2023-04-26 00:00:00 - Joint Committee on Environment and Natural Resources
2023-04-26 00:00:00 - Joint Committee on Environment and Natural Resources
SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER1 - Good. Not morning. Good afternoon. Welcome to this hearing a second hearing of the joint committee on the Environmental Resources. I am senator Becca Rausch, senate chair of the committee joined by my good friend.
House chair Dan Kayhill. Just a a little bit of sort of housekeeping administrative stuff at the outset here. As many of you may know. This week, the house chamber is debating the budget. So you may see we have fewer folks up here on the committee. Rest assured, everyone will still be privy to your testimony, but many of our house members all of our house members are up in the house chamber debating the budget. And mister Chair will be leaving momentarily also to go up to debate the house budget. The senate members are also in caucus at the moment. So we are gonna have a lot of258 folks coming in and out as things go on today. So I I ask your patience And understanding is we juggle many things going on in the state house today. Additionally, today is also Denim Day, So that that will be happening at 03:00. So I think we will maybe be done by 03:00, which would be great. If we are not done by 3, we will take a brief recess at that time to go join the women's caucus, to honor Denim Day, and then we will reconvene. Any questions? Great. Okay. Today, we are going to hear testimony on bills pertaining to waterways, wetlands, and water resources, and oceans.
Let's see. We're gonna just go right ahead here.
Couple of additional administrative matters, as you can tell from the screens. This is310 a hybrid hearing that is being live streamed on the state legislature's website. We have individuals physically present in the hearing room and also individuals joining us remotely. For those of those of you joining us remotely, please remember to keep yourselves muted unless you are speaking. Also, please note the chat is for committee business only. Please do not enter any substantive information into the chat It will not be saved or considered by the committee. Several people who wanted to testify signed up in advance, we will also take testimony from anyone who signs up in person today. We will endeavor to announce the queue of speakers so all of you can anticipate when your testimony will be heard. Testimony is limited to 3 minutes per person. Given the number of testifiers for today's hearing, we will be adhering very closely to that 3 minute rule.
Please note the clock on the display which should361 be showing on your screen and keep track of your time and wrap up your marks accordingly. Testifiers are welcome to read prepared remarks, but please refrain from reading any testimony that has already been or will soon be submitted to the committee in writing Right? We will read your testimony, but and you are welcome, of course, to read any additional remarks or different remarks that you've prepared today. Let's see here. Anyone testifying on multiple pieces of legislation should provide testimony for all of those bills at once within the allotted 3 minutes per speaker. After testimony concludes questions may be asked by members of the committee. Only committee members may ask questions, Any committee members participating remotely, please use the raise hand function. Non committee members who raise their hands in the teams meeting will not be considered, and your hands will be lowered. For panels, questions will be taken after all the panelists have spoken. Please refrain from cheering clapping, yelling, or any other disruptions. Let's see. Test money for a given bill will be taken together generally. And as is customary, Legulators and other elected officials will be taken out of turn. Mister Cher, would you like to introduce your colleagues from
SPEAKER2 - the house? Would
SPEAKER3 - like to introduce my colleagues. And good afternoon, everyone. I just wanna thank Share Ralph for taking the gavel today last minute. Yeah. No problem. That's obviously
SPEAKER1 - operates
448 SPEAKER3448 -448 in448 last minute. I have to my left, representative Chris and Casman. I have representative Jenny Army454 and myself. I'm
SPEAKER4 - a house.
SPEAKER1 - Durban. Okay. And with that, we will begin.
Let's see. Representative Gary, are you there you are.
SPEAKER5 - Hello. Hey, good, Donna. Yeah.
REP GARRY - HB 28 - Good afternoon and through you to the members. Thank you for taking me out of turn. House 28 is for my community of Tyngsborough, the New Hampshire border. Half of the community is supplied by a drinking water supply district. The other supplies buy the Tyngsborough water district,487 but Tyngsborough doesn't have a well right now. They buy their water from Lowell, and they buy it from Pennichuck. Last year they saw a 40% increase in rates from Lowell, and Pennichuck is looking from New Hampshire to increase their rates. There's conservation land that the town owns and are willing to sell to the water district.
But when the DPU was looking at the baseline, they were counting all the water that they were buying. And they would only limit it to 250000 gallons a day, and that would make it financially feasible to do this well. They're looking to be able to pull a million, and the studies show that it would be able to handle that. And of course, we all got a letter yesterday or a couple of days for PFAS in our communities. So obviously, that will have an impact whether they will have to treat any water or so forth. But this would just allow them to go forward and have the assurance that if they were to plan this, that they'd be able to pull on out of the well to be able to make it feasible to do. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
Okay. Thank you. Any questions?
SPEAKER8 - Thank
SPEAKER1 - you very much. Thank you. Good luck with the budget. Thanks.
Chair garlic, I don't see Okay. Well, hold on. Her for a minute, representative Rogers.
I also don't see him. Again, please bear with us. As far as we're all sort of managing budget and other things, representing Moschino.
SPEAKER3 - We're
SPEAKER1 - getting it all done. It's happening.
SPEAKER9 - Yep.
REP MESCHINO - HB 861 - This is actually a really good bill. I'm here in support of House 861. It's refile. It was a Caroline Vega bill last year on drought management, made it to Ways and Means. And we didn't quite get it across the finish line. And perhaps since she retired, I refiled it for her, a few changes responsive to some of the things we've heard. Basically, what it does is it codifies into law, the drought management task force recommendations, and it grants some really important broad powers to EEA to manage drought. It's, well all saw it, right, in 2003, right? We have drought becoming much more frequent. It's becoming much more severe. And then we hit the crisis moment last year. It's about water supply, it's about habitat. It's that basic. And from my part, as a climate champion, it's also about resilience and adaptation as well. So what we need is consistent enforcement mechanism to manage drought consistently across the state.
And really what this is getting at is when they declare the drought, right, it's about how we tackle some of the private use wells. That's really what it is. Now I don't want you to worry. There's exceptions in here for business and for agriculture, which are crucially important. This is really just about outdoor non essential water use. I think it's gonna be hugely impactful. I think it's gonna make a big difference as I said in maintaining our water supply, maintaining our habitat, maintaining our climate resilience. So any consideration you could do, we look forward to working with you and ask for your favorable action. That'd be great. Happy to answer pretend I can answer any questions. Others will testify behind me that are much more knowledgeable. We did submit written testimony, and then there are a few charts that are attached to the letter that are instructed for the community staff. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
Yes. I
SPEAKER1 - always appreciate visual aids. Yeah. Any questions? Okay. Thank you very much. Thanks,
SPEAKER10 - guys. Thanks.
SPEAKER1 - Thank you. Good luck.
Let's see. Rep responders.
REP SAUNDERS - HB 897 - Thank you Madam Chair, Chair Cahill. I'm here to testify in support of House 897. As you know, the Great and General Court created the MWRA. It is a political subdivision of the Commonwealth, and in that time, there's been very little done to look at how it's operated over the course of these last several decades since Enfield, Prescott, Dana and Greenwich were drowned and disbanded in western Massachusetts. This bill would do several thing. First, it would create some consideration for the communities that steward this land in the Quabbin Watershed. Right now, Chapter 59, Section 5G, specifically prohibits any pilot consideration for the water in the Quabbin, which sounds odd to say out loud. But the communities that steward this land that hold this incredibly valuable resource, receive absolutely nothing for the water that has fundamentally built Boston in the surrounding area.
This would set a 5 cent per thousand gallon excise on that water. And to put that in context, as committee members and and I have back in my office, these these water bottles, maybe inspired by809 Tom Brady in that diet. You would have to fill that up 6800 times to cost 5 cents under this legislation. It is incredibly light touch. But on the back end of that, it would create an estimated $3.5 million for communities that are in desperate need of this833 support. It would create a funding stream for nonprofits to provide transit services where they simply do not exist. This bill would also take844 on some of the good government approaches that this body has addressed in other areas of of government by setting term limits on the MWRA advisory board. It would provide additional representation for Western Mass when making decisions about the watershed. And it's long overdue for those changes as well. The last thing I868 wanna touch on is, it's sometimes it maybe seeing a split to say, who is going to874 fill that up 6800 times. But the actual impact to rate payers based on Boston water and sewer numbers of an average residential household going through 41 gallons of water a day. That would equal 6 cents per month. I hope that the committee feels that 6 cents per month is not too high a price to pay for regional equity for the Quabbin Watershed communities. Thank you. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
Thank
SPEAKER1 - you, wrap any questions from members of the committee?
Seeing none. Thank you, sir.
Okay, welcome to representative Gianna who has joined us. Good afternoon. Okay, I am scanning my list of legislative members is ah, senator Joey.
SPEAKER10 - Tada. Thank
SPEAKER1 - you.
SPEAKER10 - Thank you.
SEN GOBI - SB 505 - Thank you to the chairs, I appreciate it and I'll be brief. This is on senate, double check the bill number, 505, and it's about making some changes to the Ware River Watershed Advisory Committee. And just really quickly because I used to be a history teacher,960 and I always like to give a little bit of historical perspective962 on it. I know that when folks come before you and they talk about things in the Quabbin, which is also within my area, and people know very well about the Dana, Enfield, Greenwich and Prescott that were just incorporated and taken to help quench Boston's thirst if you will. But sometimes people forget about these other watershed areas including the Ware river watershed area.
And in 1926, when Ware River act was incorporated, just to give you an idea, some of my towns lost great amounts of land. They weren't disincorporated, Because they were still there if you will. However, the villages to give you an example, the town of Rutland lost north and West Rutland. Oakham lost its main business area, which was an area in the vanquished village of Coldbrook Springs, Barre lost East Barre, Coldbrook and White Valley Villages. In those villages, people had, there were post offices, there were mills. There were actually hotels back at that time, businesses. Farmers lost their land and had to go somewhere else. And so since 1995, it was put into effect that we would have folks from that area to have an advisory committee to be able to talk about things of what's important to them, because obviously makes sense. When something is happening in your backyards, you should have an opportunity to say what is going on and to have a say in that.
What this piece of legislation would do, is that in1047 1997 when they first started meeting, a couple of the groups no longer exist. Since that time as well, there have been other groups that have become very involved and have been taking a very active part in attending the meetings on a regular basis. And these meetings are held monthly. You can go online, you can watch the meetings remotely, or you can attend. Most of the meetings are held in the town of Rutland. And so what this would do is to get rid of basically take off those two groups that no1076 longer exist and add three more people that again, these are organizations that have taken a very active interest, and probably since about 2000 or1086 so have been attending the meetings on a regular basis. And they include a number of the Snowmobile Association, a local equestrian group, as well as a1095 member of the New England Mountain Bike Association. So that's the ask before you. The bill has passed, however, just because of what's happened the last couple of years it hasn't gone too far. Again, I wanna thank you for hearing this bill very early in your session. And hopefully, we can get it moved this time across. Happy to answer any questions. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
Thank you, senator. Any questions? Terrific. Thank you very much. Welcome to representative Sccola, who has joined us, and senator Miranda, if you like
SEN MORAN - SB 534 - SB 535 - SB 541 - Thank you Madam Chair, Mr. Chair for the opportunity. Members, I'm delighted to be here to talk to you about Massachusetts blue economy and to testify in support of Senate 534, an Act to establish a Blue Economy workforce pipeline, and Senate 535, an act relative to a future blue economy, and their companion bills in the House. I'm also grateful to my colleague in the House, representative Kathleen LaNatra, for her1165 significant work in promoting the1167 blue economy. I'm also grateful to the New England Aquarium for conceiving and advocating for this bill and for their ongoing commitment to responsible stewardship of our ocean and coastlines.
Massachusetts has a thriving blue economy and these bills are critical to ensuring future sustainable growth. In1190 the last 10 years, our blue economy has grown significantly and is currently valued at over $8 billion. Our thousands of blue economy businesses employ hundreds of thousands of workers. The state's historic fishing industries combined with new developments in offshore wind and aquaculture have produced a diverse and growing workforce centered in our coastal communities, from Newburyport to New Bedford, and from Plymouth to Providence town and everywhere in between. These two bills in particular would create the infrastructure to ensure the blue economy businesses both and small are given the tools and support they need to ensure that their contributions are sustainable for years to come.
Senate 534 would update the state's waste plans to state clearly that the transition to a circular economy, defined as an economy that keeps materials products and services in circulation for as long as possible, is a priority for the Commonwealth. The bill would also establish an outreach and education program to educate the public and small businesses on the benefits of a circular economy. Senate 535 would establish three grant programs, which combined with proper funding, would establish the infrastructure for the state to improve targeted investments to bolster the blue economy year after year. The bill would establish a grant program to provide funding to small businesses for the transition to a circular business plan. A grant program to provide funding to nonprofits, research institutions, and other businesses to conduct research and develop technology to improve ocean health and facilitate sustainable ocean use. And an education fund, to provide funding to state high schools to expand educational development, workforce training, and job placement programs in ocean sector jobs. Establishing this funding infrastructure is the first step towards bolstering1305 our blue economy and ensuring it remains sustainable for future generations. I respectfully1311 request a favorable report for these two bills, and I welcome any questions in this regard. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
Thank you, senator. Any questions?
SPEAKER1 - Hey, seeing none. We're
SPEAKER6 - all at the end. May I also thank you very much for the opportunity. May I also, at this point, testify on senate 541 for efficiency? Briefly if you're able. Yes. Okay. Briefly. Thank you.
MORAN - I'm here also to testify on an act protecting the upper cape water supply reserve. This bill would ensure that any new construction or expansion on joint based Cape Cod requiring 10 or more acres1348 of habitat destruction or clear cutting is accompanied by an adequate community review process. I will be submitting written testimony, and I appreciate the committee's attention to this matter. Thank you very much. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
Sure if it. Thank you. Any questions?
SPEAKER1 - K. Thank you, senator? This is Senator Aldridge?
SEN ELDRIDGE - SB 475 - HB 861 - Thank you very much. Madam Chair, Mr. Chair, thank you very much for taking me out committee. Good afternoon to the members of the Joint Committee on Environment and Natural Resources. I'm here to testify on a bill I filed with Representative Meschino who I know you just heard from Senate 475 House 861, an act relative to maintaining adequate water supplies through effective drought management. This is a bill that's been before the committee.1400 I appreciate the committee's past support of the bill. And this is basically, in my opinion, making a common change to empower EEA to empower DEP to better regulate drought management. It would specifically codify the drought management task force allowing the secretary of energy and environmental affairs to establish outdoor watering restrictions and authorizing municipalities to enforce those restrictions.
I would argue that there's often at the local level conflict that could be better resolved if this was powered through the state. I would just highlight that we have suffered droughts recently and more and more often, including in 2016 and 2020. During which parts of several major Massachusetts rivers ran dry, and that impacts our recreation. It impacts biodiversity, and it obviously impacts our farms. During the 2016 drought, Massachusetts farmers lost the estimated $18 million in crop failures. And in the 2020 drought, there were even wildfires that threatened approximately 100 homes. So right now we have a hodgepodge of policies that I think would be fixed by this state regulation. Having a uniform, common sense, water conservation plans is essential to protecting our communities and national environment. And very proud to work with the Mass Rivers Alliance, so I know is here and has panels and has done a tremendous amount of work on this legislation. And I'm hoping we can pass this bill into law this session. Thank you very much for taking me out of turn. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
Thank you.
