Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs

Recent and Ongoing Efforts

A number of important endeavors have resulted from the 2004 Massachusetts Water Policy: The following highlight some of them.

Water Assets and Water Budgets:

A series of studies have been undertaken to help local communities understand the impacts of water use in their area, and the limited nature of water as a resource. With a mapping tool developed to help identify lands critical for the protection of current and future water supplies, and analyses developed to assess the current and potential water supply capacity as well as the current and potential water demands, each study represents a significant step forward in better understanding both the potential and the limitations water holds for future growth.

Target Fish Studies:

The Massachusetts Division of Fish and Wildlife is evaluating the overall health of rivers and streams by studying their overall communities. By defining a fish community that is appropriate for such waters, and evaluating the presence of such target populations, we can better understand the health of a water body in ecological terms.

Restoring MA Rivers: Habitat and Fluvial Fish (ppt)

Stream Indexing and the Stress Basin Methodology:

Index streamflows are being developed for Massachusetts rivers based on historic flow statistics from index gauges (gauges least impacted by human alteration as identified by USGS). These streamflows will represent a seasonal range of flow expected to be present most of the time and are intended to be protective of aquatic habitat resources in lieu of detailed site-specific studies. The standards will be the basis of future re-classification of stressed basins.

MA Stream Flow Standards and Stressed Basins Reclassification (ppt)

Low Impact Development

Low Impact Development is an approach to environmentally friendly land use planning. It includes a suite of landscaping and design techniques that attempt to maintain the natural, pre-developed ability of a site to manage rainfall. LID techniques capture water on site, filter it through vegetation, and let it soak into the ground where it can recharge the local water table rather than being lost as surface runoff. An important LID principle includes the idea that stormwater is not merely a waste product to be disposed of, but rather that rainwater is a resource.

Dam Permit Streamlining

Dams in general, big or small, impede the flow of water and obstruct the continuity of a riverine system. They also decrease oxygen levels in the water, obstruct the downstream movement of silt and nutrients, change river bottom characteristics, and alter the timing and quantity of river flow. Also many dams that are in a dilapidated condition, in need of repair and are an economic burden on their owners. Dams can also be public safety hazards, trapping debris and causing sudden burst of water flow downstream thus causing flooding, bank erosion, and other effects.

In many cases, the short-term cost of removal of a non-functioning dam can be significantly more cost-effective than the long-term cost of maintenance and repair, particularly since outside funds are often available for dam removal. Dam removal can also provide significant important economic and social benefits, avoiding public safety impacts, providing river recreation opportunities, and revitalizing community waterfronts.

EOEEA, through its various agencies, has made the dam removal process more easily understood and predictable. Through a multi-stakeholder task group, in 2007 EOEEA developed a dam removal guidance document that provides greater clarity to dam removal proponents about permits required, process involved, and potential funding sources.

Pilot Wetlands Bank

The State's first wetlands bank is currently being developed in the Taunton River Watershed. The pilot wetlands mitigation bank is being created under Section 89 of Massachusetts Acts Chapter 291, enacted on August 10, 2004. This legislation directed EOEEA and the Executive Office of Transportation (EOT) to establish a pilot wetlands mitigation bank in the Taunton River Watershed for the purpose of mitigating the wetlands impacts of transportation, other public works projects and projects requiring wetlands variances, permits and Orders of Conditions within the watershed.