The Board of Health Wednesday established October 5 as the date for the first public hearing on new nitrogen regulations.

Since April, the members have been working to create new standards for nitrogen output after Town Meeting voters repealed a bylaw that required new developments contribute no nitrogen to the town's watershed.

The previous bylaw was deemed unenforceable by the Board of Health.

On Wednesday, the Board of Health met with attorney Jason Talerman,of Blatman Bobrowski & Mead to review the finalized draft of the regulations before calling for a public hearing.

"I am pleased with the document now from an enforceability standpoint," Talerman told the board. He noted, however, it was an ambitious standard.

According to members, the new regulations are intended to enhance existing regulations enforced by the state Department of Environmental protection.

The focus of the regulations is on the correction of failed sewer systems. Most of nitrogen pollution comes from incompletely treated septic waste.

A portion of the new regulations would expand the definition of “new developments” to include any failed systems that routine inspections determined would need to be replaced anyway. The regulation would require any newly installed systems keep annual nitrogen emissions below state standards.

Additionally, the regulations charge residents who replace their system an annual $75 monitoring fee during the first two years following its installation.

The fee would be paid to the Board of Health to help absorb the cost of oversight, inspection, monitor, and enforcement, according to the regulations.

The regulations give the Board of Health authority to fine offenders.

These regulations are the latest solution to a decades-long concern of excess nitrogen in Wareham’s waterways.

In addition to failed septic systems, nitrogen also comes from fertilizer: on lawns, on cranberry bogs, on golf courses, etc.

When nitrogen gets into streams, ponds, and Buzzards Bay, algae and other “invasive species” grow uncontrollably. The excess growth sucks up oxygen in the water, without which fish and shellfish die.

The public hearing is scheduled for October 5 at 7 p.m. The location is not yet determined.