Questions. Seeing none.1497 Thank you, senator Eldridge. Also, the vice chair of this esteemed
SPEAKER14 - joining with Adam chairman. The We are
SPEAKER1 - shortly going to be joined by vice chair, Eldridge. And
so where you had a representative gentile who's also member of the committee joining us virtually. Representative Shand. Thank you Chair Cahill, Chair Rausch. I have two bills before the committee. Do you have a preference for which when I address? Deal choice. Whoo. Okay.
REP SHAND - HB 906 - HB 905 - I'd like to start then with1536 an act to accelerate and streamline wetlands permitting. I have submitted written testimony that includes technical details. But, essentially, this is a bill that asks the administration to align government processes with our climate goals. It's an economic development bill. The federal government has made millions available to restore wetlands, and we are unable to access those funds. But for my district, this bill is incredibly important because wetlands are our most expedient tool for protecting our drinking supply. So Newburyport's water comes from three reservoirs and essentially, they're below the flood length. So in case of a catastrophic flood, we would lose our water. And not only 18000 people in Newburyport, but 7000 in Newbury, and 4700 in West Newbury.
In 2006, we had a huge storm some of you may remember. And we came very close to having brackish water infiltrate the water supply. It almost happened. And we don't have a way of filtering for salt in our water treatments. We have about 9000 acres of marsh, which is why Mass Audubon asked me to file this bill for them. So essentially, you know, I'm saying that the wetlands bill is essentially our best climate resiliency method to protect the water supply. We have an $18 million engineering plan that could potentially help us with this situation. But Mass DEP made it a level 4 plan and not a level 5. The level 5 plans are getting funding, but those are addressing the public health issues of PFAS and lead in the drinking water. So I really feel strongly that the wetlands bill is probably our best way of protecting the drinking supply for the Northern Essex1647 communities. Thank you for considering it. And I have a panel that will be testifying later.
Alright. The second bill I have before you is an act to create a Merrimack River collaborative, it's H 905. It is a joint file with Senator Bruce Tarr. So, basically, I represent all of the municipalities that are most impacted by anything that happens1672 to the river. So, at this moment federal funding is being shifted from the Charles1678 and the Mystic to the Merrimack. We want to have a standing collaborative that would be able to better leverage the funding opportunities as well as their expertise. There's excitement in the delegation and1690 among the municipalities. Over 20 municipalities are connected by this river, and they really want to have a standing group with this legislative body, that could work on the evolving issues of water quality, water treatment, wastewater treatment, and combined sewage overflows.
Most importantly, the bill costs us nothing. It codifies an existing collaboration among three excellent organizations, many of whom are here today to testify. That is the Merrimack Valley planning commission, the Merrimack Valley watershed, and the Northern Essex Council of Governments. I also believe that I have1728 several of our municipal leaders who will be1730 joining us virtually to talk about why they feel this collaborative is something that we need quite strongly. It began pre pandemic, and Mayor Sean Reardon of Newburyport has been one of the driving forces in reinvigorating this coalition. So thank you to everyone on the committee for hearing two bills, and I hope you'll consider them. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
Thank you, Rep. Any questions for members of committee?
SPEAKER1 - Yes.
REP KASSNER - Not as much a question. I just wanted to thank Rep Shand for bringing up critical issues of both water supplies and the Merrimack River and both of these bills that greatly affect the North Shore, not just in her communities, but many of our communities in the North Shore. And I'm looking forward to hearing more about these important issues from these panelists, and just wanna thank you for bringing this forward. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER1 - They're thick. Any other comments or questions?
Okay. Thank you very much. Welcome to our house vice chair, representative Fernandez. And senator Comfort.
SPEAKER15 - I was gonna bring a TV instead of it.
SEN COMERFORD - SB 447 - Thank you so much Madam Chair and Mr. Chair for convening this hearing, for hearing this bill that I'm about to testify on early, and for taking me out of turn. In 1893, 130 years ago, our state's board of health looked for sources of water for Boston, concerned for the sustainability of the Commonwealth's Port and major city. It considered a Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire, Sebago Lake in Maine, and the Merrimack and Nashua Rivers deciding instead to take water from the Ware River and to create a massive reservoir in what was known then as the Swift River Valley. The problem was that the valley was home to more than 3250 people living in four towns, Dana, Enfield, Greenwich, and Prescott, with hotels, businesses, factories, post offices, town halls. You name it.
Now fast forward to 85 years ago, nearly to the day of this hearing, 04/28/1938, the same 4 towns were disincorporated. Hundreds of homes moved or dismantled, houses of worship moved or torn down, businesses closed, dead disinterred, families scattered, and then flooded by the Swift River. All for this, and I hear that Rep Saunders showed it to you as well. All for this, Quabbin Water needed in1905 Eastern Massachusetts, 200 million gallons a day at1909 present. Approximately 3 million people in our commonwealth drink this pristine water filtered through a 100000 plus acre watershed. And how does this water get from western Massachusetts across the state? Enter the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority or MWRA and its predecessor, the Metropolitan District Commission, which moves Western Mass water to Eastern Mass residents.
And the MWRA is looking to expand, offering water with dozen communities north of Boston, 10 to the south, and 15 more in Metro West. But do you know who doesn't have access to Quabbin water? The Swift River Elementary School, in nearby Salem. Its well poisoned with PFAS, its children, staff, and faculty drinking water from plastic bottles as Quabbin water flows east. Water is life. I know this committee knows this. This water is1978 life. The Quabbin Reservoir provides life for eastern Massachusetts. Allows the eastern part of the state to grow and expand and yet for far too long, far too1992 long, the recompense for towns that steward this water has been a pittance relative to the value.
For too long, I would suggest Massachusetts has taken from its four western counties, water, and food, as we maintain open space and reservoirs that sink carbon and actually breathe for us without fully grappling with the cost of maintaining these treasure. Without justice for what these communities have lost and continue to give up, without a care for our arrested economic development our potable water issues, our sacrifice to keep that water clean, and our lasting trauma. This bill, the one I'm speaking to2040 today, which I am proud to file with Rep Saunders is a modest, really modest pivot toward a necessary2047 new day. It has four key provisions, which I'll just detail very quickly. The first, the bill establishes a fee of 5 cents for every 1000 gallons drawn from the Quabbin to be placed in a new quadrant host community development trust fund. We estimate this would generate about a $3.5 million fee annually to be distributed to municipalities and nonprofits in the Quabbin Watershed.
Second, this bill rights a long standing wrong concerning pilot payments. The watershed pilot program reimburses municipalities for property tax revenue lost due to non taxable state ownership of watershed lands. However, the watershed pilot statute contains a discriminatory provision that is actually truly hard to defend. You remember the history, to create the Quabbin the state erased four towns. We know this. Their former land was annexed six surrounding towns, Belchertown, Hardwick, New Salem, Petersham, Pelham, and Ware. These six municipalities now receive the watershed pilot payments for state owned annexed lands within their borders with one big exception. And here's the exception. For land that is now occupied by the Quabbin Reservoir, that's the land that was flooded by the Swift River it's underwater, there is no payment.
The state took the land, it owns the land, the towns can assess taxes on the land but there is no pilot compensation for the land under the Quabbin, none. Section 2 of the bill removes that provision and would provide watershed pilot payments for land under the Quabbin Reservoir. 3, the bill provides for greater representation from the Quabbin region on the board of the MWRA by adding two additional seats from the Connecticut River Valley and expanding the board to 13. In the end, three of the 13 board members would call Western Massachusetts home instead of just one. And fourth and last, The bill addresses the issue of MWRA expansion. Again, water is life, and we know Eastern Massachusetts wants access to this water. And the MWRA is, I think, rightfully, looking at a number of expansion options.
As these expansion options are explored, however, this bill proposes that opportunities to serve communities that steward the water also be explored which is not happening now. The bill calls for similar evaluations of expansion into communities in the Westfield River,2212 Chicopee River, Connecticut River,2214 and Millers River Valley basins so that all alternatives are before state policy makers. I urge this committee and the chairs to consider this bill. It is the first time it's filed and so therefore, it will need your close review. And I'm sure you'll have questions. And I know that Rep Saunders and I very much look forward to grappling with these questions as you move the bill forward. Thank you so much. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
Thank you, senator. Any questions from members of the committee?
SPEAKER1 - Okay. Fantastic. Thank you. Thank you. Welcome to Representative Oral who has joined us. And next, we'll hear from rep Saccolo.
REP CICCOLO - HB 765 - Thank you Chair Rausch, Chair Cahill. Appreciate the committee taking me out of order. It's a busy time for everyone and we're running around. I'm here to testify on H 765, an act to establish a grant program for low noise, low emission landscape maintenance equipment. This New grant program would establish funds to support cities and towns in making the transition to all electric landscape care equipment. One of the only things holding back communities from going green and going all electric is the cost of this equipment. The program also provides grants and loans to small businesses that want to make that transition as well. The small businesses that trade in a piece of equipment can get a grant. If they don't trade in a piece of equipment, it would be a 0 interest loan. That's how the bill is set up.
Folks may know that running a leaf blower for one hour is akin to driving your Toyota Camry from Boston to Atlanta, Georgia. So, over 1100 miles. And because there are no catalytic converters on small motors, there's no filtration. The small two stroke and four stroke motors are far more toxic. The reason this is a serious problem, not only for our air quality and our desire to meet our net 0 goals is because it's our low income workers, our immigrants, and many people of color that operate this equipment and are inhaling and ingesting these chemicals as they work with the landscape equipment. So2351 it is very much a worker justice issue to utilize this equipment. So this will really help the commonwealth to transition much more rapidly and do wonders for our air quality goals and our net 0 goals. Thank you to the members of the committee. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
Questions? Okay. Thank you, reps. Representative 1 outrun.
REP LANATRA - HB 3582 - Thank you Chair Cahill, thank you Chair Rausch for taking me out of turn as well. I am here to testify on H 3582. It's an act relative to water flow in the Central Plymouth County Water District, and I'm here with a constituent and friend, Pine Dubois, who's been working on this for many, many years. And is the expert on this, so I defer to her for my time. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
She should've told me. Thank you. Find find your book, because I really liked more like send to Comfort, you know.
PINE DUBOIS - JONES RIVER WATERSHED ASSOCIATION - HB 3582 - We've been working on the issues relative to Silver Lake in the2418 Central Plymouth County Water District for 40 years, Jones River Watershed Association has. And with state and federal partners we've taken out dams, improved the water quality in the river, bought lots of land on the river front. But H 3582 is asking for a small, clarifying step in a 60 year old law that was allowed in 1964 because the city of Brockton was on fire but we're out of time. That law would declare that ecosystem integrity and productivity is vital to our survival not an option. We're out of time for the fish, for the river, for the life we have known. Despite restoration efforts, this is our fault. We can do something important, and we have not. Not only about climate change, racial, and economic injustice, but crucially about our natural resources. Most especially the rivers. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER8 - Listening in to the2482 meeting for the
the test money? About when they call my
SPEAKER1 - name.
SPEAKER4 - What?
DUBOIS - Without flows from the headwater, spawning habitats, no fish will return, no eels2506 will inhabit, and breeding will stop. Without flows from the great glacial Silver Lake, fish of the Gulf of Maine will slowly vanish with no young to feed those cod and striped bass we rely on because the juvenile, can't get out. Without flows from our rivers, clean and fresh, we will lose life. All the goals we hope for will vanish. No food, no hope. Without flow from the headwater to the ocean, there is no connectivity to swim, to breed, to enjoy. Without flows to our river, we have burdened the next generation without2544 cause. For 60 years, we couldn't get it done, politics is just2550 so cumbersome. Without flow to our rivers, there is no quality of life, no recurring hope, no future life. Without flow to our rivers we will have failed, but what will we say to the children? It was once a beautiful, abundant, and prolific planet, full of ecosystem life, but we were too busy to pay attention, too into the distractions of the moment.
There's much that will be accomplished with a decision to clarify that flow to rivers is a basic requirement within the right to use the lake and ponds for2586 water supply. That is a permission. Brockton knows it and needs additional water. It has known it since 1920. When 100 years ago, the Brockton Water Commission put it in their reports they need more water. The city still needs more water and a Silver Lake is not enough. Following several declarations of emergency, Aquaria, the desal plant came online in 2008, it has been used sparsely since intentionally for financial reasons. Brockton needs help to purchase that facility and become a model gateway city. More will be needed, but additional supply is possible with determination. We can save our rivers and our people too. Save a river, save the world. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
Thank
SPEAKER7 - you. Thank
SPEAKER1 - you. Any questions
SPEAKER4 - from members of the committee? I will write you something in detail, but I've done that for the last since 2007.
SPEAKER8 - We
SPEAKER1 - will take a good look. Thank you. Thank you very much.
Cheered Dom. Good afternoon. Do you want to
SPEAKER7 - testify? Fantastic. Thank you so much. What a pleasure to be before this joint committee. Welcome back.
REP DOMB - HB 897 - SB 447 - Thank you Madam Chair, thank you Mr. Chair, thank you incredible staff, the committee, and members. I love this committee very much and I'm thrilled to be here. I'm just going to talk a little bit about H 897 and S 447, regional equity in the Quabbin. And I just2678 want to relay my own experience with the Quabbin, which2682 is not decades old. I did not2684 have family members who were forced to move to make the reservoir or families who had grades that had to be pulled up and moved so that the reservoir could happen. I was just a visitor in Massachusetts who then became a resident and decided I wanted to go and visit the Quabbin. And when I first got there, I could not believe it. If you haven't been there, every member, please think about going. It's like the Grand Canyon of reservoirs. It's unbelievable. And you can stand on a bridge, and on one side see this incredible reservoir and on the other side, see the valley. So you can actually see what the valley might have looked like before the reservoir came into being. It's just beautiful.
And I heard and the park ranger actually confirmed this for me, that it's one of the few human made structures that you can see from outer space because it's so big in Massachusetts. And when I got there, I learned that, you know, this was a reservoir that happened because Boston needed water, western Massachusetts had land. It was populated ,there were towns, but we can make a reservoir. And the engineering that goes into this reservoir is amazing. There's no engines, it's all gravity that's pulling water from Western Mass to Boston. You know, like a very slight incline and gravity is pushing it through. And I say all this because when I was on this committee in the last session, the former house chair asked us where would you like to go in your district for a fieldtrip.
And the Quabbin is not in my district it's next to my district but it's not in. But I really wanted us to go there because it speaks to how Western Massachusetts feels about its resources, how generous it's been sometimes with, you know, no decision making but nonetheless generous in giving its resources to the commonwealth, and how little it gets back. And I really want to2798 stress this point there's only a few communities in Western Mass that get their water from the Quabbin. Most of it goes to the eastern part of the state. And I know from my work on this committee that need is probably going to increase. Drought, rivers drying up, towns needing water, other legislators, colleagues saying, oh, we'll just go into the MWRA. Western Mass can't do that.
