At Quabbin, MMA testifies in support of 6 water bills

Sen. Anne Gobi of Spencer, the Senate chair of the Joint Committee on Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture, moved an Oct. 6 committee hearing on a number of water-related bills to the state’s premier drinking water resource, the Quabbin Reservoir in Belchertown.
 
The primary source of drinking water for Boston and 40 Boston-area communities, the Quabbin holds 412 billion gallons of water and covers 39 square miles, making it one of the largest manmade public water supplies in the United States. Its creation in the 1930s entailed relocating the population of the Swift River Valley and dismantling hundreds of homes and businesses, a state highway, a railroad line, and cemeteries. The state then constructed two huge earthen dams, and four communities were flooded by the three branches of the Swift River and the Ware River.
 
With this as a backdrop, the MMA testified in favor of six water infrastructure bills.
 
One (H. 656) would authorize additional grant funding through the creation of a $1 billion water infrastructure bond. This funding would be distributed to municipalities based on a formula similar to the Chapter 90 program for local roads and bridges.
 
An enabling statute (H. 657) would give cities and towns an important tool to raise revenue locally by establishing dedicated funds commonly referred to as water banks or water banking.
 
Three very similar bills (S. 448, S. 418 and H. 668) would require the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs to complete a regulatory impact statement on any rule, regulation, guidance document or policy it proposes that applies to the operation of public drinking water systems, wastewater collection and treatment facilities, and stormwater management.
 
The MMA also testified in support of a bill (H. 654) that would direct the Department of Environmental Protection to evaluate the feasibility of implementing a watershed-based permitting approach in Massachusetts.
 
With communities facing an overall environmental infrastructure finance gap of close to $40 billion, the MMA will continue to strongly advocate for more resources.