Progress For the Endangered Ipswich

Following the designation of the River in 2021 as one of the most endangered in all of America, our Association developed an ambitious yet achievable 9-step plan to fix the river. One year later, more progress has been made towards its goals than we dared imagine at the time.  Five of the nine steps have been successfully implemented. This includes a proposal just released by the State Department of Environmental Protection which will limit grandfathered water withdrawals known as “registrations”. This is vital as “registrations” make up 80% of the withdrawals from the Ipswich River, often for water that is shipped outside of the watershed, never to return. Check out our progress below along with what lies ahead in 2023.

Phase 1: Foundation Building in 2022

• Garnered unprecedented national, regional and local attention for our river
• Won a proposal from the Department of Environmental Protection to condition Registrations (grandfathered water withdrawals) for the first time ever
• Created an enhanced Net Zero water conservation tool kit and successful Lawn by Lawn Campaign
• Progressed priority Drought Legislation towards passage faster that any bill of its kind
• Achieved an historic written Charter Agreement amongst all the communities in the watershed to work together to fix the rivers problems
• Successfully fought bad water permits and built a stronger Statewide coalition to fix outdated water rules
• Received never before commitments from the governor, congress and State water policy officials to work with us to fix the River

Phase 2: The Important Work That Lies Ahead in 2023

• Find alternative sources of water to take stress off of the river and build resiliency for the future
• Pass the all-important Drought Bill to require that everyone that uses the river reduce unnecessary water use
• Implement our new net zero water use policy across the watershed
• Educate thousands more of youth and adults across the Watershed to help champion our cause 
• Secure a commitment from the State to fix the bad water rules that currently exempt 90% of water use from our river from any conservation requirements 
• Build irreversible momentum towards  a healthy & sustainable river

We are positioned for the first time to fix the river once and for all!