So I represent a town, Granby, that has no water infrastructure. They can't tap into the Quabbin even though they're about, I'm gonna guess not really good at this, 8 miles away from the Quabbin. So, our experience has been that these resources are basically taken, moved, and used for the benefit of Eastern Mass, which is fine, but at our expense. And so I would just urge you to consider these2846 bills, start nibbling away and start maybe returning something to Western Mass bot necessarily water, but funds. These communities are struggling, and some of them are economically hurting. And I think it's time to start saying we acknowledge we're getting something from this community. And we wanna give something back.2868 So I really appreciate your indulgence in my own personal story with the Quabbin. Please come and visit it. You'll never see anything like it.2877 It's just it's huge and gorgeous. And a little bit of a because it's all going east. And if you come you need to go see the cemetery that abuts the Quabbin across the street where many of these graves that were denuded and lifted up were moved to. So you can see sort of the history of the Quabbin through the tombstones and the years that they represent. That's all. Thank you for your indulgence. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
Thank you, representative. Any questions from members of the
SPEAKER1 - committee? Okay. Thank you. Thank you very
SPEAKER22 - much. Appreciate your search.
SPEAKER1 - Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for yours.
Hey, is that mayor Reardon with us? Online, you perhaps?
SPEAKER24 - I
SPEAKER25 - am. Yes. Sorry. I'm in the2941 car,
SPEAKER1 - Barbara.
That's okay. We take testimony from the car. No problem. We've all been there ourselves. It
SPEAKER25 - was not a boy, boss. That's I I apologize I'm not the right person.
SPEAKER1 - No problem. The floor is yours, sir.
SEAN REARDON - CITY OF NEWBURYPORT - HB 905 - Oh, great. So Representative Shand was speaking to you earlier about the formation of the Merrimack River Collaborative. I am very much in support of this bill. You know, as you know Newburyport is at the mouth of the Merrimack River. There are over 16 different state legislators that represent communities that border the river. And again, we're not asking you for any money today, but I'm sure that day will come. But what this does, is really gives us a structure of how we can work collaboratively moving forward to help the Merrimack River. I think Merrimack River has now moved up in New England as the second most endangered river in New England right now. And a large part is due to the CSOs that are, you know, continuously getting dumped into our river with every rainstorm.
And, you know, these are massive projects that our communities and municipalities upriver are undertaking. And what this3011 Merrimack River collaborative would do, it would give us a voice to advocate for these improvements and these initiatives that need to happen to help rescue our river. So I'm very much in favor of this. I think this would be a great step to build towards that collaboration. And I, you know, we're already seeing this at the federal level with with our federal legislators banding together to advocate for funds to help improve the Merrimack. And again,3036 this river ends down here in Newburyport but it goes all the way up to Concord, New Hampshire. So this is actually a collaboration that needs to happen between states as well. But this Merrimack River Collaborative built today will really push us in the right direction. And thank you very much. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
Thank
SPEAKER1 - you, mister mayor. Any questions from the committee? Okay. Drive safely, sir.
SPEAKER26 - I will. Thank you.
SPEAKER1 - Are there any other electives in the room or online who have not yet testified and are looking to testify?
Okay. Replanach, I believe you wanna testify again?
LANATRA - HB 846 - HB 47 - Thank you so much for indulging me. I appreciate it. I am here to testify on H 846 and H 847, and again bring an expert with me so I look good, and we have James from the New England Aquarium that will speak with brevity.
JAMES SUTHERLAND - NEW ENGLAND AQUARIUM - HB 846 - HB 847 - HB 792 - Thank you representative. Good afternoon Madam Chair, members of the committee. Here to testify on three bills that promote the responsible development of Massachusetts blue or ocean economy. Massachusetts blue economy is booming as Senator Moran mentioned earlier today. In the last 10 years, it's grown over 38% but we need to be matching the growth of that industry with growth in conservation. The growing in industrialization of the ocean, and climate change is threatening, and in some cases, causing significant harm to our coastal ecosystems. But economic development and conservation don't need to be mutually exclusive. A future blue economy that prioritizes science, equity, and conservation is a great path forward to to get us out of this.
First science, House 846 establishes a new grant program for Massachusetts nonprofits, academics, and others to support scientific research to help the development of a sustainable blue economy here in Massachusetts. Equity, Massachusetts needs to invest in its Blue workforce to remain competitive globally, and this bill establishes a competitive grant program within DESE to promote Blue steam job pathways. Conservation, according to a 2022 report by Zero Waste Massachusetts, 40% of total waste that ends up in landfills in Massachusetts could have been recycled or composted. We3174 need to go further than that, state a set of goal of 0 net waste, and we need to prioritize a transition to3180 a circular economy and get plastics out3182 of our economy.
This bill rectifies that by creating a business grant program to promote circular economy uses. The state has a recycling program for businesses already but does not push the bar further to go towards a circular economy approach. Working in tandem with this is House 847 which is also filed by Senator Moran and Representative LaNatra. It helps the commonwealth transition to a circular economy by prioritizing this within the state's waste system plans so very important. Lastly, I wanna support H 792, filed by Representative Fernandes, which establishes a Blue Communities program to help growing concerns about ocean acidification in Massachusetts. The Legislature's ocean acidification report reported that Massachusetts will be3228 disproportionately impacted by ocean acidification. As our ocean absorbs excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere it increases acidity levels within our ocean, harming shellfish. If you know anything about our seafood industry here in Massachusetts, it's3243 heavily reliant on shellfish, lobsters, oysters, and whatnot. We boast the second highest number of jobs in the seafood industry in the country, only behind California. So this has a huge economic impact as much as a conservation impact. House 792 rewards communities that reduce nutrient pollution from aquatic habitats one of the drivers of ocean acidification. We strongly support your favorable passage of each of these. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
Okay.
SPEAKER1 - Perfect. Thank you. Questions from members of the committee.
Okay. Great. Thank you. Thank you very much.
Okay. Any another call for any elected in the room that I might have missed?
K. We are going to proceed with testimony on the bills and the order that they appear on the docket so you can through Gage where your testimony will be will be called. And we will go first to house 7 65, senate 04:51,
With regard to the low noise, low emissions, landscape maintenance, equipment, legislation, I believe we have Jamie Banks by Teams.
Jamie Banks, are you with us?
SPEAKER28 - I am. I'm sorry. I was on a call and got got quickly off the phone. Yes. So I would like to read my
SPEAKER1 - statement.
SPEAKER8 - Okay,
SPEAKER1 - you have 3 minutes.
Ma'am, we can't hear you.
SPEAKER28 - Okay. Can you hear me
SPEAKER1 - now? There you go.
SPEAKER28 - I'm sorry. That's okay. Okay.
JAMIE BANKS - QUIET COMMUNITIES - HB 765 - SB 451 - So good afternoon. Chairs Rausch, and members of the committee. My name is Jamie Banks. I'm the president of Quiet Communities, a national nonprofit helping communities reduce health and environmental harm from noise and pollution. We've been working in land care for 10 years, educating facilitating the industry's transition to low noise, low emissions equipment with our collaborator, the American Green Zone Alliance. I'm a health and environmental scientist by training and a member of the American Public Health Association and chair its Noise and Health Committee. We've worked with many Massachusetts communities and state agencies. I'm testifying today to support Bill H765, introduced by Representative Ciccolo, and its companion bill in the Senate, S 451, sponsored by Senator Creem to provide a grant and loan program to incentivize municipalities and landscape businesses to transition.
Today's commercial battery electric equipment, including robotics is capable of performing all routine landscape maintenance. Transitions like this are accelerating across the country in states like California in municipalities, school districts, parks and gardens, institutions, and the business community. It's well3433 known that noise emissions and other pollution from gas powered equipment are hazards to workers, the public, and the environment. Transitioning to battery electric equipment benefits workers by reducing daily exposure, to harmful noise, toxic and carcinogenic exhaust, and toxic solvents used to maintain gas engines. Residents, including children and other vulnerable populations also benefit from those reductions. Environment and ecosystems systems benefit from avoided carbon3464 dioxide emissions, fuel spillage into soil and aquifers, and non recyclable toxic and solid waste going into landfills.
Financial assistance will help municipalities and businesses reduce the higher upfront costs of commercial3479 battery electric equipment. Companies and municipalities should3483 also be encouraged to use funding for education and training that will allow3487 them to set up safe and proper electrical infrastructure and understand how to optimize work productivity and meet aesthetic expectations with the new technology. In summary, these bills create an opportunity for Massachusetts to achieve better worker health, better health and quality of life for the public, less damage to ecosystems, and biodiversity, a clean green jobs economy, and carbon reduction. The required investment is small the benefits and optics are large. Thank you for listening. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
Thank
SPEAKER1 - you very much. Any questions for members of the committee? Okay. Thank you for your testimony. Representative garlic.
REP GARLICK - HB 808 - Chair Rausch and other members of the committee. I'm here to offer to you written testimony on H 808, an act relative to emergency water management plants. In full disclosure,3546 I share the town of Dover with3548 the good chair. I know this bill is in the very best of hands. I want3552 to say, number one, thank you for the redraft3554 that came out last session that added security measures to the data and the accountability we're seeking. And I wanna offer my support in any way to work with the chair and with members of the committee. Thank you. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Any questions? You win for brevity.
SPEAKER1 - Perfect. Thank you very much.
Okay. Check the list3582 here.
Moving to house 8 90 and senate 05:08, Kristen O'Brien, also be a teams, I think.
SPEAKER8 - Hi. I'm here. Give me just 1 second. I'm on another work call, so I'm sifting rooms real quick. No problem.
Alright.
KRISTIN O'BRIEN - SUDBURY VALLEY TRUSTEES - HB 890 - SB 508 - Well, thank you very much for letting me speak today. My name is Kristin O'Brien. I am the conservation restriction manager with Sudbury Valley Trustees. A regional nonprofit land trust in Metro West Boston. I'm also the coordinator for the SuAsCo CISMA. The CISMA is the Sudbury Assabet Concord Cooperative Invasive Species Management Area. It is a regional partnership of 46 nonprofit municipalities and state and federal agencies that aim to manage and control invasive species in 363653 communities that make up the3655 Sudbury, Assabet and Concord3657 River watersheds. Collectively, our organizations own and manage over 12000 acres across Metro West Boston for a range of values, including wildlife habitat, recreation, historic, and cultural heritage, climate resilience, and active farming and forestry.
We are writing in support of H 890 S 508 and act responding to the threat of invasive species. Almost every one of our partners would tell you that invasive plants are our greatest challenge in good stewardship of the conservation lands. Invasives not only degrade habitat, but also negatively impact public health, farms, working force, infrastructure, cultural archaeological resources, and recreational opportunities. Repair of damage3710 caused by invasives can be3712 expensive. Examples3714 of such damages and costs include Japanese knotweed blocking a culvert, water chestnut making a body of water impassable. Invasive bitter sweet killing trees that can fall on homes or roads, or multi floor roads establishing in fields and pastures. It is not realistic or prudent to3733 try and remove or control invasive plants everywhere. We must pick our battles and choose the projects that would have the best chance of success. And that would be most beneficial to sensitive ecological, historic and scenic resources.
In order to be effective, land managers need an appropriate understanding3752 of best management practices for a variety of species and circumstances. A statewide coordinator would be responsible for providing guidance, education, and training on best management practices and can lead a coordinated effort statewide. The commonwealth will be able to create a unified approach to invasive management and planning that will facilitate control efforts implemented by municipalities, nonprofits, landscapers, and homeowners. One of the biggest limitations for land trust and conservation commissions to manage invasive plants is funding for the project itself. Having more grant funding available will open the door for many projects that should be done, but no funding is available or the funding is only available for one year. Controlling of invasive plants typically involves multiple years of treatment. This bill would allow for the essential SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER1 - minutes. If you could wrap up, please? Yep. I'm almost
SPEAKER8 - done.
O'BRIEN - This bill would allow3815 for the essential needs for additional funds for reoccurring maintenance, which is not always an option for many of our grant funding projects. We urge you to support bill as it moves through the approval process. This prospect of this bill would be a huge step forward towards better management of the commonwealth lands and the prevention of costly damage done by invasive species. Thank you.
SEN RAUSCH - Thank you very much. What's the total price tag on the bill?
O'BRIEN - I'm not sure if that was to me.
RAUSCH - Okay. If you can come up with a calculation and submit it to the committee subsequent to this hearing that would be helpful. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
Any other questions or members of the committee?
Okay.
SPEAKER8 - Thank
SPEAKER1 - you very
SPEAKER8 - much. Thank you.
SPEAKER1 - Okay. Next up, we have Jennifer Peterson, followed by a panel from the Massachusetts municipal Association followed by Lawrence Tucker.
JENNIFER PEDERSON - MWWA - HB 852 - HB 808 - HB 861 - HB 879 - HB 892 - HB 897 - SB 447 - SB 475 - SB 578 - SB 589 - Good afternoon. My name is Jennifer Peterson. I'm the executive director of Mass Waterworks Association. Mass Waterworks represents more than 1400 public water suppliers across the commonwealth. We'd like to thank Chairs Rausch and Cahill and Vice Chair Fernandes for allowing us to testify in support of House bill 852, an act relative to municipal assistance for clean water and economic development infrastructure filed3899 by Representative Livingstone. This was a bill that had been championed by Representative Dykema, and so we were really pleased to have Representative Livingstone file it this session. This legislation is a way to move forward recommendations made in the final report from the Water Infrastructure Finance Commission, which vice chair Eldridge chaired back in 2009. The commission estimated in their final report in 2012 that there was approximately $40 billion in unmet need for water, wastewater, and storm water infrastructure investment.
I'm sorry to say that with all of the new regulatory requirements, that gap is widening and not shrinking. We have things that we are addressing now like PFAS contamination on water supplies, biosolids removal, combined sewer overflows, lead service line removal. Earlier this month, EPA released the results of their 2021 need survey for Massachusetts drinking water systems. It's projected they need 15 billion in order to undertake projects to provide safe drinking water to the public. Many of you are aware of the significant costs facing your districts to deal with PFAS contamination of drinking water. The clean water trust has already distributed 149 million in loans for just 24 projects. We have 170 public water systems that have tested above the drinking water standard. Mass DEP estimates an additional 149 systems may be impacted by EPA's proposal if those standards are adopted.
The Water Infrastructure Finance Commission understood that this was a shared partnership between federal government, state government, and municipalities if we want to move towards closing the gap. Locally, water and sewer rates are rising. We are fortunate to have once in a generation of funding through the bipartisan infrastructure law and ARPA but the funding is still nowhere sufficient to make a dent in the gap. House bill 852 would have the state secure a $1 billion bond. It would create a new water infrastructure government fund under the Clean Water Trust and distribute the funding in the form of grants to communities based on the Chapter 90 formula. This would provide guaranteed funding to invest in such things as water main replacement, which is vitally important but not often scoring high enough through the competitive SRF loan process.
