State regulators have renewed water rights for more than 500 cities, towns, and other water suppliers, adding some new use restrictions that encourage conservation. But environmental groups, which draw members from most area towns, say the rules do not go far enough to protect local waterways.
The renewals allow suppliers to continue drawing water from rivers, lakes, and ground-water basins.
Environmentalists fault the new policy for allowing water suppliers to pump as much water as they want during dry spells, up to the time a drought is officially declared. They urged the addition of "stream-flow triggers" that would require communities to impose outdoor watering bans earlier, when stream flows drop below set levels.
Duane LeVangie, state water-management policy director, said the state sought a "middle way" between the wishes of environmentalists and water suppliers, who opposed such restrictions. The new rules are sufficient protection for the area's waterways, he said.
The rules, issued Dec. 31, apply only to water suppliers that existed before the state Water Management Act was approved 20 years ago, and had not yet been brought under its provisions. (They are referred to as "registered" suppliers.)
Those suppliers will, for the first time, be required to work toward limiting their water supply to an average per-capita consumption of 65 gallons per day.
The new policy also requires communities to impose outdoor watering restrictions when the state declares a drought advisory - as it did in October after a dry summer.
But seven area watershed associations - which together represent more than four dozen towns - say state drought advisories come too late, and don't necessarily respond to local conditions. Regional habitats are under stress in July and August when water levels fall and human water use increases, environmentalists said, but drought advisories are declared only following two months of low rainfall.
Stricter rules are needed to protect plants and animals earlier, so they don't suffer irreversible damage when watersheds are pumped dry, they say.
Environmentalists will try to influence policy making when an advisory body, which includes watershed members, next meets with state water-management officials, possibly next month.
The state did not choose to add stricter stream-flow triggers because it is deemed too burdensome on public water suppliers whose water rights go back a century or more, LeVangie said.
LeVangie also cited evidence that water suppliers have, on their own, tried to conserve, fix leaks, and reduce use since the Water Management Act was passed. Their water use "has not increased since 1981 to 1985," he said.
The disagreement highlights a growing conflict over water-use policy that pits environmentalists against public water suppliers, golf courses, and people who use municipal water to water their lawns during summer droughts. More than half of all water use goes to watering lawns, golf courses, and athletic fields, according to the regional watershed associations. While humans can adapt and modify their water use as conditions require, they argue, fish have to swim.
"Nonessential water use is crying out to be managed better," said Jill Cowie, coordinator for the Watershed Action Alliance of Southeastern Massachusetts.
Low water levels in state watersheds have already taken a toll on the environment, agreed Mettie Whipple of Plymouth's Eel River Watershed Association. Pointing to the Ipswich River, where heavy human use of water caused the river to run dry and rare species to die, Whipple said, "We will lose our rare species, too."
The Weir River, the Mattapoisett River, and tributaries of the Jones River and North River all suffer annual low or no-flow periods, according to the watershed alliance.
Last fall, while the town of Mattapoisett reported water usage that would easily meet the new state per-capita usage standard of 65 gallons a day, part of the Mattapoisett River went dry, according to the watershed associations.
Last August, a part of First Herring Brook in Scituate ran dry before the town implemented a water ban, Cowie said.
In addition to the Eel River groups, letters protesting the new policy were signed by the the North and South Rivers Association (representing residents of Norwell, Hingham, Scituate, Marshfield, Hanover, Pembroke, Whitman, Hanson, Duxbury, Weymouth, Rockland and Abington); the Jones River Watershed Association (Kingston); the Neponset River Watershed Association (Canton, Dedham, Foxborough, Milton, Norwood, Randolph, Quincy, Sharon, Stoughton, Walpole and Westwood); and the Weir River Watershed Association (Hingham, Hull, Weymouth, Rockland and Norwell).
Also signing were the Taunton River Watershed Alliance (representing 22 south of Boston area towns); the Pembroke Watershed Association; and Back River Watershed Association (Weymouth).
Robert Knox can be contacted at rc.knox@gmail.com.
