The primary goals of recommended actions in this Five Year Action
Plan are to:
- Maintain the high level of water quality
in the tributaries and return degraded waters to their designated
uses pursuant to State Water Quality Standards.
- Protect and manage in-stream flow and groundwater
resources throughout the watershed to provide high quality drinking
water supply sources and aquatic and riparian habitat.
- Support local growth planning efforts and
encourage careful land use with well-planned development in order
to protect priority land areas for forest, agriculture, habitat,
water resources and recreational values.
The Five Year Action Plan (hereafter referred to as
"the Plan") is intended to serve as a working document
to assist stakeholders and guide agencies in directing staff and
resources. By outlining specific strategies to mitigate priority
watershed problems it will promote integrated watershed natural
resource protection or improvement. The environmental priorities
identified in this comprehensive Plan may be used to focus local
and regional regulatory decision-making and to target state grant
programs and other resources such as educational and technical assistance
programs.
The Plan is organized on a sub-watershed or sub-basin
basis: there are 22 distinct sub-basins in the larger Nashua River
watershed.1 The
Plan is addressed to a wide public audience in addition to resource
managers. Major components in the Plan's creation include stakeholder
participation, community involvement and public review. The public
has participated in identifying problems and their possible solutions,
and will help implement the recommendations.2
It should be noted that the Commonwealth's funding priorities are
increasingly tied to the 5 Year Watershed Action Plan.
This Five Year Action Plan is a product of the former
Massachusetts Watershed Initiative (MWI) Nashua Team: a collaboration
of watershed interests consisting of state and federal environmental
agencies, municipal agencies, non-profit associations, citizens,
and other interested parties.3
When the MWI Nashua Team was first formed, the Team
reviewed the Nashua River Watershed Association's 2020
Vision Plan for the Nashua River Watershed and embraced
its goals. The Team noted the strong benefit to the team of building
on the planning and extensive work of both the NRWA and the Metropolitan
District Commission (MDC) in the basin to date. The Team also recognized
the relevancy of the plans developed by the area's Regional Planning
Agencies, noting the recent work of the Regional Planning Agencies
in Massachusetts and New Hampshire to develop a growth management
plan for its Nashua watershed towns.
With the passage of the 1972 Clean Water Act
and citizen efforts, the waters of the Nashua River have significantly
improved. The Nashua has, within a few decades, gone from one of
the worst rivers in the nation to a river whose restoration is now
considered a model for other rivers. But ongoing effort is required
to keep the river system healthy. Indeed, a large percentage of
the basin's water bodies are still impaired by pollution and do
not meet water quality, aquatic indicators and other standards.
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