An Act to Protect Rivers and Streams 

Testimony of Margaret Van Deusen of Charles River Watershed Association   before the Joint Committee on Environment, Natural Resources, and Agriculture  

HB 833 An Act to Protect the Rivers and Streams of Massachusetts

July 23, 2007

I am the Deputy Director and General Counsel to the Charles River Watershed Association, a grass roots environmental organization with over 5000 members whose mission is to preserve, protect, and enhance the health, beauty and accessibility of the Charles River and its watershed. I am testifying in favor of HB 833, which directs the Department of Environmental Protection, in consultation with MA Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, to establish site-specific streamflow standards for Massachusetts rivers. The standards will ensure that  MA rivers can begin to be managed for all of their various uses-fisheries, aquatic habitat, and to ensure water quality, as well as for water supply, recreation, and navigation. This is not just about the ecosystem health of our rivers. Massachusetts waterways generate 100s of millions of dollars in revenues from tourism, and particularly eco- tourism, a growing sector in our economy, fishing and recreation each year in addition to the pleasure that our rivers and streams give our citizens. 

The Charles River , as with the other rivers you are hearing about today, is stressed.  Water withdrawals, development and the built environment which has paved over large areas preventing rainwater from recharging our aquifers and provide baseflow to the river, and the fact that wastewater is transported far from where the water is drawn rather than treated and infiltrated locally are some of the causes.  In the summer, the upper Charles in the headwaters area dries up and flows below that can be quite low.   And recent studies by Mass Division of Fisheries and Wildlife showed a disturbing lack of river fish dependent on flow in the Charles in comparison to what you would expect in a healthy riverine system.   

Some of you may have read last week in the Globe about the toxic algae blooms now appearing in the Charles lower basin.  While there may be a number of reasons why we are seeing this, low water levels and higher temperatures are contributing factors.  Flow at the river gage in Waltham right now is much lower than expected and CRWA recently learned that the level of the boards at the Silk Mill dam in Newton Upper Falls, which is controlled by the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) is resulting in large volumes of water upstream in the Charles being diverted through Mother Brook in Dedham into the Neponset River. This is good news for the Neponset River , but not for the Charles. There is no written protocol in place or standards by which DCR determines its operation of these dams. Streamflow standards would enable DCR to manage the parts of the river that it controls much more effectively.     

Many people are surprised that Massachusetts does not already have flow standards in place.  But the Rivers Protection Act, which is part of the Wetlands Protection Act, deals with the first 50-200 feet from the banks of the river landward, not with actual river flow.  There is no law that effectively protects streamflow on the books today. Existing water laws are fragmented and administered by various agencies. 

For instance, the Water Management Act administered by DEP requires a balance among competing uses of water, but it is primarily a water withdrawal permitting scheme. It does, however, authorize the Water Resources Commission (the Commission) to adopt, policies, principles and guidelines for the effective planning and management of water use and conservation that are protective of "the natural environment of the water in the commonwealth."  The Interbasin Transfer Act regulations governing significant interbasin transfers of water and wastewater which are administered by the Commission require maintenance of "reasonable instream flow in the river from which the water is transferred." (313 CMR 4.05(5)). And G.L. c. 131, section 42, prohibits the alteration or manipulation of flows or water levels in any inland waters which injures or kills the fish or fish spawn, but doesn't address the incremental impacts and alteration of flow from development , water withdrawals, wastewater transfers to regional treatment plants, and inflow and infiltration into aging, leaky pipes --over half of the water treated at the MWRA's Deer Island Plant is clean groundwater that has leaked into the sewer pipes. 

Although water quality is inextricably linked to water quantity - pollutant loads are greater when flows are low, temperatures are higher and decreased dissolved oxygen has been found to correlate with higher temperatures, the state's surface water quality standards do not contain any narrative or numeric streamflow criteria. Designated uses and antidegradation of existing uses, such as swimming and fishing, cornerstones of the water quality standards under the federal Clean Water Act, are dependent on maintaining water quantity as well as quality. 

Passage of HB 833 would ensure a consistent, science-based set of standards that could be applied across agency boundaries. The bill directs the Commission to adopt streamflow principles and guidelines and DEP, in consultation with the Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, to develop the actual standards. Under section 5 of the bill, the codified standards would become part of the MA Surface Water Quality Standards. This would ensure public review and comment on the new standards and we urge broad stakeholder input on them. The development of these standards will enable us to begin to manage our rivers effectively for all of their uses and to guide decisions at all levels of government that impact our waterways.    It is not clear what the impact of climate change will be on our rivers and streams, but the healthier they are, the more able they will be to adopt to those changes.

The timing is auspicious for the enactment of streamflow standards and to make it clear that the concept of "safe yield" of a river basin as proposed in section 3 of the bill includes language on maintaining instream flows protective of aquatic life and ecological integrity.  The science of flow and its needs of aquatic communities are growing by leaps and bounds. We can and should plan now for their responsible stewardship.   

On behalf of the Charles River Watershed Association we ask you to report this bill out favorably. Thank you.