I also want recognize Representative Livingstone for adding language to the bill, which recognizes lead service line removal, a top priority of the Biden Administration. Mass Waterworks is a founding member of the Water Infrastructure Alliance, a diverse group of stakeholders, promoting the need for additional water infrastructure investment,4045 and the bill has the support of that group as well.4048 We will submit far more detailed written testimony and would ask the committee for a favorable report on this bill4054 to support continued4055 protection of public health, safety, economic vitality, and a clean environment. And also for the record, I just wanna tell you we'll be submitting4063 written testimony on House bills 808, 861, 879, 892, 897. Senate 447, 475, 578 and 589. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER12 - That's
SPEAKER1 - an impressive list. Any questions from do you have a question? No. Okay. Questions remember the committee. Okay. Thank you very much.
House
SPEAKER6 - roll call, I understand.
SPEAKER3 - Sounds the same. But
SPEAKER31 - Good afternoon.
ADRIENNE NUNEZ - MMA - HB 892 - SB 589 - HB 852 - Hello. Thank you. Hi, Chair Rausch, esteemed members of the committee. Thank you very much for holding today's hearing. We very much appreciate the opportunity to provide a municipal perspective on a handful of bills that are before you today. I'm Adrienne Nunez, a legislative analyst from the Massachusetts Municipal Association. I'm joined today by Alan Cathcart. Brutus Cantoreggi, and Joe Flanagan. Together, we represent all cities and towns across the Commonwealth, And we respectfully urge you to support House 892 and Senate 589, an act to assist municipal and district ratepayers. The MMA is working in collaboration with the Mass Waterworks Association on this legislation. We strongly support these bills, and we thank Senator Velis and Chair Roy for their partnership in sponsoring these efforts.
Now, this legislation would require EEA to complete a regulatory impact statement that when proposing any new environmental regulations that pertain to water, wastewater, and storm water, these bills would ensure that state and local governments4175 as4176 well as the general public are fully informed of the implications and the opportunities that are proposed in these regulations. With the cost benefit data provided by the impact statement, resources can be better allocated so that the4192 goals of the regulations are actually met and that unfunded mandates are avoided. To put it very simply, this is good governance. Cities4203 and towns throughout Massachusetts have made and continue to make significant investments in water, wastewater, and storm water systems. These investments are made because these systems are essential to the wellbeing of our environment, our economy, and our daily lives.
Despite these investments, our communities continue to face unprecedented expenditures associated with environmental regulations and infrastructure enhancements. With limited funding support, these costs are then passed on to ratepayers which further stresses the budgets of individuals and families. With this in mind, the MMA also supports House 852, an act relative to municipal assistance for clean water and economic development infrastructure. This bill aligns very well with an act to assist municipal and district ratepayers to provide a dedicated funding source to address costs for water, wastewater, and storm water projects. We strongly urge you to support these bills, and we thank you very much for all of the work that you do and for your partnership in supporting the well-being of the commonwealth. I'll yield now to Alan Cathcart who will provide some additional information.
ALAN CATHCART - CONCORD PUBLIC WORKS - HB 892 - SB 589 - HB 852 - Good afternoon. Thank you Chair Rausch, members of the committee. Some familiar faces. Good afternoon. Again, my name is Alan Cathcart. I'm the director of Concord Public Works. I've been working in the water sector for over 37 years. I love to come and hear these testimonies because I get to hear a lot of aspirational thinking and concepts. I'm here to sort of represent where the rubber hits the road, basically, where the Water serves the tap specifically. And you'll hear from some other directors as well on the water resource management challenges. I represent a modest sized community. My story here is shared4323 by many similar utility managers. In essence, we are a highly regulated industry, both state and federal regulatory responsibilities for the protection of public health and safety, primarily, as well as environmental protection. We take both equally seriously.
As we've heard, there is a significant funding gap as far as the needs that have been identified. We're all have been dealing with the challenges of underfunded infrastructure. You compound that with more recent regulatory challenges PFAS being the most acute and critical, it's one that we're also real time responding to, collectively. The costs are significant, the implications are significant. Any utility manager is here to be a part of the process. When we identify real and imminent risk or threat, we4384 are on board to do what we can to provide information That's our job. We're here to service providers. We like to communicate to our communities, what are the implications of what the regulations are, what are we doing to comply.
We are increasingly challenged with every new and sometimes aspirational ideas to really look at the cost benefit. We live this cost benefit concept. We have budgets. We have to keep within the budgets. We have projections as far as needs. We are committed to providing good information and complying when new regulations come down the pipe. But we do believe we are at a point where it's almost a breaking point for us to continue to provide steady, reliable, consistent service. We are starting to get our funds and resources diverted from what we used to do which is this basic infrastructure, pipes, service lines, treatment facilities. And we're expanding to the point of potential risk or failure. And so we urge you to, you know, work with our industry, work with the regulators and the policy, the people who set the policy to look at cost as part of, you know, what are the benefits to what we're doing and how can we help you assist in that endeavor. Thank you. With that, I think we're gonna turn it over to Brutus. Brutus Cantoreggi is the director of public works with the town of Franklin. I think he's on online. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER4 - Can you hear me? Center?
SPEAKER1 - We sure can.
SPEAKER32 - Great. Thank4485 you.
BRUTUS CANTOREGGI - FRANKLIN PUBLIC WORKS - HB 892 - SB 589 - Thank you, Alan that was excellent. And as, I've been public works director in Franklin for 18 years and public works for over 25. And Senator Rausch I know we're your favorite community out here so I'm just going to throw that out as a full disclosure. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
Yeah. Full
SPEAKER1 - disclosure. Franklin is in my district.
CANTOREGGI - So I'm obviously supporting H 892, and Senate bill 589. And I think as the center and a lot of folks out there know, Franklin has an excellent relationship with EPA, Mass DEP, and many conservation groups, and particularly the Charles River Watershed in particular. Franklin, as, you know, through my years here the community has spent millions of dollars on environmental type projects. We are used as a role model federally as EPA, DEP, and Charles River. We've won many awards in conservation, infrastructure improvements and storm water. So we kind of know what we're doing out here. And my colleague, Alan, brought up some different things, but I think it's important to note, you know, we are a groundwater community, so all our groundwater, we're the largest groundwater produced in the state.
The town of Franklin has spent, you4564 know, over regulations over the years whether they've initiated through EPA, through DEP. In my time here, we spent over $40 million on infrastructure improvements, and that could be everything from the utility lines, the water lines, to plant treatments, and then energy efficiency projects. This is a significant investment by the residents of Franklin. And what I mean by that, because everybody likes to talking money, I can honestly say I have the documentation that the rates in Franklin for water user have gone up 440% since 2004. That's a significant number. In all fairness, they were kind of low before, and Franklin wasn't doing a lot. But we are doing a lot now and has been embraced, you know, through our city council over the years.
Regarding storm water, another I think everybody knows about that. The NPDES permit is coming down. You know, in Franklin's case, we have, you know, we're identified realistically to spend $60 million to $80 million over the next 20 years. And this is for a community of 35000 people so, you know, to put in perspective. We just finally established a storm water utility. We're able to get the utility through. Basically, it's around $60 per year, you know, on average. But going through that right now and obviously, politically, that's difficult to do, we already know that was only half of what we really needed by our studies. So we should be at a buck 20so we have to try to get that through. So that's another rate that's gonna be going up.
And then the other thing in the room is obviously the PFAS. You know, Massachusetts set some regulations out there. One of our wells, you know, we're on the SRF. But it's looking at $7 million to get that up. And if the new EPA regulations go4676 through, there's gonna be three other wells on-site and to do all those improvements. We're looking at another $50 million to get this. They're staggering numbers is, you know, for a community of our size and then the problem is they're competing numbers. When we we're trying to take care of PFAS, how are we taking care of water conservation because we can't replace pipes in the ground. And there's only so much money that we can go back. So both this legislation just shows the A, hopefully, a solution to help the cost, you know,4705 not just thrown down on the burden of each town, but also just doing a study beforehand, you know, basically like a cost analysis. I mean, I think everybody it's good government. Just to put out there. This is gonna cost us what the value is gonna be at the end of day. You know, when you go buy a car, you see what kind of fuel it's gonna get. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER33 - So Thank
SPEAKER1 - you very much. That's that's that's we're a little bit past 3 minutes. I'm sorry to interrupt. Yeah. I'm sorry. Thank
SPEAKER32 - you again.
SPEAKER1 - Is thank you very It's good to see you. Mister Flanagan, are you with us? Amy,
SPEAKER34 - thank you very much. I was wanting to defer my time to missus Cunningham if you'd like me
4743 SPEAKER14743 -4743 to.4743
There there you are.
SPEAKER34 - Yep. Do you hear me now?4748 We
SPEAKER1 - can hear you terrific. Alright.
SPEAKER34 - Great.
JOE FLANAGAN -DEDHAM PUBLIC WORKS - HB 892 - SB 589 - So I'm Joe Flanagan. I'm the director of public works for the town of Dedham. Dedham approximately 180 lane miles and4757 over 2300 catch basins. We sweep our main roads weekly from April through November. And our mystical parking lots and all the other residential roads are swept at least four times a year. We clean all our catch basins at least once a year, and all the main roads and problem areas are cleaned at least two times per year. I'm here today to testify on House bill 892 and Senate bill 589. And the legislation that we're discussing will affect proposed environmental regulations that pertain to drinking water, wastewater, and storm water.
Storm water, catch basin cleaning, street sweepings, and4790 wastewater, sludge and grit must all be disposed of through proper channels in a landfill according to the environmental regulations outlined and overseen by the MassDEP. There is a critical lack of permitted space available in landfills in Massachusetts to legally manage contaminated soil generated by municipal and community infrastructure projects. At this point, the landfill's ability to accept this waste is at capacity, leaving nowhere to dispose of street sweepings, catch basin cleanings, and solids. This materials now must be shipped out of state to New Hampshire, New York, and Vermont. Communities like that are looking at a cost increase of 300% to 400% above the 2021, 2022 rates.
This cost is not sustainable for communities. It's gonna pit out budgets against all the other school department, police, fire, every other budget in town. And I know we're deeper down, we're the last ones that are gonna get it. It's easier to cut us than it is to cut the schools. This increase in disposal cost will be a significant impact. Shipping in such ways, auto state also increases that carbon footprint. By increasing the pollution emitted through the translation of these materials, it also increases traffic congestion, which we're always trying to eliminate. We spent millions on trying to dollars throughout the state to try to eliminate traffic congestion, and here we are adding to it.
There's a prime example of regulatory rate situation that will benefit from a full impact analysis that would outline all costs and benefits of the situation. With such information, state and local governments can better determine resource allocation and gain a full understanding of the implications of policy changes. Cost benefit analysis for environmental rules and regulations proposed by the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs will benefit municipalities who are currently responsible for putting these important and beneficial rules into action. Thank you all for your time and attention to this legislation and for allowing me to testify. Have a wonderful day. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
Thank
SPEAKER1 - you very much. Any questions from members of the committee, vice chair Eldridge?
SEN ELDRIDGE - Thank you Madam Chair. So thank you Ms. Nunez, Mr. Cathcart, Mr. Flanagan, and to Brutus. Regarding House 852 Senate 589, the language says no EEA proposal of the, rule regulation of guidance, stockholder policies pertains to which water wastewater or storm water shall be affected or regulatory impact statement has been complete and made public. And second provision, no EEA proposal pertaining to the same shall become effective until EEA has complied with the Mass Administrative Procedures Act. And I know that water district managers have a very difficult job. But I am curious if this bill were to become law, would it have prevented the state from taking action to regulate and protect people from the contaminants of PFAS?
CATHCART - PFAS, so just a a little background, PFAS was identified just a few years ago as a kind of a critical chemical of interest in the4976 in the water supply industry. DEP did go through a regulatory process to establish a standard. As far as the schedule and timing, I have to say it was expedited. I'm not sure if this would have passed that process or not. I'm not sure about the brackets, but I can share that they moved quickly. There's still a question on, you know, they're headed in the right direction but in Massachusetts right now, we're challenged with many communities that were mandated to meet a new standard of 20 parts per trillion and it became a crisis for them. They went into crisis mode. A lot of temporary systems were installed. We are now looking at a federal standard for PFAS for some components down to 4 parts per trillion.
So it sort of speaks to, Senator, the process and schedule. I still think we're playing catch up real time, and there's some real implications. So I'm not quite sure if it's advantageous or not as far as that particular situation. But I can tell you the industry has been, you know, really struggling to try and figure out what is the right target and what is the right schedule. Because communities like Whelan Mass had a exceedance of their drinking water standard, you know, one day and the next day, they were5063 delivering bottled water to their5065 community. With very little preparation, very little communication, and it was a crisis. So good question. And I think that's sort of an example of the sorts of things that you know, we need to look at, but it's possible that may not fit this criteria.
ELDRIDGE - Thank you so much and through the chair, I would just comment and the committee in general is often regulatory fiscal impacts are attempts by entities to stop regulation that protects the public's health and create access to clean water. So just raise a concern about that. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
Thank you.
SPEAKER1 - Sure.
SPEAKER36 - Thank
SPEAKER8 - you.
SPEAKER1 - Any other questions from committee members?
RAUSCH - I have a brief question, Miss Nunez. Does the MMA take a position on House 879?
NUNEZ - You know, I'm not familiar with that bill could you tell me?
RAUSCH - Okay, it's another bill filed by Chairwoman, Leader Peisch now, excuse me, an act protecting the rights of municipalities and districts. I'm just wondering if you've considered that legislation in context of this bill that you're before us on today?
NUNEZ - We do not have an official position on that, but I can review and get back to you. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
Okay. Thank
SPEAKER1 - you. Other questions? Welcome back to our members of the house. Thank you all for your testimony. Have a great day.
SPEAKER3 - Thank you.
SPEAKER1 - Okay. Next up, we have Lawrence Tucker, followed by Glen Ayers, William Tinker, Judith Cone, Christine Hatch. Gwen Nebaud and Dominic Poli, Holly. I apologize if I mispronounced anybody's names. Lawrence Tucker first. There you are, sir.
SPEAKER24 - Yes. Can you hear me?5168
SPEAKER1 - We sure can. Floor is yours.
SPEAKER24 - Here we go. Got a lot to get in.
LAWRENCE TUCKER - CONCERNED CITIIZEN - HB 896 - SB 555 - So good afternoon Chair Rebecca Rausch and a shout out to Representative Dan Carey, 2nd Hampshire, if he's there. My name is Lawrence Tucker. I live in town of South Hadley. And I'm an avid outdoors person, anything from mountain biking to snowmobiling. Thanks for listening to my testimony today. Today, I would like to speak in favor of both H 896 and S 555. These bills would add a representative from the Snowmobile5203 community to the Quabbin Watershed Advisory Committee. Why?5207 It would give an equal voice5210 to these communities in an area that desperately needs a voice. And without a voice, there is no diversity, different users or there is no inclusivity, some are in. Some are out. There is no equality to correct the inequality, and there is no fairness.
A quick overview, Quabbin. Quabbin is three distinct zones. One is the watershed, consisting of the lands and the water. It's the entire property. There's the prohibited zone down near the waters where no human activities take place. There is also the off reservation lands. These are the lands west of Route 202. They were acquired subsequent to the creation of the Quabbin an amount to about 7000 acres. The Quabbin Watershed Advisory Committee currently consists of 11 members dominated by five fishing groups nominated to it along with the Audubon Society, Wildlife Federation, etcetera. Their task shall be to advise the division on its policies and regulations regarding recreational activities. The Snowmobile Association of Massachusetts founded in 1969, so we've been around for over 50 years. There's a peanut butter spread of clubs about 30 of them from the Worcester County out to the New York line.
