To the Editor:
As a member of the board of health of Oak Bluffs, I must take exception to certain comments in the recent Op-Ed in The MV Times taking our Oak Bluffs board of health to task for not enforcing the plastic bottle ban bylaw passed in 2022 in Oak Bluffs, and by other Island towns around the same time. The Op-Ed missed many facts and distorted the truth in this opinion piece.
We are sympathetic to the issue of excess plastic in our environment. A year or more ago, I met with representatives of VCS and the O.B. select board. We met with retail owners of Island businesses that sell water in the now-illegal bottle size. We talked about alternative packaging, and what the other towns were doing. More recently there has been increased interest in enforcing this bylaw, and the O.B. select board has asked the O.B. board of health to be the enforcer. We have discussed this several times at our meetings, and at a recent meeting, far from “declining to accept our responsibility,” the board of health acknowledged that we had a role to play, and were certainly willing to be part of a community plan to address this.
We have continued to say that starting with enforcement just does not seem the best way to approach this. There needs to be a comprehensive plan for alternative packaging materials as well as water stations. The Op-Ed seems to take the board of health to task for not installing three of the four water stations that have been donated and provided to the town of Oak Bluffs. We never were advised that this was our responsibility. We have no idea of their current location.
Also unbeknownst to us until recently and of significance, the bylaw passed by the town does not confer enforcement ability on any town body. That requires separate discussion, likely hearings that are public, and finally, passage of a regulation specific to that board. Currently, the board of health has no enforcement power. We have consistently said that we simply do not have the staff to perform enforcement of this bylaw. We have more than 100 food establishments in Oak Bluffs that must be licensed annually. We and Vineyard Haven, as the largest year-round Island towns, share a similar responsibility. In addition, Oak Bluffs has the high school, the hospital, the Ice Arena and the YMCA to oversee.
It was stated that a survey of up-Island towns was done, and no violations were found. One of us personally toured retail grocery establishments in the three down-Island towns after the above-mentioned meeting, and at that time found multiple violations. This ban does not seem to be enforced consistently in other Island towns. It must be if it is to be effective, especially since all Island towns did adopt the same bylaw.
Our board of health is far from unmindful of this issue, and the importance of it to our Island and our environment. We are completely willing to be a part of planning that is needed to develop a comprehensive and effective program that will work for not just Oak Bluffs but for the entire Island. The Oak Bluffs board of health was part of the effort to ban the filmy plastic bags that used to litter our streets, shrubs, and trees. We also took the lead in opposing the artificial turf field being planned at the high school. We passed a ban on the future use of these PFAS- and microplastic-laden fields. We believe the authors of this recent MV Times Op-Ed unfortunately were inaccurate with some of their facts. We want to work with everyone concerned with this issue, and be a part of a solution that can work across the entire Island to address this problem.
James D. Butterick, member
Oak Bluffs board of health
