Massachusetts General Laws

Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 21, § 44 (2026)

Discharge violations; orders to comply

✓ current as of July 2026
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Section 44. (1) Whenever it appears to the director that there are discharges of pollutants without a required permit, or that such discharges are in violation of a permit issued under this chapter, or in contravention of any regulation, standard or plan adopted by the division, the director may order the discharger to apply forthwith for a permit, or for a new permit, or to take other appropriate action under rules and regulations adopted by the director subject to the provisions of chapter thirty A, and to cease and desist from making or allowing further discharges beyond a specified date until compliance with the order is fully achieved. Issuance of an order under this paragraph shall not be deemed an election to forego any action for criminal or civil penalties under section forty-two.

(2) In the event that any condition of a permit for discharges issued under paragraph (9) of section forty-three to publicly owned treatment works is violated, the director may order the violator to prohibit all additional connections to such works from any source not already so connected, until the violation ceases and corrective action specified in the order has been taken. No permits for such connections may be issued while the order remains in effect.

(3) If the director finds, on the basis of information available to him, that an industrial user of publicly owned treatment works is not complying with a system of user charges to which he is subject under the conditions of his permit or under commonwealth or federal law, the director may order him to comply forthwith.

Notes of Decisions
Cited in 3 cases (1 in the last 5 years), 1991–2021 · leading case: Massachusetts Pub. Interest Rsch. Grp. v. ICI Americas Inc., 777 F. Supp. 1032 (D. Mass. 1991).
Massachusetts Pub. Interest Rsch. Grp. v. ICI Americas Inc., 777 F. Supp. 1032 (D. Mass. 1991). “(Action taken against the town by the DEP under Mass.Gen.L. ch. 21, § 44 was “comparable” to action taken under 33 U.”
Blackstone Headwaters Coal. v. Gallo Builders, Inc., 995 F.3d 274 (1st Cir. 2021). “" Blackstone, 2018 WL 5795832 , at *1 (first citing Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 21, § 44 ; then citing Scituate, 949 F.”
The Blackstone Headwaters Coalition, Inc. v. Gallo Builders, Inc. (D. Mass. 2018). “In pertinent part, the CWA instructs that “any violation … with respect to which a State has commenced and is diligently prosecuting an action under a State law comparable to this subsection … shall not be the subject of a civil penalty action under subsection (d) of this…”
Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.