And our trail system was created at about the same time and has been maintained by the good stewards of all our clubs. Why again? The snowmobile communities of Shrewsbury and Belchertown in the great area have been trying and would like to create a critical connection, not a new group of trails, a critical connection in their trail system. And would like to do it through the off reservation lands of Quabbin which already allow some snowmobile trails in that area. We have proposed a low to 0 impact trail. How do we know this? We look at the activities that take place. Logging, three to 400 acres a year, and all the oil spills that go with it, traffic one and a half million vehicles up and down Route 202 and the salt to keep it clear.
There's also boats 20000 to 30000 gas engine boats in direct contact with the waters of the Quabbin . How do we know it's still good? 50 test today, 1500 tests a month for 50 years by the Quabbin with no negative impact to the water. Not allowing this trail connection keeps in place an exclusive cub of activities that some get to enjoy and keeps in place an excluded group of citizens from enjoying the Quabbins. Please vote bills out favorably and help give a stronger voice to an under represented and underserved community. Thank you very much for your time. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER1 - Thank you. Sorry for
SPEAKER24 - rushing. Sorry for rushing.
SPEAKER1 - No. That's okay. You got it in in 3 minutes. Well done.
SPEAKER2 - Question members
SPEAKER1 - of the committee. Okay. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Welcome to senator Kennedy who's a member of our committee and joining us by a team.
Okay. Glen Ayers.
GLEN AYERS - CONCERNED CITIZEN - HB 897 - SB 447 - Yes. Thank you very much Chair Rausch. And my name is Glen Ayers, I live in Greenfield Mass, and I'm recently retired regional health agent for Franklin County. I worked for5393 numerous towns in the Quabbin region and I wanna speak today in favor of H 897 S 447, an Act relative to the Quabbin Watershed and regional equity. During my career, I was a registered sanitarian, public water supply operator and also certified wastewater treatment plant operator. And I5417 believe that this bill, to add some equity surrounding the Quabbin, would update the existing law that is simply unfair to this region. This is a unique region in the state. The water quality here is outstanding because the towns that provide the land are protecting the water supply for5441 millions.
And most of those millions are in the eastern part of the state but the Quabbin Reservoir is in the western part of the state. The existing regulations severely restrict what happens within the watershed for the Quabbin Reservoir. These regs are necessary to protect the water quality. I'm not saying5466 that they're bad regulations, but the regulations are essentially an unfunded mandate to the communities that these regulations specifically apply to. This bill is critical to addressing the sacrifice that these towns have made and continue to make on a daily basis. It would address the inequity and the unfairness that currently exists and begin to repay that sacrifice.
And it would address the dedication of these small towns, these small undeveloped towns in the Quabbin region have shown to their counterparts in the metro region. So I ask that you favorably move this bill forward, work to ensure its passage in this session, and begin to create the equity for this essential sacred water that is provided to millions of citizens in the mostly eastern part of the state. I think it's a fairness issue and an equity issue that really needs to be addressed because the laws surrounding this situation, were probably discussed and written, certainly before any of us were alive, and probably anyone in the Commonwealth were5555 alive. So thank you very much and I really appreciate the opportunity to provide testimony. And I will follow-up with some written testimony as well. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
Thank
SPEAKER1 - you, mister Ayers. Questions for members of committee.
Okay, all set, mister William Tinker.
SPEAKER3 - Thank
SPEAKER38 - you. Good
SPEAKER7 - afternoon.
WILLIAM TINKER - CONCERNED CITIZEN - HB 897 - Good afternoon. Thank you for letting me speak today. I'm speaking in favor, Bill 897. I'm a citizen of Hardwick Mass, and I just wanted to let the committee know or make you aware of like the challenges our town has with this. And an unrecognized5608 resource that comes from these lands is, you know, the precious water. We have over 4000 acres of land in our town that we cannot develop. We have another 400 acres where the main pipeline leaves our town heading to Boston. If you just5627 equate the 4000 acres in the average rainfall, over 2 billion gallons of water, go into the Quabbin Reservoir,5637 okay?5637 The5637 Quabbin Reservoir is capable of holding 412 billion gallons. So 2 billion gallons doesn't seem like a whole lot but it is precious.
And the more we realized, through droughts and stuff like this, how precious water is. But, our town, can't afford like a wastewater treatment facility, because the MWRA doesn't recognize, because we're not on their water even though we provide that water. You know, it's kind of just doesn't seem right. But anyway, real quick, the value of that $2 billion based off that MWRA selling at their rates of 8 cents a gallon is5686 equivalent5686 to about $160 million to just give you a dollar value. As far as the rainwater, I have all the formulas for that. I'll gladly send it along so you can look at it. And that's just our town there's 6 other, you know, towns that have similar issues that are just around the Quabbin that don't get any money or are not supported for their infrastructure.
And they look at our town and say, well, that land's not valuable because it's not commercial or Route 9 doesn't go by it. So it never developed but you wouldn't want it developed, because it will ruin the environment, and ruin your water source. So, that's all I really wanted to say today and make you aware that our lost towns that are out in the western part they need your help. And they need your consideration. And I'll just close with this, without the town of Hardwick, and the other remaining towns, the precious resource we provide, which is fresh water, Boston, with all its greatness will not be able to survive. So I just ask for you consideration. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER1 - Thank you very much, questions from members of the committee.
SPEAKER8 - All
SPEAKER1 - good. Alright. Thank you.
SPEAKER5 - Judith Cohen?
JUDITH COHEN - CONCERNED CITIZEN - SB 447 - Thank you so much for taking public testimony. My name is Judith Cohen, and I am a resident of Hardwick, which is also a part of the towns taken only a full, one fourth to one half of our towns also taken. So I'll just have to read because I'm shy. Bill number 447 in Senate places a value on pure drinking water and sets the cost as5824 5 cents per 100000 gallons. This is not enough. First, we5836 have to take the first 5 cent cost to establish precision science in order to access the baseline count health and monitor the status of this most precious commodity, water. And to monitor the continual and ongoing input and throughput and output and feedback processes to confirm the continued mutual exchange of elements, especially oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen between plants and animals of this Quabbin purification system.
The Fort Knox of stored drinking water called Quabbin, 100 year old idea took forethought. What was not planned in5901 the5901 system of water purification, that the science of using nature left alone that resulted in what was called the accidental wilderness we inhabit and some of5919 you drink freely from each day.5921 So, the5925 Quabbin established a process of purifying water and that's the science of it. We need to spend the first 5 cents to call in science to use precision science after precision medicine. This is the most important thing we have to do so we have a baseline. I think that the bill because it increases the cost of water to all consumers, but especially towns receiving water purified at such high levels that Quabbin doesn't need treatment. And so you're not going to find that water anymore. So you have to protect it. And the Quabbin is a strategic asset. So you're gonna be able to call in federal and not only federal defense, but also homeland, but also you need to conduct the science using public health. And SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
Thank
SPEAKER1 - you. I'm sorry. We're well over 3 minutes. Any questions from members of the committee? I invite you to submit the remainder of your testimony in
SPEAKER39 - writing. Thank
SPEAKER1 - you very much. I
SPEAKER12 - hope you'll read the rest.
SPEAKER1 - We consider all the testimony submitted in writing, the thing.6023 We'll have the We'll hear from Christine Hatch, then Gwen Nebaud, then Dominic Cawley. And then I understand we have a panel6031 with Sam Anderson, Linda Orrell, Alex Hackman, and Dorothy Mcglinsy, and then we are likely to take that break to honor denim day that I mentioned earlier, and then we will continue with testimony following that break. So everyone can sort of plan there. Upcoming time. Christine Hatch.
Christine Hatch?
Okay. Gwen Nebaud.
When Nebad
oh, might hear more than just the panel. Dominic Polly.
Moving right along. Okay. We are moving to senate 04:57 house 09:06. We have panel, I believe. The folks are just me. Hello. Folks, there you are.
SPEAKER5 - Visual aids. Oh,
SPEAKER1 - it's not yours. Never mind.
Laura, you are, spokes.
SPEAKER3 - Sure.
SAM ANDERSON - MASS AUDUBON - SB 457 - HB 906 - Chair Cahill, Chair Rausch, members of the committee thanks for having us today. I'm Sandy Anderson, I'm the of, Mass Audubon. Founded 127 years ago, Mass Audubon is the largest nature based conservation organization in Green, with over 160000 and it was I'm here with my colleague Alex Hackman who is Mass Audubon's director of ecological restoration as well as with partners from the trustee of reservations and the Massachusetts Conservation Commission. We're here to testify in support of Senate 457 and House 906, an act to accelerate and streamline wetland restoration filed by Senator Crighton and Representative Shand. Our organizations, and many others across the state, often in partnership with state and local government are working every day in the fields protecting and restoring thousands of acres of degraded salt marsh and inland water phase which have been obtained by developing at the time.
In that work, we routinely experience lengthy delays and unanticipated costs, through regulatory confusion, lack of coordination between permanent grants and agencies, and, conditions. Most of these requirements are in places to protect natural resources from the impacts of development. And in fact, they're6200 hindering the hard works to address,6202 To address the problem, this bill requires the state Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs to initiate where it is essentially an automation exercise between a number of agencies. We've asked the administration to initiate this exercise already, but it's taking the support for that work from this committee soon would be extremely relevant. It's important for the committee to note that we are seeking no changes to specific laws governing working in, environmentally sensitive areas. All of these projects are allowable at the scale, we believe them to be
At its core, this is, government bill. When it comes to nature based solutions, we need to be so flexible, and efficient, as resources, federal and state funds. Before I turn it over to my friends, who are experts in what I'm talking about, as I mentioned as well that all three of our organizations support the drought bill and invasive species bill that have also mentioned today. And with that, I will turn it over to my friend. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
Right.
LINDA OREL - TRUSTEE OF RESERVATIONS - SB 457 - HB 906 - Thank you Chair Cahill, Chair Rausch and members of the committee for this opportunity to testify. My name is Linda I'm director6281 of government relations, Trustee of Reservations. The Trustees is a statewide organization which is over 130 years old manage a 120 properties across the state. We also protect 120 miles of coast making us the largest, property in the state. We are in process of exploring storm waters on the coast. Saltmarsh protect coastal communities who are kind of in lab, Saltmarsh store, say, fell through of pinouts or in water. They provide food, refuge, and natural habitat for more than 75% of, in Massachusetts. Saltmarsh should, scratch up. There are lots of high heat and power. If you don't protect our saltmarsh, in the next few years we will lose them forever to, and seeing what interacts.
And I'd like to briefly share for a huge challenge because we have faced with extraordinary nearly 2000 acres of saltmarsh unenventional awareness on the as it gets to be married and his so much. The trustee in our partners wants to have had a long I had with the project in 2019 to heal thousands of pictures of the tech without hundreds of years about for applicable purposes and if you can phone schedules with Ray Marsh. To do that, we pass all of our shade into the Marsh by hand. And then we use women's states to secure that pay into the digits. The haying you saw us do yourself, John Bay, the head starts to grow, and the marsh starts to heal and stuff. This is not part of this project here to exactly the same jobs we've asked in the entire states. And, yeah, we have to work with multiple patients who find 5 stage and through the mobile agency federal agency, in order to get permits speed, because of the catalytic product and have to enter the who has 2 years to secure those permits and cost $370000.
On top of that, the state required us to say that it's 750000 doctors still are non immigrant. We decided that these were successful so the faster we've done in other states. We faced the constant delays and identified many areas where state and federal agencies could make permitting smoother, faster, and more affordable. There are state of these towns, Not a problem. It's another part of it involved. It needs to raise revenue6420 and reservation projects. For example, for an activity attained an empowered week, instead of sequentially. There are gonna be general requirements. And in the agency, it knows significantly better to have coordinated and communicated. We have many men's stories, you know, public trustees, who are around the city, and we're gonna be taking a look at how they're gonna really ask. Everybody, I would share them with with you over the next few months. We need permitting reform. We need lobby and businesses to take a lead and work with the administration. Because it can allow our really start things we continue for the lab. That don't even require6454 updates to us or statutes. And as I'm supported, it's very important that maybe we have to do with me. Thank you.
ALEX HACKMAN - MASS AUDUBON - SB 457 - HB 906 - Thank you. Chair Rausch, Chair Cahill, and members of the committee thank you. I'm delighted to be here, and I appreciate this opportunity to speak to you. Name is Alex Hackman. I'm the director of ecological restoration for Mass Audubon. I'm also a practitioner. I've been doing these kind of projects for 16 years6478 designing, permitting them, and building them. Our organization is focused on three great challenges of our time, the loss of biodiversity, inequitable access to nature, and climate change. Ecological restoration is a primary tool to address each of these challenges. We know from decades of experience, that simple actions in rivers and wetlands can have profoundly positive effects on natural systems. For example, on6507 retired cranberry farmland, simply closing ditches, removing water6511 control structures, uncompacting old farm field soils, can stimulate rapid recovery of healthy wetlands. I've seen this myself on hundreds and hundreds of acres across the Commonwealth.
In rivers, removing old unsafe dams, can immediately improve water quality, reduce public safety risks, and restore fish passage. In fact, I've witnessed fish swimming upstream between my own legs the moment a dam was removed. At this time of climate and biodiversity challenges, such dramatic rapid and positive changes feel like wonderful miracles. They remind us that we can do good for nature. When restoration repairs natural processes, these ecosystems are better able to adapt, self adjust, and respond to changing conditions over time. This is the essence of climate change resilience. Unfortunately in Massachusetts, it's very hard to do these kind of projects right now. Restoration projects are slowed by an incompatible regulatory framework work.
The same regulations used to approve traditional land developments like industrial or commercial projects, also apply ecological restoration projects. River and wetland restorations typically require 6 to 12 regulatory approvals and take 1 to 2 years to secure from state federal and local agencies. Today with significant funding available, we have the chance to restore thousands of acres of fresh water wetlands and salt marshes and remove hundreds of barriers that clog our rivers and streams. These investments help strengthen natural systems, decrease biodiversity, reduce risks from climate extremes,6612 store carbon, and improve conditions in our local communities. However, we stand to miss out on this opportunity. We cannot work at the required pace and scale without sensible regulatory streamlining. Let's treat restoration projects differently because they are different. They are good for nature, not harmful. Other states have already done this. The California Cutting the Green Tape initiative is an example to follow. These bills establish a sensible pathway toward much needed change and have our strong support. Thank you, and I'm happy to take any questions you might have.
DOROTHY MCGLINCY - MACC - SB 457 - HB 906 - Thank you for the opportunity to testify today. My name is Dorothy McGlincy. I'm the executive of the Massachusetts Association of Conservation Commission. We represent all 351 municipalities and the volunteer conservation commissioners therein. We have more than 2500 members across the Commonwealth, and we work to protect and preserve wetlands and open space. MACC supports H 906 and S 457 because this legislation will help us streamline our efforts to restore wetlands. But we need to pick up the pace so that our municipalities, community groups, and nonprofit organizations can work towards climate6691 resiliency in a rapid and efficient process.
