On July 13th, a public meeting was held by the Water Management Act (WMA) Advisory Committee to consider a proposal by the State Department of Environmental Protection to require outdoor water conservation restrictions on Registrations during State-declared droughts. Registrations is a term for the class of major water withdrawals that was grandfathered when the WMA was passed in 1986 that were exempted from conditions being imposed upon them at the time. Conditioning registrations has been a priority of IRWA and the wider rivers community ever since the law was originally passed since the majority of withdrawals statewide are registered, including more than 80% in the Ipswich River. The Committee endorsed the proposal which will go to public comment this fall with a plan to promulgate the new rule by the end of the year. As conditioning registrations was one of the primary actions called for in the #endangeredipswich Campaign, we couldn’t be more pleased at this progress.
A meeting of the North Shore Water Resiliency Task Force was held on August 2 to finalize the scope of a study that will explore the feasibility of developing alternative sources of water to the current sources in the Ipswich River. The Task Force, which is convened by Senator Tarr is working to pursue the ultimate solution to our River’s water woes consists of river advocates, all the cities and Towns that depend on the river and the State legislators that represent these communities.
As the 2-year State legislative session came to a close on July 31st, we achieved some big wins for our river. All three water programs within state agency budgets with whom we work most closely saw big increases which will directly and indirectly help our river. Additionally, several of our habitat restoration projects were granted direct line items in the budget including dam removal, water quality monitoring, and invasive species management. We are particularly pleased with another $150,000 approved to support the work of the North Shore Water Resiliency Task Forces. Unfortunately, our biggest priority for the session, the Drought Bill failed to make it out of the Senate Ways and means Committee. This said, it did get further along in the process than 99% of all bills submitted during the session so we are buoyed by the prospects of it passing next time. We cannot thank you enough for all your hard work and response to our advocacy appeals since hearing directly from their constituents is the only way that these things happen in the State Legislature.
