Bill would compensate Quabbin watershed townsDate: 5/8/2023 On April 26, the Joint Committee on Environment and Natural Resources hosted a hearing on a bill filed by state Sen. Jo Comerford (D-Northampton) and state Rep. Aaron Saunders (D-Belchertown) that is designed to level the playing field for communities in the Quabbin Reservoir watershed.
“The bill would do several things,” Saunders said of the proposed legislation, called An Act Relative To The Quabbin Watershed And Regional Equity. “First it would correct one of the most egregious inequities that Western Massachusetts faces in the Quabbin area.”
Construction of the Quabbin Reservoir was started in 1939 when the towns of Dana, Enfield, Greenwich and Prescott were disincorporated, evacuated, and then flooded to create one of the largest potable water sources in the United States.
The bill would seek greater regional equity and provides for reasonable payments to Quabbin watershed communities for local municipal needs with water infrastructure such as conduits, pipes and hydrants; and non-profit organizations providing health, welfare, safety and transit services.
Under current state law, the communities surrounding the Quabbin Reservoir including Belchertown, Hardwick, Pelham, New Salem, Petersham, Shutesbury and Ware receive minimal compensation for their efforts.
Those same communities do not have the ability to pull their own drinking water from the Quabbin.
The Quabbin Reservoir provides drinking water to millions of people in eastern Massachusetts as well as Chicopee, Wilbraham and South Hadley Fire District 1.
“The state has benefited from the Quabbin Watershed for 85 years. Eastern Massachusetts has been able to grow stronger because it has guaranteed access to the potable water, some of the best water people say in the nation. Yet we in Western Massachusetts have paid the price but gotten not enough in return. It is time for fairness and equity,” Comerford added.
According to Comerford, the bill will look to address four major problems.
Comerford said, “Access to water is important today, it is going to be so much more important 50 or 100 years from now so we have to think to the future and to future generation in Western Massachusetts and making sure they have equitable access to potable water.”
The bill would expand the board of the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority and require that three of the 13 members reside in Western Massachusetts.
Comerford said, “Right now, there is only one person on the board from the region in the 11 member board and we think there should be three. We are willing to expand the board to 13. We think there needs to be more voices representing the needs and interests of our region since we are stewarding the water that everyone else is drinking.”
The bill would also address expanding the Quabbin water access.
“There are now numbers of studies looking at expanding Quabbin water access to lots of communities. The bill says if you are going to do that in eastern Massachusetts, you should darn well explore access to that water and how to get it in Western Massachusetts,” Comerford said.
The bill also calls for the establishment of a community trust fund.
Comerford said, “The trust fund will be for nonprofits, municipalities, tribal governments who live and work in the Quabbin region who have helped mitigate the impact of the disincorporation of four towns and the kind of arrest of the economy out there. It sets up this Quabbin watershed community trust fund. It does so by imposing a modest 5 percent fee on everyone one thousand gallon of water.”
According to Saunders and Comerford, there are about 220 million gallons of water leaving the Quabbin daily.
He added, “Those funds that would be raised by that fee would go to support the communities of the Quabbin Reservoir watershed and regional nonprofits that provide for the residents of our communities.”
The current numbers from the MWRA and Boston Water and Sewer Commission state that the bill would raise approximately $3.5 million annually for all communities and the tax would cost an average Boston household six cents per month.
Saunders said, “$3.5 million per year is truly transformational for the communities and non-profits. Six cents a month on average is almost invisible in the contents of the water and sewer bills that the residents pay.”
The bill provides additional regional equity by adding two seats to the MRWA board but also set term limits for members of the board.
Saunders added, “These two items would be for the interest of Western Massachusetts to provide some equity there and it would also set term limits. Believe it or not there are currently no term limits for sitting on the MRWA board and there are tremendous tenures on folks who have been appointed.”
Comerford said the bill would also cover the payment in lieu of taxes, also known as a PILOT.
She said, “Right now, payment in lieu of taxes is determined by the landmass or high water mark of the Quabbin. We say that there is land underneath the Quabbin that should be considered and there should be a PILOT payment for that land as well and not only the land above the high water mark.”
In terms of the hearing on April 26, both Saunders and Comerford thinks it was productive and encouraging.
Saunders said, “The hearing went great. There are multiple people who testified in support of the bill, offered written testimony, testimony in person, testimony online. I haven’t heard any opposition of the hearing.”
Comerford added, “The hearing was very successful. I thought we had a lot of expert testimony. I am grateful for the committee to give it such an early hearing. A bill as complicated as this as a first time file will need the labor of the committee to make sure we gotten it correctly. I am heartened.”
Saunders said he and Comerford will continue to work with MWRA and the next steps are in the hands of the Environment and Natural Resources Committee.
“The bill is going to sit with the Natural Resources Committee, and they will decide weather to move it to the next stop in the legislative process. We are hopeful that we will continue to move forward with the bill,” Saunders added.
The committee heard around 25 bills at the same hearing, so Saunders expects it to take a few months to hear an update.
Saunders added, “It is a two year session, so we do have time to work with. This isn’t a situation where if somehow, they don’t report in favor, we are behind the eight ball. The role the committee plays is important because there are going to look at the testimonies, merits of the bill and the circumstances that currently exist. We are happy to have them continue to look into the bill.”
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