Lawmakers say MWRA broke rule

An unpopular decision by the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority to drain a reservoir in the Blue Hills Reservation, the state's oldest park, has prompted local lawmakers to file legislation requiring the agency to replace several acres of wetlands lost in the process.

The MWRA gained regulatory permission from the state Department of Environmental Protection to empty the reservoir and, on the site, build two underground tanks for an emergency water supply as a post-Sept. 11 security measure. State officials exempted the MWRA from the Wetlands Protection Act requirement that any lost wetlands be replaced by creating new wetlands nearby.

From the start, local environmentalists and the mayor of Quincy objected to the drainage project, which destroyed 8.7 acres of wetlands, but the MWRA went ahead with the $31 million project. Since then, constituent opposition has gained traction with local legislators, who filed the bill requiring the authority to abide by the Wetlands Act replacement requirement.

''It sets a dangerous precedent toward protecting important wetlands," state Representative Bruce Ayers (D-Quincy) said of the wetlands replacement exemption. Ayers introduced the bill, which is backed by Robert Coughlin (D-Dedham), Geraldine Creedon (D-Brockton), William Galvin (D-Canton), and Walter Timilty (D-Milton).

Protected by law for their environmental value, wetlands not only serve as habitats for many animal and plant species, they also provide flood control. Wetlands act as a sponge, absorbing water during rainy periods and releasing it during dry periods.

The MWRA, however, believes the Blue Hills reservoir, which was man-made, is not a true wetlands -- and therefore the Wetlands Act's requirement to replace lost wetlands does not apply. The site was created by the state in the 1950s to store water for the region, said Ria Convery, the spokeswoman for the MWRA, and thus ''was not a wetlands per se."

The authority plans to build two 10-million-gallon water storage tanks in the east end of the reservoir footprint. The tanks are ''critical" to the water service area, the MWRA said, and in an emergency would provide water for 100,000 customers, mostly in Quincy and Milton, for 24 hours.

Convery said the MWRA, which needed an emergency water supply somewhere south of the city, chose the site for the tanks because the authority already owned the land and it was at the right elevation for hydraulic purposes.

The MWRA is addressing the loss of the reservoir by spending $8 million -- nearly a quarter of the total project cost -- on mitigation of the project's impact, she said. The tanks will be buried, and grass planted on top to create ''a meadow," Convery said. The other half of the reservoir's original 16.4-acre footprint will be allowed to fill naturally with water and be open to the public for a fishing pond with a pier. Some hiking trails will be added. Construction is expected to take two years.

But what Convery called a meadow will look like ''big piles of dirt" and be inconsistent with the park's rocky, wooded terrain, said Thomas Palmer, president of the Friends of the Blue Hills, a group of 500 people ''who like the park."

Palmer questioned not only the environmental ruling but the MWRA's choice of the reservoir as the site to hold its emergency water tanks. ''They treat it like anywhere else is not acceptable," Palmer said. Destroying the largest body of water within the Blue Hills Reservation visible from a road -- Chickatawbut Road in Quincy -- amounts to ''picking the low-hanging fruit," he said.

Added Palmer, ''Open water has a lot of aesthetic value."

He said public agencies have been held in the past to the Wetlands Act's requirement to replace lost wetlands -- a frequent target of private developers, who contend it makes development more expensive. The state Highway Department has replaced lost wetlands in road construction projects, and the Greenbush railroad, another public project, is replacing wetlands as it builds new rail facilities south of Boston.

When the MWRA itself created a large water tank in Weston, it destroyed more than 2 acres of wetlands, but replaced them, Palmer said.

A new wetlands could be built in a corner of the park where Interstate 95 and Route 128 meet, which has been filled with sand, he said.

Convery said the authority could not estimate the cost of building new wetlands since they are dependent on specific conditions; but all the project's costs are passed on to ratepayers.

The MWRA serves 2.5 million people and more than 5,000 industrial users in 61 Eastern Massachusetts cities and towns.

Robert Knox can be reached at rc.knox@gmail.com.