area shall not apply to any mosquito control work done under the provisions of clause (36) of section five of chapter five of chapter forty of chapter two hundred and fifty-two or any special act…"

Subsection 24. "The provisions of this section shall not apply to any mosquito control work done under the provisions of clause (36) of section five of chapter forty of chapter two hundred and fifty-two or any special act…"

"No such order shall prohibit, restrict or regulate the exercise or performance of the powers and duties conferred or imposed by law upon… the state reclamation board of any mosquito control or other project operating under or authorized by chapter two hundred fifty-two.

Section 5B local boards of health; power to determine mosquito breeding area a public nuisance; abatement

"The board of health… or commissioners appointed to make improvements on behalf of a mosquito control district … may determine an area… infested by mosquitoes, to be a public nuisance… If the person so notified refuses or neglects to abate such nuisance … said board of health or commissioner may employee all necessary assistants... who may enter upon public or private property, if such entry is necessary for this purpose."

"The board of health shall examine into all nuisance, sources of filth and cause of sickness in its town…which may in its opinion, be injuries to the public health, shall destroy, remove or prevent the same.. and shall make regulations for the public health and safety relative thereto."