Putting the herring back in Scituate's First Herring Brook
Scituate needs to find more fresh water, its residents need to use less of it, and about 40 percent of the current water supply needs to become more hospitable to wildlife, according to reports presented at the town’s library Thursday night.
The reports – one done as a collaboration between the Scituate Water Resources Committee and the North and South Rivers Watershed Association, and the other done by an Amesbury-based environmental firm contracted by the town – outline the challenges the town faces with its water supply, possible remedies, and the results of initial, exploratory steps toward resolution.
On average, Scituate residents use about 1.8 million gallons of water each day, according to the town’s water department. But in the summer -- when the population increases, sprinklers sprinkle, and pools fill up – the usage spikes to roughly 2.06 million gallons daily, officials said.
By the end of the summer, the First Herring Brook – roughly 40 percent of the town’s drinking supply – is at its lowest point of the year, right about when the fish need it to be at its highest for migration in the fall.
“When we have the most need for the water is when we have the least amount of water,” said Sara Grady, also with the NSRWA. (The other 60 percent of the town’s water comes from wells around town.)
It was in 1996, said Samantha Woods, the executive director of watershed association, that the last herring was spotted in First Herring Brook.
Bringing the fish back is a good in and of itself, Woods said, but the herring are also a crucial part of the food chain. Larger fish, like striped bass and blue fish, like to eat the herring, and humans like to eat stripers, she pointed out. But if the environment is healthy enough for the fish, it’s better for humans, too.
“They’re a harbinger of the health of the entire ecosystem,” said Woods.
Moreover, state officials have “strongly encouraged” cities and towns to restore the environments of their water supplies, said Jeffrey S. Rosen, the chairman of the water resources committee.
To bring the herring back, officials said, the dams in the brook need to be revamped, the fish ladders – structures built alongside the dams that allow the fish to migrate – need to be overhauled, and the amount of water people drain from the brook needs to be reduced.
A good place to start, Woods said, is for residents simply to use less water. “The more they conserve, the less they have to go elsewhere,” she said.
But town officials have been going elsewhere, too. Higgins Environmental Associates was contracted about three years ago to assess two locations the town considered purchasing -- Green and Satuit Meadow properties, which both turned out to be ill-suited to be a municipal water source, John Higgins told the 25-or-so people gathered Thursday night.
Even when land has enough water, and good enough water in it, a variety of conditions need to be met for the town to tap it.
For example, the approximately 22-acre Green property did not have a large enough radius around the a possible well to meet state standards, and the 100-or-so acre Satuit Meadow property did not have a supply that would have yielded water for a long enough time, Higgins said.
While officials are continuing to search for property that could add to the water supply, Rosen declined to say which properties are under consideration. Meanwhile, it will also continue to see if town-owned properties, such as Damon Well near Stockbridge Road, could yield water, Rosen said.
As for the herring, Rosen said it could be three or four years before they start swimming in the brook named after them.
“We’re going to have to do this incrementally,” he said.
Read the report by the Scituate Water Resources Committee and the NSRWA for yourself (PDF)
ScituateFinalReport.pdf
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