DEP sets series of May hearings on proposed water management rules

The Department of Environmental Protection this month will hold a series of public hearings on proposed regulations to incorporate components from the Sustainable Water Management Initiative into Water Management Act permitting.

Each meeting will begin with a presentation at 10 a.m. and a public hearing will start at noon.

The meetings will be held on the following schedule:

• May 1, DEP Southeast Regional Office, 20 Riverside Drive, Lakeville

• May 5, DEP headquarters, 1 Winter St., Boston

• May 7, DEP Central Regional Office, 627 Main St., Worcester

• May 8, DEP Western Regional Office, 436 Dwight St., Springfield

• May 12, Barnstable County Department of Health and Environment, Old Harbor Conference Room, 3195 Main St., Barnstable

• May 14, Wilmington Town Hall, Room 9, 121 Glen Road, Wilmington

The intent of the Sustainable Water Management Initiative was to develop a plan for water allocation in Massachusetts. Four years ago, the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs convened a stakeholder committee to advise the agencies on the development of the plan.

The proposed changes to Water Management Act permitting include new methodology for calculating a river basin’s “safe yield,” new biological categorizations, making water withdrawals based on new streamflow criteria, and new permit review categories.

Applicants seeking an increase in withdrawals over their historic baseline will be required to mitigate the volume of the increase. Applicants seeking to withdraw from an impaired basin or a coldwater fish resource will also be required to minimize the impact of the withdrawal.

The MMA and water suppliers have expressed concerns that the proposed regulations place too much emphasis on how water withdrawals would affect fish populations and not enough on cost-benefit analysis and the impact of impervious covers, dams, and nutrient pollutants on aquatic habitat.

The MMA is also concerned that the costs of implementing the proposed regulations could constitute an unfunded mandate borne almost exclusively by ratepayers and taxpayers. Cities and towns already lack adequate resources to maintain aging infrastructure. By limiting water withdrawal, the proposed regulations would reduce revenue and impose more costs on water suppliers.

Written comments will be accepted until 5 p.m. on June 10 and may be submitted to dep.talks@state.ma.us or to Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, Bureau of Resource Protection – Water Management Regulatory Comment Box, 1 Winter Street, 5th floor, Boston, MA 02108, attn: Elizabeth McCann.

For more information, visit the DEP website: www.mass.gov/eea/agencies/massdep/news/comment/310-cmr-36-00-water-management-act-regulations.html.