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News Briefs
COURT BACKS IPSWICH RIVER PROTECTION EFFORTS: A Suffolk Superior Court ruling has backed MassDEP efforts to protect natural resources in the Ipswich River Basin by affirming a water withdrawal permit issued to the Town of Topsfield. The decision affirmed MassDEP's issuance of the Water Management Act (WMA) permit to the town, which required that a water bank be established to mitigate the impacts of increasing withdrawal demands from the Ipswich River and that water use restrictions be imposed on unregulated private irrigation wells. Topsfield had appealed a magistrate's decision to support the original WMA permit requirements. The Ipswich River is one of the most stressed river basins in the Commonwealth. The WMA permits require major water conservation efforts when the river drops to specified levels. Mandatory outside water restrictions are required in permitted communities in the upper portion of the Ipswich River Basin when the river drops to 18.7 cubic feet per second for three consecutive days. For more information on this case, go to: www.mass.gov/dep/public/press/0607tops.htm
EBC PRESENTS AWARD TO MassDEP FOR DEVENS WORK:
MassDEP Acting Commissioner Arleen O'Donnell (center) is joined by officials from MassDevelopment, Devens Enterprise Commission and Bristol-Myers Squibb in receiving awards from the Environmental Business Council of New England. (Photo courtesy of EBC) | MassDEP joined three other organizations in receiving this year's Nicholas Humber Environmental Award for Outstanding Collaboration, sponsored by the Environmental Business Council of New England (EBC), for work to permit a new manufacturing facility at the former Ft. Devens. EBC presented the award to MassDEP, the Devens Enterprise Commission, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and MassDevelopment during EBC's Annual Dinner and Awards Ceremony in Waltham. Each organization was selected for this honor to "acknowledge your leadership in the redevelopment of the former Ft. Devens U.S. Army base with the siting and permitting of the Bristol-Myers Squibb large-scale biologics manufacturing facility." According to EBC, the award recognizes "environmentally related collaboration, which reflects the global environmental values and human spirit exemplified by Nicholas Humber." Acting Commissioner Arleen O'Donnell and Central Regional Office Director Martin Suuberg represented MassDEP at the ceremony.
TMDL PLAN TRIES TO GET THE MERCURY OUT: Massachusetts has joined the other New England states and New York state in drafting a plan for reducing mercury in regional waters to eliminate fish consumption advisories. It is the first regional mercury reduction plan proposed in the United States. The states collaborated with the New England Interstate Water Pollution Control Commission to produce the report, entitled Northeast Regional Mercury Total Maximum Daily Load. This action underscores the determination of the states to resolve the problem and to address the main issue - mercury deposited in the Northeast from sources outside the region. It calls on the federal government to do more to reduce mercury emissions that impact water bodies in the Northeast. The draft plan acknowledges that the Northeast states have been successful in achieving huge reductions in almost all in-state sources of mercury. Nearly a decade of work has resulted in mercury reductions of more than 70 percent in Massachusetts. But in-state progress has not been enough to eliminate fish advisories. The majority of mercury in states' waters comes from out-of-state sources, such as coal-fired power plants. That has resulted in elevated levels of mercury in certain fish species, and required fish consumption advisories for more than 10,000 lakes, ponds and reservoirs and over 46,000 river miles in the region. A TMDL (Total Maximum Daily Load) is a calculation of the maximum amount of a pollutant that a water body can receive and still meet water quality standards. The TMDL draft plan stipulates that a reduction of between 86 and 98 percent from the 1998 baseline deposition data of mercury arriving in the region from out-of-state sources must be achieved to make many of the region's freshwater fish safe to eat. The TMDL plan and supporting documents can be viewed at: www.mass.gov/dep/water/resources/tmdls.htm
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| The Commonwealth's Clean Diesel Team recently earned an Environmental Merit Award from the US EPA. Shown at the presentation at Faneuil Hall in Boston are: (l-r) Susan Lyon of MassDEP, EPA Regional Administrator Robert Varney, EOEEA Secretary Ian Bowles, Linda Benevides of EOEEA, Dan Burstein, formerly with EOEEA, David Cash and Ian Finlayson of EOEEA, MassDEP Acting Commissioner Arleen O'Donnell, Christine Kirby of MassDEP, and EPA Deputy Administrator Ira Leighton. | CLEAN DIESEL TEAM EARNS EPA AWARD: The U.S. EPA marked Earth Day 2007 by honoring a number of environmental leaders at the Environmental Merit Awards ceremony at Faneuil Hall in Boston. Among those honored was the Massachusetts Clean Diesel Team, consisting of staffers from MassDEP and the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs. Massachusetts has made a commitment to reduce pollution from diesel engines, in part to address statewide lifetime asthma rates of more than 14 percent. Among the efforts to reduce diesel pollution and educate the public are: the development of a school bus driver anti-idling video; adoption of bid specifications requiring the use of advanced pollution control technology in all MassHighway construction projects; retrofitting approximately 25 pieces of paving equipment statewide; and encouraging the development of Truck Stop Electrification sites across the state. Additionally, on December 13, 2006, MassDEP executed a consent order with the Executive Office of Transportation (EOT) for failing to meet deadlines associated with construction of Phase III of the Silver Line. As a condition of the settlement, EOT agreed to allocate $22.5 million to retrofit every school and regional transit diesel bus in the state by 2010.
