The June 6th Task Force Meeting, attended by Senator Tarr, Representative Kassner, and Representative Kerans, as well as staffers from many other state and federal elected officials, also represented an opportunity to discuss how water infrastructure presents a challenge to the creation of more affordable housing around the state. The Housing Bond Bill passed the MA House of Representatives on June 5th and now moves to the Massachusetts Senate. That bill contains $1 billion for MWRA expansion, one of the options being explored by the Task Force to bring additional water supplies into the North Shore region. This is just part of a complicated conversation being had state-wide about how to address the housing crisis – 3A zoning and 40B developments being the other hot topics around housing at the moment.
At IRWA, we have long advocated for communities to pursue “Water Neutral Growth,” a practice which enables development while ensuring that community-wide water demand does not increase. We have outlined ten steps to achieving water neutral growth in our Recipe for Water Resiliency (https://pie-rivers.org/portfolio-item/recipe-for-resiliency/), a guide for communities to use to achieve enhanced water conservation. We know that development and water conservation are simultaneously achievable and we are actively looking for ways to support communities who would like to pursue water conservation and implement a Water Neutral Growth Plan.
As part of our ongoing effort to engage with the development community on this issues, IRWA Resiliency Program Director Erin Bonney Casey is set to speak on a panel discussion “Myth-busting: Water, Sewer, Wastewater and Housing” at the Massachusetts Housing Partnership’s 2024 Housing Institute this week in Worcester. Connecting with new audiences like this is a key component of IRWA’s path forward to help communities understand how they can move forward with development in a way that is still protective of the ecological health of our river and watershed.