Water Resources Protection Task Force

Background

While the Town presently is blessed with adequate supplies of drinking water, Manchester presently lacks a long-term strategy for maintaining that quantity and quality over the next 50 years. Given the heightened risks from climate change and the significant levels of PFAs reported in nearby municipal water supplies, it is time to address this lack.

Complicating this situation, no single Board or Commission or Department has responsibility for long-term quantity and quality of our drinking water. DPW focuses on operation and maintenance of water infrastructure, BOH on toxic waste controls, and Select Board on setting rates for water usage.

Manchester commissioned a comprehensive study in 1989 by Horsley Witten Hegemann which was reported in June 1990 as the “Water Resources Protection Plan.” This document set up baselines for Manchester’s long-term drinking water strategy and offered more than 60 pages of specific recommendations involving zoning, health regulations, wetlands, watersheds, reservoirs and wells. These remain very relevant as a starting point for work today.

About the Water Resources Protection Task Force

The Select Board commissioned this Task Force in December 2021.  Its overall objective is to define a vision for Manchester’s drinking water quantity and quality over the next five decades and to recommend how the Town should mobilize to get there.

The Select Board expects four specific deliverables from the Task Force: 

  1. Updates on the problems and opportunities identified in the 1990 Report (incorporating issues of climate change and new contaminants, e.g.), 
  2. Priorities for action by the Town among those problems and opportunities, 
  3. Specific next steps including changes in Bylaws and Regulations, expenditures, organizational change, and more-detailed study, 
  4. Alternatives for assigning responsibility and accountability (including what metrics to use).

This Task Force will be Phase 1 of a process of design and implementation that will insure the long-term quantity and quality of Manchester’s drinking water.  The next phase will need to focus on implementation and accountability.

The Task Force will work for a limited time (not > 18 months) under the auspices of the Conservation Commission.

The Town has provided staff support for Task Force: Sue Croft (Special Projects/Grants Coordinator).

Members

  • Chair & Conservation Commission – Steve Gang
  • Select Board – John Round (alternate Ann Harrison)
  • Planning Board – Ron Mastrogiacomo (alternate Sarah Creighton)
  • Board of Health – Peter Colarusso
  • Conservation Commission – David Lumsden
  • Stream Team – Jessica Lamothe (alternate Francie Caudill)
  • Open Space and Recreation Committee – Helen Bethell (alternate – Olga Hayes)
  • At Large Members: Mike Carvalho, Jeff Cochand, Tom Kehoe, Ron Parker, Gordon Turner

Interested in becoming a task force member or short-term fact-finding volunteer?  Please submit a volunteer application (Click Here for Volunteer Application) or submit a letter of interest to the Select Board.

Questions? Email Sue Croft at CroftS@manchester.ma.us

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Related Documents

  1. Suggested Groundwater Guidelines one-page summary diagram 7-1-22
  2. Suggested Groundwater Guidelines MECT 7-1-22
  3. Update to SB from WRPTF 5 July 2022 notes
  4. Working Group 6 Report to WRPTF 6_29_22
  5. Scott Horsley Presentation to Manchester WRPTF June 1, 2022
  6. Team 1 - slides on rainwater use for WRPTF 5-12-22
  7. 2022-05-12 WRPTF Working Group 4 Update
  8. Scott Horsley - Manchester WRTF 051222
  9. WRTF Regional_Group 2 Update 4_28_22
  10. Presentation Local Aquifers Group 2 - 4 28 22
  11. Scott Horsely Manchester WR Task Force 03 16 22
  12. DPW Water System Presentation from March 2nd 2022 Meeting
  13. DPW Answers to Key Task Force Questions from March 2nd 2022 Meeting
  14. Horsley Witten 1990 Water Resource Protection Plan
  15. Surface Water Protex Plan Development - MassDEP
  16. Wellhead Protection - DEP Developing a Local Plan 2001
  17. Zone Map Lincoln Street Well
  18. Zone Map Water Treatment Plant
  19. Manchester WR Task Force 031622
  20. SHorsley Slides WRPTF Mtg10_05_22
  21. Horsley Presentation 12_7_22 Manchester Safe Yield
  22. Segments Water Usage Steve Gang_updated 11-30-22 shown to WRPTF 12-7-22
  23. Cynthia Kwan gravelly_pond_protection_zone 1_4_23
  24. WRPTF Update for Select Board 2023Jan17
  25. Gravelly Pond Thermal Study 1-25-23 presentation-2
  26. Stiles Badger Water Meter Presentation 3.6.23
  27. WRTF presentation 030823_Scott Horsley