I think6695 you've heard and probably know that wetlands provide great services to us their flood protection and shoreline stabilization efforts. Wetlands and saltmarshes6704 protect cities and towns from coastal flooding by absorbing the water through storm surges and providing buffers between the sea and homes and businesses. Wetlands protect water quality. They provide habitat for fish, birds, and other wildlife. They provide recreation areas for our towns and cities. And according to a Pew report, saltmarshes sequester 10 times more carbon each year than forests. We need saltmarshes and wetlands, but we're losing them at alarming rates. For example, according to a 2022 NASA report, there was an overall global loss of wetlands equivalent to 2 soccer fields every hour.
In the upcoming years, we will need to restore not just a few acres of saltmarsh here and there, but hundreds of acres at a time. To do that, we need efficient processes and coordinated efforts by state agencies, municipalities, and nonprofit organizations. This bill simply proposes to improve interagency coordination to expedite permits for nature based wetlands restoration projects. This bill does not create new fees. It does not create new regulations. The impacts of climate change require us to change our status quo. We need to, as my associate mentioned cut the green tape similar to the program that California instituted recently to increase the pace and scale of environmental restoration projects following the droughts, wildfires, and floods and other effects of climate change.
They found that the complex and overlapping permitting processes can result in fewer and smaller restoration actions being taken at slower pace and greater expense. We see the same thing here in Massachusetts. Massachusetts needs lots of tools in our toolbox to fight climate change. Streamlining the permitting process and agency coordination is urgently needed today for wetland restorations. Let us add this tool in our climate resiliency toolbox. We respectfully ask for a favorable report on H 906 and S 457. Thank you for your time and consideration.
RAUSCH - Thank you. I have one quick, potentially quick question. You mentioned California are there other states that have taken actions similar to what you're proposing in this bill? And if so, what happened? You know, what was the result?
HACKMAN - Well, California is a recent example of a comprehensive approach, statewide approach. There are other examples like Pennsylvania that have streamlined certain actions that, at one point, that in that state, removing a dam required one person's signature from, it was an agency person who was doing the dam removal. So, there are examples of other dramatic streamlines but California is a real comprehensive thing that brought together multiple agencies in a unified push.
RAUSCH - Okay, if you can send over some information about what California has done and Pennsylvania, any other states that are relevant I would find that very helpful. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
6886 Absolutely.6886 Any other questions
SPEAKER17 - from chair? Yeah. Rip Cassar.
KASSNER - Thank you. So we have in Mass General Law Chapter 43D, which is expedited permitting for economic development sites, which mirrors a lot of this 180 day and expedited coordination between departments. And I just wanted to say that process, it was encouraging when that was passed just to really see the coordination between permitting departments and having spent 20 years to get local permitting, I agree that it shouldn't be hard to do the right thing and then thinking that we we really want to move forward. So I think this6923 bill is a good mirror to kind of more of the6925 development expedited permitting that we should be6927 doing ecological environmental coordination. So just wanted to highlight kind of both sides of the coin with that that we already kind of have. I don't think it's used as much, and I'd like to see the coordination between permitting6941 departments. So thank you very much. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER1 - Other committee questions and comments? Okay. Thank you very much.
Terrific. We look forward to it. Okay. Folks, as previously mentioned, we are going to take a 15 ish minute recess. To honor denim day and survivors of sexual violence. And then we will reconvene when we come back in we will hear testimony on house 09:05, senate 5 86, an act to create a Meramec River collaborative,
Cecilia Gertenbacher, Jennifer Rate, Daniellea Garcia Moreno, John Macone, and Gerard Witten, I have on the list with regard to those bills. So that is the next bill that we will take up after the recess. Thank you.
Hearing of the joint committee8421 on the environment, natural resources will be back in order, and we will pick up8425 testimony on house 09:05 7 5 86. Excuse me, senate 5 86, an act to create a Merameck River Collaborative. We will begin with Cecilia Gertenbacher, please.
CECILIA GERSTENBACHER - MVPC - SB 586 - HB 905 - Hello, thank you. My name is Cecilia Gerstenbacher. I appreciate your attempt there. It is a very cumbersome name, so any attempt is a good one. I am the environmental program coordinator here at the Merrimack Valley Planning Commission working to facilitate environmental collaboration and stewardship at the regional and state level. I am here today to express my support and excitement for the bills S 586 and H 905, an act to create a Merrimack River Collaborative. In 1839, Henry David Thoreau recalled his journey up the Merrimack River. The river is by far the most8477 attractive highway, and those boatmen who have spent their life on it have had much more fun, wild, and memorable experience than the dusty and jarring one of the teamster who has driven during that same time, on the roads which run parallel with the stream.
8492 Even8492 before the industrial revolution, the Merrimack River was not only valued for its beauty and recreation but for its utility. A place for travel, a facilitator of industry, and thus evolved the shores of the Merrimack River. Textiles and tanneries dotted its banks, and pollutants sipped into the surfaces below, degrading the beloved resource. Now, that was 70 years ago, the Clean Water Act and related efforts have clarified the canals and restored the river back to its former vitality, right? Then why am I still fearful of a bacterial infection anytime a splash of water grazes my skin when I'm out in the field collecting water samples? The problem of pollution from the industrial revolution has been resolved, but the fundamental problem from pollution remains in new and worsening forms.
Combined sewage overflows, PFAS, microplastics, storm water runoff. Who will spearhead the second coming of8551 revitalization the Merrimack River so gratefully needs. The truth is that so many folks will, policymakers like yourselves, scientists, government officials, municipalities, wastewater treatment plants, state and federal agencies and funding sources, and community8567 members. But what an effort8569 it will be to coordinate collaboration between these groups and ensure a comprehensive8573 approach to this very complex issue? Who better than a group of organizations whose sole purpose is to coordinate regional work and be subject matter experts on the Merrimack River to take this role? That is who the Merrimack River Collaborative is. And now we wish to be formally charged with the daunting and thrilling task of coordinating the monitoring and revitalization of our namesake, because those who live, work, and play along the Merrimack River deserve to feel safe and excited about any opportunity to interface with this fantastic resource. With that, thank you so much for your time and consideration for this important initiative, and I will pass it along to the rest of my fantastic colleagues representing this great effort. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
Thank you. Any questions from members of the committee?
K. Thank you very much. Danielle Garcia Moreno.
SPEAKER16 - Hello.
SPEAKER8 - Hi,
SPEAKER2 - can you hear me?
SPEAKER1 - We can. Great.
DANIELA MORENO - NMCOG - HB 905 - SB 586 - Thank you so much Chair Rausch, Chair Cahill, members of the Joint Committee on Natural Resources and Environment. Thank you for the opportunity to speak before you today. My name is Daniela Garcia Moreno. I'm here today as a stainability planner and on behalf of the Northern Middlesex Council of Governments. One of 13 regional planning agencies in Massachusetts to express support for House 905 Senate 586, an act to create a Merrimack River Collaborative. The passage of this legislation is necessary to safeguard the future of the Merrimack River a vital economic and ecological asset for the greater Lowell and Merrimack Valley regions, communities adjacent to the river and beyond.
The Northern Middlesex Council of Governments is pleased to partner with the Merrimack River Watershed Council, municipal leaders across our region, and particularly our sibling agency, the Merrimack Valley Planning Commission. This bill calls upon our8684 legislative leadership to provide this energetic8686 and invested local and regional partnership with a new structure and access to tools to address the year's environmental degradation to the Merrimack River, which is a vital resource and asset. The Merrimack River needs preservation, restoration, and a voice. The story map viewer on the EPA's own website shows us quite clearly that multiple water bodies across the watershed area are polluted.
While several community based grassroots initiatives have had success, helping modestly address these issues, coordination and capacity remain an issue, a problem to enacting change and truly restoring the river. The Merrimack River Collaborative will capitalize on the collective capacity of existing grassroots efforts across diverse communities. As8729 you heard from Representative Shand, Mayor Reardon, and will likely hear from others today, the river is significantly impaired by combined sewer overflows and other toxins. At a time when climate resiliency, public health, and other issues of environmental equity are key local and state goals, one of our most critical economic asset8750 suffers from decreased wildlife and water quality. This also has an impact on our environmental justice communities, our communities drinking water, quality of life, and prosperity.
The Merrimack River Collaborative is poised to address these issues, while leveraging the extensive knowledge and resources of River adjacent communities toward one common goal. The Northern Middlesex Council of Government looks forward to working with the collaborative moving forward and with all of you to ensure that our river is protected for communities and generations to come. Thank you for your consideration of this bill to create a Merrimack River Collaborative, for your continued efforts and the preservation of the natural resources of the Commonwealth, and for this opportunity to testify before you. Thank you. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER1 - Thank you. Questions from the committee.
I see none. All set. Thank you very much. John Macone?
Buckle.
SPEAKER36 - Great.
JOHN MACONE - MRWC - HB 905 - SB 586 - Well, thank you for allowing me to speak today. My name is John Macone. I'm with the Merrimack River Watershed Council. We're a nonprofit, we were formed 50 years ago when the Merrimack would turn colors because it was so polluted from dyes. Today, it is much cleaner than it was but, and there's a lot of great work that's happening with different groups, but we're not really working always in coordination. And so what we're trying to do with this bill, these two bills is to work together these communities throughout the Merrimack Valley and address some of these really serious problems that are gonna be passed on to our children if we don't start tackling them.
I'll give you a a couple of pieces of information that are pretty interesting, I think. 354000 Massachusetts residents drink out of this river, and yet the EPA considers it to be one of the most polluted source water rivers in the northeast. So we've got a big problem there. We release about a quarter billion to a half billion gallons of sewage into the river every year from some of our old sewage plants along it in some of our old cities. It's also got one of the largest PFAS contamination zones in New Hampshire that passes right over the Merrimack. And we don't really know what the impact of that is on these drinking water sources and on nature. This is a major important river for fish species as well.
So I was wondering if I could possibly move on to just a little anecdote to give you a feel for how all these things kind of coalesce together. In Lawrence, the Merrimack runs right through the middle of the city, and there's this fantastic spot where there's a boating program for kids in Lawrence to go on the river every summer. It's like an oasis for them. You know, they swim and they kayak and they learn to sail. But every so often, maybe sometimes once a week, we have these huge rainstorms. And we have sometimes tens of millions, sometimes up to 70 million gallons of sewage that flows down right through this area where these kids are trying to, you know, swim and enjoy themselves. We don't know if the river is safe or unsafe at those times. So we can do better for these kids. There is technology that we could get so we could find out just how polluted the river is. We could also help Lowell to reduce the amount of sewage that's going into the river. And that's what this group is hoping to do. So and there's so many8960 other goals, but that's just one of the examples. So thank you for your time. Appreciate it. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER1 - Thank you. Questions? Okay.
KASSNER - I just have a quick question, and thank you. I mean, the Merrimack River is certainly something that I talk about maybe not daily but weekly. And the challenges are huge with the sewage overflows. I mean, it's you know, you can't even people say when it rains hard, your dog shouldn't go in the Merrimack River never mind us. But my question is to you, does this collaborative help get to the multistate issue that is really part of the cause of the Merrimack River issues? Because I know I've had conversations at the federal level, and it's just because it's a Massachusetts New Hampshire, will this collaborative aid in allowing that conversation to move forward more robustly?
MACONE - Yeah, that's a great question. So this is a political consideration because New Hampshire has9017 just a different political climate than9019 we do. We have people in New Hampshire who are gonna be involved in this commission, and they're gonna be helping out. And we're hoping to start9028 to expand it so New Hampshire comes9030 much more of a partner. There are different problems in9033 New Hampshire. We certainly wanna tackle those as well. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER8 - Thank you. Thank
SPEAKER1 - other questions?
SPEAKER8 - Okay.
SPEAKER1 - Thank you very much. Thank you. Jerrard Winton,
James. Committee. Terrific. There you are,
SPEAKER34 - sir. There we
SPEAKER4 - go.
JERRARD WHITTEN - MVPC - SB 586 - HB 905 - Good afternoon, everyone. My9052 name is Gerard Witten. I'm the Executive Director of Merrimack Valley Planning Commission. And, you know, today is an important day because it's an opportunity for our organization to help fulfill its mission of promoting the orderly and sustained growth of the region. In creating MVPC, the state Legislature saw the need for regional cooperation and stewardship. And9072 that's9072 the reason I'm here today to urge your support9074 for H9076 905 and S 586, an act to create a Merrimack River Collaborative. Specifically, this legislation is designed to help us address water quality issues across our entire region which represents 24 cities and towns, including four gateway cities and a population of over 700000 people.
The Merrimack is central to the identity of our region and a critical9096 resource for its economic and recreational9098 interests, not to mention as John referenced it serves as the drinking water supply for several of our communities. Now as somebody who's lived and worked in this region for 28 years, I've personally observed the pressure the river faces from development. Now each time it rains heavily, raw sewage is dumped directly into the river, making it unsafe for any kind of use. And this is currently happening hundreds of times each year. Many of us remember the infamous Mother's Day flood of 2006 when the9127 river turned a disturbing color of brown. Or in 2011 when millions of plastic discs were discharged into the river landing on our beaches and shores.
These are serious issues and now there's yet another threat to water quality from harmful chemicals called PFAS. So today, I'm joined by leaders of the Merrimack River Watershed Council, the Northern Middlesex Council of Governments, Mayor Reardon of the city of Newburyport. And we've all been working to raise awareness about water quality and how this issue is critical for communities across Northeastern Massachusetts. And while we've been very effective in acting as a clearinghouse of data, and resources, let's face it, without your legislative backing, our9165 group lacks teeth, which is why your9167 support for this legislation is so important. With an increasing urgency to address water quality concern in our cities and towns, support from our local legislative delegation and new funding opportunities being made available from federal and state agencies to help clean up the river, formalizing our community based collaborative as an imperative next step.
With your support, this bill codifies the existing collaboration of 3 excellent organizations, establishes us as the regional clearinghouse for information data and educational materials, and costs the state nothing. We are not asking you for funding with this legislation. What the legislation does do is to formally connect us to these issues and creates a channel for the state Legislature to work directly with our collaborative. The time is now for us to move on this, and so I respectfully ask for your support for this act to create a Merrimack River Collaborative. Thank you for your consideration. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER1 - Thank you. Adam Chip. Adam Chip? Yes. Senator Kennedy.
SPEAKER46 - Yeah.
SEN KENNEDY - If I could, the discs that you mentioned, those came from New Hampshire. I think it was up around Concord if I'm not mistaken. Don't you think that any solution, long term solution for the Merrimack River needs requires a cooperation of New Hampshire particularly, you know, Concord, Manchester, and Nashua? Those are big cities and they really need to be part of the the discussion, don't you believe in order for there to be a long term solution?
