State awards $929,000 in grants for water projects

The Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs announced on March 18 that it will be awarding nearly $929,000 in grant funding to help 11 communities with water conservation, demand management and other projects that will help to mitigate the ecological impacts of water withdrawals.

The awards will help to remove dams, increase waterway flow, recharge aquifers, and support habitats.

The grants are part of the Sustainable Water Management Initiative, an effort by the Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs and its agencies to maintain healthy rivers and streams and improve degraded water resources over time.

The SWMI Grant Program will go to planning projects for specific watersheds, developing projects to improve ecological conditions, and managing projects aimed at reducing the demand for water within a municipality or watershed.

This first round of capital funding grants has been approved for the following communities: Amherst, Brockton, the Dedham-Westwood Water District, Franklin, Halifax, Hopkinton, Kingston, Medway, Pembroke, Scituate and Worcester.

“A number of communities in the Commonwealth have implemented water conservation measures, but we need to do more to protect our water supplies and the ecosystems they support,” said Commissioner Kenneth Kimmell of the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection.

Department of Fish and Game Commissioner Mary Griffin said SWMI projects such as those in Brockton, Scituate and Worcester “will apply tested restoration techniques to improve river habitat.”

The SWMI is intended to guide management of water in the Commonwealth so that there is enough for the many – and sometimes competing – long-term water needs of communities and aquatic ecosystems, according to the Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs. The final SWMI framework will, for the first time, put in motion Water Management Act regulations that implement “stream-flow” criteria to ensure that streams do not dry up.

For more information on the grants, the SWMI framework and water withdrawals under the Water Management Act, visit www.mass.gov/eea/swm.