BAY STATE JOINS REGISTRY TO TRACK GHG EMISSIONS: Massachusetts has joined 31 states, one Native American tribe and two Canadian provinces as founding members of The Climate Registry, the largest multi-state effort to track the emissions associated with global warming. This effort will assist in measuring, tracking and verifying emissions of greenhouse gases, the gases that cause climate change. It will also provide the measurement and reporting infrastructure to support voluntary, mandatory, market-based and emissions reduction programs that are consistent across borders and industry sectors. The Registry will accept reporting data starting in January 2008. For more details on this effort, go to: www.mass.gov/envir/press/pressreleases/051007_climate_registry.pdf
BIKE WEEK CHALLENGE VICTORY:
Among the Bike Week Commuter Challenge participants were MassDEP staffers (l-r) Tom Angus, Lydia Thompson, Jordan Macy, Diane Manganaro and Lynn Read. |
For the third year in a row, MassDEP has won the Bike Week Commuter Challenge with a total of 74 staffers taking part in the Boston and regional offices. The Challenge promotes bike riding and healthy modes of transportation that help to reduce air pollution and carbon emissions. Staffers interested in bicycle commuting and its benefits can check out the MassDEP Intranet site. It has a list of MassDEP "Bike Buddies," fellow bicycle commuters from various parts of the Metro-Boston area, who have volunteered to help you plan your ride. For more information about the wide range of biking activities and bicycle transportation initiatives in Massachusetts, visit: www.massbike.org
MOUTH OF COASTAL RIVER MAPS POSTED ON WEB: The MassDEP web site now provides a mapping feature that will assist municipal officials, conservation commissions, and residents with information that will make planning easier under the Wetlands Protection Act (WPA). The site publishes the Massachusetts "Mouth of Coastal River" maps. These maps identify the Mouth of the River (MOR) for coastal rivers in order to provide a clean, consistent, and predictable means of locating all river mouths in the Commonwealth. The MOR lines represent the limit of Riverfront Area jurisdiction under the WPA. Land upstream of the MOR line includes Riverfront Areas subject to the protections afforded by the wetlands regulations; any land seaward of the MOR line is not subject to jurisdiction as a Riverfront Area. These maps should reduce the need for individual MOR delineations and provide a predictable means for project review for landowners, conservation commissions, and MassDEP. The maps only apply to coastal communities on the North and Shore Shores. For more details, go to: www.mass.gov/dep/water/resources/maps/mor/mormaps.htm
ROW, ROW... ON THE CHARLES!
MassDEP staffers manned the rowboats during this spring's annual Run of the Charles boat race. MassDEP finished in second place in the Government category (just behind the EPA), and finished in 12th place overall, in a time of four hours and 13 minutes. Shown in front of their boat are: (front, l-r) MaryAnn DiPinto, Tim McElroy, and Eric Lehan; and (back, l-r) Diane Manganaro, Pam Harvey, Janet Waldron, Jim Rooney, and Anna Mayor. Not shown is team member Purvi Patel.
46 WATER SUPPLIERS HONORED BY MassDEP: MassDEP Acting Commissioner Arleen O'Donnell was the guest speaker at the Massachusetts Public Drinking Water Awards ceremony in May, when 46 public water systems were honored for their outstanding performance as part of National Drinking Water Week. Commissioner O'Donnell awarded the winning systems with a certificate of outstanding performance and achievement and a Governor's Award. "There are 1,638 public water systems in the Commonwealth that provide approximately 500 million gallons per day of safe, potable drinking water to our citizens," O'Donnell said at the ceremony, held at UMass-Amherst. "Today we recognize those water suppliers who have gone above and beyond meeting the minimum regulatory requirements for compliance." For more information and a list of winners, go to: www.mass.gov/dep/public/press/0507drin.htm
Arleen O'Donnell (left), acting commissioner of MassDEP, and Thom Martens (right), president of the Massachusetts Water Works Association, presents a Drinking Water Week award to an official from Halifax. |
Thom Martens (left), president of the Massachusetts Water Works Association, and Arleen O'Donnell (right), acting commissioner of MassDEP, presented a Drinking Water Week award to officials from Northampton. |
AMERICA'S BEST TASTING WATER: MassDEP offers congratulations to The Three Rivers Fire District in Palmer for earning the award of "America's Best Tasting Water" earlier this year from the National Rural Water Association (NRWA). Three Rivers was one of five finalists, and earned the title during the taste test held on Capitol Hill during NRWA's Annual Rally in Washington, D.C. The 925 Three Rivers district connections get their water from two groundwater wells. The district was first established in 1912.
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