WHITTEN - Absolutely, senator. And our thinking in this if we can mobilize our efforts here in the state of Massachusetts with your support, we bring to the table and the discussion, the momentum, and an organized collaborative that allows us to have a stronger voice when we're approaching the folks in New Hampshire. We want this to be a community based group and a collaborative that addresses these issues, but we feel like the legislative element to this is what really gives us formalization and really gives us some strength. And that allows us to have a stronger dialogue we feel with our New Hampshire partners because we absolutely agree, this is a watershed wide issue that we need to deal with. And you're absolutely right, plastic discs did come from New Hampshire. So we want to be able to mobilize on issues like this as a uniform group so that when we approach New Hampshire, they understand that we've got our act together and that we have mobilized in a very logical and methodical way.
KENNEDY - Okay, so up to this point has there been no collaboration with New Hampshire so far?
WHITTEN - I'm sorry, go ahead and finish your question. I'm sorry.
KENNEDY - I'm just wondering whether or not there's been any dialogue with9327 New Hampshire up to this point.
WHITTEN - We have a few members of our collaborative who do represent interests on the New Hampshire side as well. In addition, the Merrimack River Watershed Council has staff who also deal with New Hampshire issues, they're cross state. So we have some semblance of representation from New Hampshire groups but we are seeking to expand the involvement of New Hampshire folks and strategizing about who exactly to go after. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
Okay. Thank you. Thank you, madam Chia. Thank
SPEAKER1 - you, senator. Other questions or comments?
Okay. Thank you very much. Thank
SPEAKER3 - you.
SPEAKER1 - Representative Rogers. And then after his testimony, we will turn to house 8 61 and senate 4 75 about the drought management legislation?
REP ROGERS - HB 890 - Well, Chair Rausch, Chair Cahill, members of the committee thank you so9382 much. I'm grateful for this opportunity. I won't take much of your time9386 I promise that. And I've come before you today on my bill H 890, which is an act responding to threat of invasive species. I'm proud to partner with the9397 Massachusetts Rivers Alliance led by my constituent, Julia Blatt, in Belmont on this issue. The bill did get a favorable report from the committee last session, and I'm hoping as you review it can do so again. Invasive species are plants and animals that are introduced to an area that are not native to the area. And this is a growing problem with climate change. There9423 are a lot of towns, for instance, Belmont and others that get earmarks in the budget to to address this, so it costs a lot of money.9431
Right now, the state's approach is very scattershot between DCR, DEP, the Fish and Game. There's no unified coherent approach to managing the problem. So this legislation would create a centralized office, the Massachusetts Invasive Plant Authority Advisory Group and would combine the existing resources of that advisory group and the DCR aquatic invasive management group. So towns, localities would be able to go to the state for information. And it also allows for a new state coordinator, an invasive species trust fund through which9471 funding could go to address the problem. So it's gonna be a growing problem now and into the future, and we'd be very grateful for your consideration. I know it's probably been a long hearing day for you, so I'll leave it at that. And thank you very much. I appreciate it.
RAUSCH - Thank you representative. Just a quick question, the bill as filed this session that reflect the changes that the committee made last term?
ROGERS - I think mostly, it may be a little different, but you know, as always, whatever changes you might see fit, you know, happy to to work with you and answer any questions. And really just hopeful to get it out kind of early so we can keep it moving and glad it got a favorable report last time and thank you again. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER1 - I I remember it well. Thank you very much. Questions comments from the committee members.
SPEAKER36 - Thank you. All
SPEAKER1 - set. Thank you. Thank you. Good luck with budget. Okay.
House 8 61, 7, senate 4 75. I believe we have a couple of panels in whatever order you like.
Visual aids. I love being a visual aid. Mhmm.
SPEAKER8 - We're
SPEAKER39 - bringing some visual aids.
SPEAKER1 - I still appreciate visual aids. Thank you very much. I'm waiting for somebody to use the easel. Since
SPEAKER39 - we're not quite in job season yet. Thank goodness. You know, we want to remind you what that looks like. You're welcome to sit. Too, if you like. Yeah. Thank you. Your choice. Thank you. Okay. We have myself, Erin, and then we have Someone else joining virtually too, so go for that.
SPEAKER1 - But I
KATHERINE LANGE - MASS RIVERS - HB 861 - SB 475 - HB 906 - SB 457 - HB 879 - Chair Rausch, Chair Cahill and members of committee thank you for the time to speak today. My name is Catherine Lang. I'm the senior policy specialist for the Massachusetts Rivers Alliance. We're a statewide nonprofit organization is with the 85 member groups, dedicated to protecting and restoring the rivers and9595 streams of the Commonwealth. I'm here today in support of H 861 and S 475 and we are really grateful for the time to speak today. We really respectfully urge you to report this bill9607 out favorably from committee as you did last session. I'd like to take you back to last summer, the town of Greenfield held a triathlon as they have for the past 37 summers. Only last year, in 2022, they didn't have a swim portion instead, athletes had to do an additional running portion during that event.
It was in the high 80s, it was really sunny. It would be a terrible day to run, especially twice. But the Green River they usually use was not able to support swimming that day because of low flows. This is a drought problem. It's not as life altering as impacts to water supply or to wildlife, but is an example of how drought is creeping up in insidious ways in our everyday life. We know that we've seen significant drought over the past few years from June 2016 through to March 2017. Again, May through November of 2020, and last year we were in drought at some parts of the state between April, all the way through to December of 2022. My colleagues will talk more about what impacts of drought look like in their watersheds, but we know that statewide this is happening more frequently and more severely in Massachusetts.
Modernizing our water conservation measures is a key part of climate adaptation. And our state enjoys a well deserved reputation of being a climate leader nationwide. However, in water management, we're not quite there yet. As it stands, water conservation measures vary from town to town if they're there at all during a9696 drought. This patchwork approach9698 is confusing for residents and also has a very limited impact on the health of the watershed. If one town is practicing stringent water conservation, and a neighboring town is doing nothing, they're not really helping the health of the river and their communities get through drought as quickly as they could. That should make a difference in the health of our rivers, our ecosystems, our communities. We need a wider, more climate smart approach.
In 2019, the state created the Drought Management Plan created by EEA and MEMA. This plan recommends conservation actions for each level of drought. To be clear, we're only talking about limiting non essential outdoor watering, that's pretty much just lawn watering. Any water use for agriculture, business, or your indoor use would not be affected by this bill. By passing this piece of legislation, you'd be putting that drought management plan into action and partnering with state scientists. Responding to drought on a regional level gives our rivers, our streams, and our ecosystems the best chance at recovery during these drought events. I'll quickly note that Mass Rivers will also be supporting and written testimony, H 906 and S 457, and will be opposing H 879 in writing. Thank you for your time just over the beep, and I'll hand it to my colleague Erin.
ERIN CASEY - IPSWICH RIVER WATERSHED ASSOCIATION - HB 861 - SB 475 - Thank you for having me.9775 My name is Erin Bonney Casey. I'm the planning and resiliency manager of the the Ipswich River Watershed Association along the North Shore. We work to ensure that there's plenty of clean water for the people and ecological motions that rely on the Ipswich River. And I'm here, along with my fellow panel members to speak in favor of the drought bill H 861 and S 475. The Ipswich River watershed encompasses all are part of 21 towns. Our watershed overlaps almost entirely with Senator Tarr's districts and Representative Kassner's district, and Chair Cahill your constituents in Lynn drink Ipswich River water. There are approximately 50000 people, in fact, that rely on Ipswich River water for their drinking water supplies.
Even within the relatively wet climate that we have here in Massachusetts, the Ipswich is one of the most endangered rivers in the US, as designated by American Rivers. And that is largely due to the exempt withdrawals, which make up 90% of total withdrawals from the Ipswich River, exemption currently from any water restrictions. The photos that I brought9841 with me today are from the Ipswich River during9843 the last 3 droughts in 2016, 2020 and 2022. And as you can see, there are multiple places along the river where it dries up completely, leaving the river in a series of disconnected pools rather than a continuous stream. This is extremely detrimental to the wildlife that depends on the river, and it also compromises the ecological functions of the river.
It's obviously very hard to predict drought, but streamflow of Ipswich is currently below average for this kind of year. And given the dry summer trends we've seen recently, we're absolutely concerned that we're heading into another drought. About half of the water used on the North Shore in the summer months goes to outdoor, non-essential use mainly warm9883 water. And we have the opportunity with these bills to keep all of that water in our rivers. There is also an issue of equity with the current way that water use restrictions are implemented with some ponds in our watershed subject to outdoor water bans and others not. We hear about the unfairness of that situation all the time.
Furthermore, I can tell you that as a resident of Salem, which is not subject to restrictions, that beyond there not be any restrictions on water use there's also a complete lack of awareness among residents when we are in a drought because there is no mechanism to communicate that status to the community. We're not even providing residents with the information required to make informed decisions in the absence of water use restrictions. We in the Ipswich River Watershed Association feel strongly that everyone in our watershed and across the state should be subject to the same water use restriction during times of drought scarcity. We need to recognize that water is a shared resource and should be treated as such. The proposed drought bill is a step in the right direction to protect our water resources for the future and ensure equitable access to9949 water for all of our communities. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER39 - Thank you. Just under good. Very impressive. And you said you mentioned we have9957 We have 2 2 more folks joining us in this panel who are Red Young. Who
SPEAKER1 - are there? There they are. Terrific. Thank you.
SPEAKER13 - Alright.
KELSEY WENTLING - CRC - HB 861 - SB 475 - HB 890 - SB 508 - Thank you for the opportunity the opportunity to comment on H 861, S 475. As you may have guessed, I'm speaking in favor of this bill and urge you to report it out favorably. My name is Kelsey Wentling. I use she and her pronouns and I'm here today on behalf of Connecticut River Conservancy. We're an environmental nonprofit dedicated to protecting the entire Connecticut River watershed which includes over 30 towns in Western Mass and makes up about one third of all the land area in the state. The Connecticut River Valley is a rich agricultural area largely due to the nutrients and the irrigation provided10009 to farms by a healthy Connecticut River. The Valley's home to over 2000 farms and generates nearly $141 million worth of sales each year.
The Connecticut River is the lifeblood of the commonwealth. It feeds families across the state and provides critical drinking water for the two largest municipal systems, the MWRA, and the Springfield Water and Sewer Commission. When drought hits our region, it's keenly felt by both water suppliers and farmers. An example of this in Western Mass is Brookfield Farm. A sustainable agriculture farm in Amherst Mass that provides CSA shares to around 700 families in the valley. Last year in the midst of a labor shortage and a drought, the farm managers had to dedicate already limited staff time to make sure all their fields could be properly irrigated. This prevented them from doing weeding another upkeep around the farm, and as a result, their beet and potato crops were lost to weeds.
As the drought intensified throughout the summer, upon the irrigates, one of their farms became depleted and the irrigation system was clogged with mud preventing water from even reaching that farm field. In 2022, the entire Connecticut River watershed was affected by drought in Massachusetts. While some municipalities10084 within the watershed implemented outdoor water bands or voluntary restrictions, the response to last year's severe drought was fragmented and inconsistent across both the watershed and the Commonwealth. For example, for me to get to Brookfield farm and Amherst from my house in Northampton, I travel across the Connecticut River through three towns.
I can remain in the same watershed and even follow a route along the same river, but be confronted by different water restrictions depending on which town or city I'm in. This fractured approach to water management creates a disjointed and also unfair water management system. This bill will create a comprehensive and coordinated approach to curb non essential watering in order to provide water for the most basic needs of our human and aquatic10127 communities. I urge you to make this the year that we properly address and prepare for job by reporting this bill favorably out of commit committing. I also wanna state my support for H 890, S 508, an act responding to the threat of invasive species. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
Thank you.
BECKY MALAMUT - NSRWA - HB 861 - SB 475 - Hi there. My name is Becky Malamut. I am the river restoration coordinator for the North and South Rivers Watershed Association. Thank you for the opportunity to speak on behalf of the drought bill, H 861 and S 475 today. And thank you, especially to Rep Meschino, who represents three of our partner towns, Cohasset Hingham and Hall, for bringing this bill to the floor. So we are a regional watershed. We represent 12 south shore towns in the watershed, and we partner with an additional four towns. We've been fighting to protect the North and South River since 1970. We work in a watershed that is relatively progressive in its approach to water conservation but it's not consistent. For example, in August of 2022, when we had a drought, we were in a level 3 critical drought in this area. Six of the water systems in our watershed would have matched the state's regulations under the proposed drought bill. Nine were less restrictive and two were more restrictive.
Passing the drought bill will create a level playing field for all of our towns and not just those on the south shore. It'll act as a backstop or absolute minimum for those towns that have not acted in the past. So I have a map to share. Let me see if you can let me know if you can see it. So as you can see from this map, so this is a similar snapshot in time. The map on the right shows the Massachusetts drought status. You see that most of our towns were in level 3 critical drought. The map on the left shows the municipal water use restrictions10248 all10248 over the state. And you can see, you10250 know, it's a real patchwork as I think was10252 a term that's been brought up before. So you can see the majority of towns are not under the water use restriction that matches the level of drought. And in very few towns the restrictions actually matched what is currently being proposed in the drought.
If we want any chance of having a real impact, on streamflow levels during times of drought, there needs to be a consistent approach across the state. Water is a shared resource, and we need to have a shared approach to managing it. Outdoor water restrictions work. In 2016, in the town of Scituate where I live, water use decreased by 6% during the first month of our seasonal level 1 ban. And as drought conditions worsened and our town increased enforcement and publicity, water demand was reduced by another 20%. By the time a drought is declared, we've already missed a chance to stop its effects as the drought is already underway. But the absolute least we can ask of the towns in our commonwealth to start to conserve by reducing outdoor water use to keep the impacts of the drought from getting any worse.
This consistent messaging is helpful and increases awareness about issues that impact our water10319 resources. We often think of regulations in terms of their impacts on people. In10323 this case, someone might ask if it's fair to ask10325 people to stop watering their lawns. But the impacts can be much greater on the animals and plants that rely on our rivers and streams for habitat. For our anadromous fish such as river herring and Atlantic shad, the lucky few who make it upstream to their spawning habitat in the spring likely won't have enough stream flow to make it back in the fall. So this problem was not unique to the South shore or the North Shore or anywhere in between, drought doesn't impact as town by town or even watershed by watershed. We all have a responsibility to act now before the next drought season is upon us. Thank you so much for your time. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
Thank
SPEAKER1 - you. Questions, comments from members of the committee. Thanks. He
SPEAKER20 - will comment. Thank
SPEAKER1 - you.
SPEAKER3 - Of course.
10360 REP10360 CAHILL-10360 There10360 was a slide that you put up of10362 Massachusetts. Could10364 we have that emailed to our committees, please?
MALAMUT - Yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER3 - more. Thank
SPEAKER1 - you. That's been true. Okay. Anything else? Alright. Now for the
SPEAKER39 - on pour presentation for this meal.
SPEAKER1 - Terrific. Everybody loves an encore. Love them. Yeah. Big big tent.
