Harbors & Water Quality

Nantucket Tipping Point has submitted a public comment supporting approval of the Harbors Action Plan with two conditions:

• Update the water-quality record through 2025, explain nitrogen restoration margins and management responses, and provide for continued PFAS monitoring.
• Expressly retain all three existing licensing protections: safeguards for water-dependent uses and public access, and restrictions on certain harbor facilities and new private docks and piers.

Our letter also asks that the public-health questions be formally referred to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, or MassDPH.

PFAS has been documented in local surface waters, including Madaket and Wauwinet Harbors. The Town’s recent study offers reassurance about recreational swimming but does not fully answer questions about other exposures or long-term ecological effects.

Residents’ concerns about cancer are part of this request. Anecdotal concerns do not establish elevated cancer rates, a cancer cluster, or a PFAS cause. EPA recognizes that exposure to certain PFAS may increase the risk of some cancers. We ask MassDPH to review Massachusetts Cancer Registry data for Nantucket and determine whether further cancer-incidence research, exposure assessment, or pilot biomonitoring is warranted.

Our submitted letter appears below, unchanged, with links to its sources.

Please add your own comment. Tell the state why the harbors matter to you and what you want protected. A few sentences are enough.

Email Stephen McKenna at stephen.mckenna@mass.gov by 5 p.m. Eastern time on Friday, September 25, 2026.

Suggested subject: Public Comment — Nantucket and Madaket Harbors Action Plan

The plan should set clear limits on nitrogen, wastewater, PFAS, boating, and development to protect the ecological health and capacity of Nantucket and Madaket Harbors.