Public Water Supplies
The Ipswich River watershed provides drinking water to 335,000 people and thousands of businesses in 14 communities including: Beverly, Boxford, Danvers, Hamilton, Ipswich, Lynn, Lynnfield, Middleton, North Reading, Peabody, Salem, Topsfield, Wenham, and Wilmington.
Click here to find out more fun facts about water supply and the Ipswich River.
Where does your water come from? Whether you live in the city or the country, the water that comes from your tap is taken from a river system. The Ipswich River supplies water to Beverly, Danvers, Hamilton, Ipswich, Lynn, Lynnfield, Middleton, North Reading, Peabody, Salem, Topsfield, Wenham and Wilmington. Private wells in part of Boxford, a number of golf courses and other private businesses also draw water from the Ipswich River basin.
| This map shows a distribution water supply wells, both public and private, as well as the land area that contributes water to those wells.
Click on the map to see a larger image. The zone II areas have been mapped out using terrain analysis. The interim areas are a preliminary zoning until actual areas can be mapped out. |
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Public water supplies use either surface water, which is stored in reservoirs, or groundwater, which is water pumped from underground by wells. Both types of water withdrawals reduce flows in the river and leave less for fish and other river-life, as well as navigation, recreation and other uses of our rivers.
However, the timing and amounts of the water withdrawals result make a big difference in how significant the impacts on the river are. In the Ipswich River Watershed, groundwater withdrawals by streamside wells, especially in summer, have a very large impact and can reduce flows to a trickle or even dry up nearby streams and the river. Storage reservoirs are usually filled up in the winter and spring during higher flows, although they too sometimes reduce river flows below safe levels, especially when the winters and springs are drier than usual. Some reservoirs dam up streams and can leave the downstream sections dry for months at a time.
What is the water used for? In the home, the water we drink makes up less than a gallon a day, but we also need water for showers, baths, cooking, cleaning, dishwashing, laundry and toilets. A large amount of water is used outdoors, especially in summer, for lawn watering, car-washing and pool-filling. A household with very efficient showerheads, toilets and appliances can use 20 gallons per person per day or less — if they don’t water the lawn regularly. (This can save energy and money as well.) There are many industrial uses of water, and of course agriculture can use a lot of water, depending on the crop and irrigation methods. Towns and cities need water for fire fighting, municipal buildings, water treatment and other uses.
How are water withdrawals regulated? Drinking water quality is regulated under various state and federal laws. The Water Management Act is the state law that governs how much water can be taken from our rivers by public water suppliers or large private water withdrawals. The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is in charge of carrying out this law. The law requires “reasonable water conservation” and “reasonable protection” of a number of interests, including water quality, fisheries, wetlands, water-recreation, navigation, economic development and water supply. Some of these interests could conflict with others. DEP has broad discretion in what reasonable protection of these interests means, and has not yet developed any criteria for these requirements. DEP must also achieve a balance among competing water withdrawals and uses, and must “preserve the water resource itself.” Again, DEP has significant discretion as to what all this means.
Safe Yield: One key requirement of the law is not left to DEP’s discretion, however. DEP cannot authorize water withdrawals that exceed a river basin’s “safe yield.” For 23 years through 5 administrations, the state has said that safe yield is the amount of water that could be taken out of a river basin for human uses, without fail even during extreme droughts, while leaving enough in the river to sustain fish and environmental quality. While there were disagreements about what numbers should be used, there was no dispute about the concept.
DEP’s initial efforts to calculate a safe yield number for each river failed. In 1991, DEP calculated safe yield for the Ipswich and a few other rivers, but abandoned this approach in 1992 due to criticism that it did not adequately protect rivers. Nevertheless, DEP continued to issue permits for water withdrawals. One result of this failure was that the Ipswich and many other rivers and streams in Massachusetts were pumped to dangerously low levels, or even dry, causing fish kills and damage to the environment.
After trying to work with DEP since the mid-1990s to improve protection of the Ipswich River and specifically to re-determine safe yield, the Ipswich River Watershed Association finally took DEP to court on this issue in 2003, and (years later) won. In 2007, the Superior Court found that the available information indicated that DEP’s calculation of safe yield was too high, and the Court ordered DEP to re-calculate it “as soon as reasonably possible.” The Appeals Court affirmed this decision in August 2009, and warned DEP that it could be in violation of its own regulations if it did not comply.
In October 2009, without any public notice or opportunity for comment, DEP announced a new safe yield methodology that reversed state policy. DEP now says that safe yield does not include environmental considerations; it is the amount of water that can be pumped until the river runs dry, and does not assume that any water need remain in the river so fish and other life can survive.
What does this mean? DEP now says the Ipswich River’s safe yield is 55.5 mgd, compared to prior water allocations totaling 34.7 mgd. (Actually, the final number will probably be about 65 mgd, because they have not yet included some reservoirs.) For reference, the river was pumped dry in 2002 (for example) when withdrawals were about 28 mgd. There were large fish kills and ATVs rode up and down the riverbed. In fact, the river has experienced extreme low flows and dry conditions regularly for many years. Yet DEP now says it can supply almost twice as much water as before.
That is the new “safe yield.” Perhaps “unsafe yield” would be a more apt term.
How you can help: IRWA wants our region to have enough clean, safe water for the people who live here, the businesses that work here, and the fish and wildlife that rely on the Ipswich River for their survival. We know that this is possible, but we cannot succeed if state government does not do its job. Please make sure Governor Patrick and your senator and representative know that DEP’s new safe yield calculation for the Ipswich River is irresponsible and will thwart efforts for sustainable water management. Ask them to require DEP to rescind this method. To help, click here.
“Getting to Know your H20″
Click below to watch this short video, made by Andrea Cohen, describing how water from the Ipswich River is used to supply Salem and Beverly with safe drinking water.
