DALTON, Mass. — The Board of Health approved wording for the green burial guidelines during its meeting on Wednesday. 

 

The guideline stipulates that "Ebola or any other diseases that the CDC or Massachusetts Department of Public Health deem unsuitable for green burials can not be approved by the town Board of Health." 

 

The board has been navigating how to include communicable diseases in its guidelines to prevent them from spreading.  

 

Town Health Agent Agnes Witkowski has been working to clarify the state's guidelines regarding infectious diseases and green burials. 

 

She attended a presentation on green burials and consulted with people from various organizations, including the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where it was determined that the state is behind in developing guidelines for green burials.

 

Currently, the only disease that would prevent someone from being able to have a green burial is ebola, board member Amanda Staples-Opperman said. Bugs would take care of anything else. 

 

The town running into situations surrounding an unknown disease would be a very rare occurrence, board members said. 

 

The approved guidelines take into account any new disease that may emerge or a list of diseases released by the CDC or state, the said. 

 

Anybody doing green burials would stay up to date on state regulations if they change just like how the Board of Health is staying up to date on regulations as they change, board member Cindy Geyer said.

 

Two out of the three members of the cemetery trustees attended the Board of Health meeting on Wednesday to clarify what it needs from the Board of Health. 

 

"There are no regulations in Massachusetts specifically for green burials," Trustee John W. Bartels Jr. said.

 

There are approximately 150 communities in the state that allow green burials, but they all have different rules and have gone about it in different ways, he said. 

 

The cemetery trustees are still very early in establishing green burials. This excludes people who want to be buried in their yards, which would be a separate process. 

 

The trustees started exploring this initiative in April when they were thinking about updating fees. Bartels brought the option before the board after noticing that Great Barrington approved green burials in August 2020. 

 

Great Barrington is one of several dozen communities in the state that offer green burials, though it took three years to accomplish this. Stockbridge, Mount Washington, and the private Pine Grove Cemetery in Sheffield also allow natural burials. 

 

Green burials do not include a burial vault and use a wooden casket, biodegradable casket, or shroud, or cloth. 

 

A green burial could also be a bottomless vault, which is good because it does not allow for the ground to settle, Bartels said. Any of these methods allow for the body to decay into the ground. 

 

The trustees needed something from the Board of Health that addresses diseases so that it could be added to the cemetery's book of regulations.   

 

Bartels clarified that this is not a town bylaw; it is a cemetery regulation. 

 

The trustees hope to have the perc tests done by June. These tests will determine whether the decaying bodies will leach into the aquifer, he said. 

 

The trustees originally planned on having a designated section for green burials at Ashuelot Cemetery, Bartels said. 

 

They later decided that opening up the option for the entire cemetery is better because there will be cases where someone wants to be buried alongside a loved one who chose not to have a green burial, he said.