DAVID MELLY - ELM - HB 861 - SB 475 - SB 578 - Good afternoon Chair Cahill, Chair Rausch, members of the committee. My name is David Melly. I'm a10396 legislative director for the Environmental League of Massachusetts. Statewide nonprofit dedicated towards environmental protection, and climate action I'm here to express ELM's support for H 861 S 475, and S 578, and to ask that you work simply to advance this legislation favorably. On a personal note, I've been working on this issue since 2015 on a previous capacity. And former Rep Dykema and I are really thrilled that Rep Meschino and Senator Tarr and Senator Eldridge are continuing to lead on this issue. And hopefully, with the committee's support we can finally get it across the finish line. Sometimes it can be hard to grasp the impacts of climate change they may feel abstract or distant. But when it comes to water resources and the commonwealth today, the climate impacts we're seeing are very real. And they're10445 happening right.
We're experiencing serious droughts, we've been having for the last 7 years in 2022 was the ninth surprise the year in the last 10. At our driest point last summer, 94% of Massachusetts experienced ground conditions, while half the state was determined to be in extreme drought. The new reality is that what we used to call 10 year droughts are happening more like every 2 years. And the persistent multi year spreads on our watershed has significant impacts on our10476 public health, on our economy, and on our ecological systems and natural resources. In order to respond to these increasing challenges, to anticipate and plan for10488 the more significant climate impacts are gonna have in the future, we, guarantee that when we turn on the tap on water.
We need to, management policies that are to sit proactive, and most importantly based in the latest scientific data and best practices. The good news is that in recent years, we've taken significant steps forward on the administrative side. With the update of the state route drought plan for the first time in a decade. And more recently, the regulatory updates to require that registered water users have consistent baseline drought management policies in place. But the state is still limited in staff score. It's already the act and especially to act across all communities, water supply pipes. In the real world, drought does constrain itself to a single registration or permit or, you know, single well. This legislation would empower the experts at EEA to work with the stakeholders and drought management task force to make scientific determinations about drought on a regional scale and to imply consistent rules and regulations across all users. Rather than relying on a patchwork of inconsistent local ordinances.
Not only does this help reduce confusion and disparities among different type of water users, but it provides much needed clarity to municipalities, local officials who look to the state to provide the data, the guidance, and resources for outreach. These bills recognize the need to protect the essential uses. So it10574 limits the EEA Secretariat's ability to nonessential water use and strikes what we really see as a common sense balance between conservation without creating unrealistic or untenable experience. Thanks so much for your consideration. Happy to answer any questions and, for the committee's passing of this bill as well.
ZEUS SMITH - CRWA - HB 861 - SB 475 - HB 890 - SB 508 - HB 792 - HB 852 - HB 906 - Wonderful. Good afternoon Chair Rausch, Chair Cahill, and members of the committee. My name is10600 Zeus Smith, and I'm the policy advocate for the Charles River Water Association, CRWA, an environmental research and advocacy group who has been dedicated to protecting the Charles River and its watershed for many years10610 now. We were founded in 1965 and we're an integral part of creating the cleaner10614 more accessible Charles River that you know today. And I'm here to continue that legacy of environmental stewardship by10621 expressing CRWA's support for H 861 S475, H890 and S 508. Now H 861 and S10631 475 the drought bill and the10633 companion10633 bill seek to control and reduce nonessential summertime outdoor watering during10637 times of drought. These bills enjoy bipartisan support and recognize that water conservation is the first line of defense when drought occurs.
In July 2022, a severe flash drought caused several sections of Charles River to run completely dry. As my fellow panelists have noted, with climate change droughts are becoming more frequent, more severe, and longer lasting. Severe drought degrades the river ecosystem, lowering water quality, destroying water, wildlife habitat, and connectivity. It puts our very foundations at risk. A study revealed that drought and the lowering of groundwater levels can cause up to $36 billion of damage in Boston alone. And severe drought can put our most vulnerable neighbors the children, elderly, outdoor workers, and those with health10678 conditions at risk. Yet in10680 times of drought, as you've heard, the state currently has no authority to require regional drought conservation measures. These these bills that we're discussing today create a statewide10688 coordinated drought response, empowering10690 state to require regional conservation measures during a declared route to protect our drinking water supplies, ecosystems, and economy.
CRWA urges this committee to favorably report out this crucial forward looking bill. CRWA also supports H 890 and S 508, the invasive species bill that you've heard about earlier today that similarly empower Massachusetts to face future challenges by creating a coordinated statewide approach to the invasive species problem. For a long time, our state has struggled to address the enormous threat that invasives represent. They reduce biodiversity, they degrade water quality, harm, resilience, kill mature trees, and destroy wildlife habitat. Now in 2002, Massachusetts released our state's first comprehensive effort to assess the impacts of the aquatic invasive species. Since then, the plan has been updated but has10736 been split between agencies as you've heard which is hampered effective management. More importantly, our state faces threats on land as well as on water.
Less than a year ago, the spotted lantern fly was found in Massachusetts. Now Worcester has one of the largest spotted lantern fly infestations in our10750 state. With our state agencies already trying to contain these and other invasive species, they10754 cannot do it without a coordinated plan. These bills establish an office,10757 a statewide invasive coordinator, and a dedicated trust fund to ensure that our state's prepared to face the enormous threat to our economy and landscape invasive species represent. We also will be providing written testimony for H 792, H 852, and H 906. Thank you10771 for considering and the opportunity to provide this testimony. I'll answer any questions you have. Thank you. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER1 - I'm that.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER - MYRWA - HB 861 - Hi, everyone. Thank10785 you for your time. My name is, and I am a, watershed field scientist with the Mystic River10791 Watershed10791 Association,10791 which is an organization dedicated to restoring and protecting the water base and surrounding habitats going to into the Mystic River. In this role, I assist with various water quality monitoring and environmental restoration projects, such as the management of sewer water movements and the baseline program. On behalf of the Mystic River and Watershed Association, I'm here to support bill H 861, and to encourage you to support it. The summer of 2016 was the driest summer ever recorded in Boston. It was a hot day in August when my supervisor received a text message with an image of, a stream that usually would10828 be10828 formed and located Woburn and he received it from an intern.
Instead of the normally free flowing stream that supports river migration, and habitat the stream bed was dry and completely invisible. It was some realization that my supervisor had at that moment. No matter how much money you invested into the sort of natural events like the seasonal carry around, a drought can decimate even the most free flowing streams and rivers and prevent the connection between freshwater and the ocean that the migration relies on. When you see a river in dry weather, you are seeing the relationship between the groundwater and the surface water. When there are dry conditions, groundwater is what feeds the rivers, and streams and prevents them from running dry. But groundwater, to replenish itself since water needs to stay on permeable surfaces long enough to soak the soil and eventually reach the water table.
In urbanized watersheds like the Mystic River Watershed, where 42% of the land is made up of impervious surfaces like asphalt and rooftops unfiltered water quickly runs off and moves straight to our rivers and streams and keeping our ground water from replenishing itself and leaving streams susceptible to drought. These are the new realities that climate change brings our water rates. The long term solution to this problem in our cities is to get storm water into the ground and great infrastructure, like, the infiltration tensions that communities in the Mystic River Watershed have started to implement at a regional scale. These redirect some rain water and hold it in permeable material so that it has time to move into the groundwater system. In short, green infrastructure helps absorb natural hydrology of advanced. But in addition to this, we also need an updated clear and consistent statewide ground management plan that adapts to the changes we are seeing in our waterways due to climate change. We need the science research and data that defines the threshold of a drought regionally to make responding to these events an easier task for different municipalities. All of this can be accomplished through a task force that bill of H 861 will create. Thank you for your consideration and for the committee's, this bill. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
Is there anyone else?
SPEAKER20 - They got 1
SPEAKER1 - more. Okay.
Oh, we don't. Then we're good. I hope she feels better.
SPEAKER20 - Copy to answer Okay.
SPEAKER1 - Questions, comments, remembers the committee.
Okay. Fantastic. Thank you all. Okay, Alan Fierce, then Steve Long, and then George Kamiskey.
SPEAKER8 - And,
SPEAKER1 - sir, if you wouldn't mind would you just put those microphones back together? Just wish you got it. Perfect. Thank you, Chris.
SPEAKER38 - Alright. Thank you.
ALLAN FIERCE - OARS - HB 861- SB 578 - SB 475 - Chair Rausch, Chair Cahill, members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity10995 to present10996 testimony also in favor10998 of the drought bill. However, I am11000 not going to repeat all testimony that you've just heard, which I fully11004 support, particularly, protecting our rivers and streams, I'm a board member of OARS, the river protection group for Assabet, Sudbury and Concord Rivers. I'm here today because I have a private well in Stow Massachusetts where I live and it's a shallow well. And I don't know if you're familiar with shallow wells, I have friends in Boston who aren't. But it means it's11030 only less than 25 feet deep. I have a jet pump in my basement, a deeper well would require a pump in the well. I don't have that. I don't know the depth. But I know that every time we have one of these droughts, I am very worried, because what happens during a drought is that the water table which is where the aquifer at the top of the aquifer where it meets the soil above, that water table starts to drop and it drops multiple feet.
You can see this on USGS graphs. What happens when my well is no longer in that water table, in the aquifer? That means I have no water. I have no water. I have no water to drink, I have no water to bathe with, I cannot flush my toilets. A board of health, my board of health in Stow for and this happens, we've had wells fail in Stow. And when that happens, the Board of Health11094 says, that's a public health emergency. You cannot continue to live in your home. And My wife and I have been very worried the last couple of droughts, the 2016, and one last, and our neighbors, unfortunately, have no sense of the fact that we are all drawing from the same aquifer. Many of them have deep wells. They don't think it's a problem. It's the same aquifer.
My wife and I are nervous, we've been taking showers much less frequently. We flush the toilet, every other time, we've lucked out so far, we have not had a failed well. It could happen. Why don't people regulate these? The state has no authority over private wells. Unless there's a state of emergency declared by the governor, and I don't11142 think that's ever happened in a drought, in a situation like this, all we have is our town. And all the towns with only private wells, which is what Stow has. And we have many of these across the state many of them are rural areas. They don't think they have a legal authority to regulate private wells either. And on top of that, they don't want to. Why? Because all the people in town think, this is my private well, you can't tell me what to do with my private, well. This is why we need this bill. This would give the secretary, the authority, on a region wide basis to oppose these kinds of water limits that will protect those of us with shallow private wells. We need it. We need it now. I wish you could even expedite this bill, because I think we need it for this coming summer. So I've given you a lengthier version of this testimony in writing. I hope you read it because there's an an anecdote from Stow that I wish you could read. But thank you very much. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER1 - Thank you. Questions, comments from the committee, mister chair. Mitch,
CAHILL - Thank you for your testimony, and Representative Kate Hogan, the first meeting I took as chair was with Representative Hogan about this issue, and she referenced the issues with Wells private wells in Stow and her staff has been providing a lot of information to the committee. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER38 - Terrific. Thank you. Thank
SPEAKER1 - you very much.
SPEAKER5 - Steve? Hello?
STEVE LONG - TNC - HB 792 - Thank you Chair Cahill, thank you, Chair Rausch, and staff, and members of the committee. Steve Long with the Nature Conservancy in Massachusetts. I'm here to talk11237 about nutrient dilution and also support the drought management bill, but I really wanted to focus on the blue community's bill. So the goal of this bill is really to aim to address municipal capacity and to provide support to reduce nutrient pollution that cause ecosystems, people, and the economy so much damage. And TNC has been involved with our climate science, and ecological science staff on several advisory committees that help support efforts to reduce nutrient pollution. One was the Ocean Acidification Commission that published a report in 2021, and that's where this bill came from. Along with global carbon emissions,11287 the report found that local nutrient pollution from wastewater, storm water, and fertilizer runoff is the leading cause of ocean acidification, which puts the entire state's blue economy at risk as highlighted by our partners at New England Aquarium.
The legislation before you is based on the report's findings and the recommendations have a goal of incentivizing municipal action to reduce nutrient pollution. The second report we were involved in was the clean energy and climate plan. I've sat on the IAC since its inception in 2012 and that followed the next generation roadmap policy. So thanks for following your leadership on that climate change bill. And the CECP highlighted actions that the state can take. And if we fail to protect the blue carbon systems, they release their accumulated carbon into the atmosphere, and they no11340 longer continue to absorb carbon. Finally, the state's climate change assessment, you'll have a handout that I gave to committee staff. You'll see four of the 16 major risks to the state are related to freshwater and ocean systems and coastal systems. And those are heavily impacted and degraded by nutrient pollution.
So with the Blue Communities Act, it's much like the Green Communities Act. It would provide municipalities with incentives to take action on nutrients if they meet eligibility requirements. They'd have to through some hoops for practices and ordinances. I see this as 1 of many steps the state needs to take. We need to have NGOs as partners. We need to have something like a common app that makes it easier for communities to apply for funding. I'd like to see some sort of combo bill that provides municipalities with incentives to do the right things for nature, whether its tree planting or climate change or other things. Nature is really an important ally in climate change. I encourage the committee to have EEA come present on the clean energy and climate plan, the climate assessment, and the state hazard mitigation and climate adaptation plan. Thanks for your time and consideration. I'm happy to answer any questions. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
Questions
SPEAKER1 - comments from the city.
SPEAKER48 - Okay. Awesome. Thanks so
SPEAKER1 - much.
SPEAKER6 - George Kominski.
GEORGE COMISKEY - PRCWA - HB 861 - Good afternoon Chairman Rausch and Chairman Cahill. I'm the on the board of Parker River Clean Water Association. The Parker River is located between two endangered rivers, the Merrimack and the Ipswich, and we're11450 not doing any better than those rivers. The river, it gets disjointed, similar to other East Coast rivers from its ponds. The hydrologic connection, it gets broken about mid summer during these droughts. And one story I have is during the 2016 drought, the Governor Baker was having press conference at Smolak Farm in North Andover. And so I got in my car and I was driving through Georgetown, where I live. And Georgetown was under heavier restrictions, the lawns were all brown. And on the way I passed the Georgetown Club golf course, but they had a big sign out private well. And I guess it's an11498 indication that, you know, we're really not connected to this the heartache you guys are going through.
And then I drive through Oxford, which is all private wells. So, you know, all the lawns there are immaculately green and I guess there must be a lot of pride in that and in Oxford. And then and going to North Andover where Smolak Farm was, you could see, you know, some green lawns and some brown lawns lawns because they were under voluntary restrictions. Their water11535 was11535 drawn11535 from11535 Lake Cochituate. And so that map that Becky Malamut put up should be really helpful. It showed all the different types of restrictions that different towns had put in place. And to me, that is what this bill as people keep saying, it'll level the playing field And I really hope you pass 861. It's really needed for the stress basins that are on the East Coast. We really suffer, and thank you for your time. I'd also like to thank you for having this hybrid setup. I hope it's something that can be put in place permanently, hint hint, and it's certainly a format that gets more of the public involved. Thank you. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER1 - Thank you very much. Any questions or comments from members of the committee? Thank you, sir, for your testimony. That is the end of the sign up list. Is there anyone else here who would like to testify on any of the bills on today's docket?
Okay. I'll entertain a motion to adjourn.
SPEAKER3 - Seconds. Maybe
SPEAKER1 - All in favor? Hi. Alright. May opposed
SPEAKER8 - that
SPEAKER1 - we are adjourned with great thanks to our friends at LIS.
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