Sustainability: Working to Protect Water at the Policy Level

Regional issues surrounding water supply, flows in rivers, climate change, and water monitoring trends are important to the future health of our watershed. Along with our hands-on project work, the NRWA knows that it is important to participate in the setting of water policy, to ensure that a sustainable approach to water management is implemented at the state level. NRWA collaborates with state agencies, other environmental organizations and policy groups to stay informed and provide input into pertinent policy and regulatory issues.

• NRWA is a member of The Massachusetts Rivers Alliance. The Alliance’s mission is to protect and restore rivers across the Commonwealth. Involvement with the Alliance is an opportunity to share ideas, concerns, and information about issues affecting rivers. NRWA has been attending meetings organized by the Alliance focused on how to improve flow protection, through the Sustainable Water Management Initiative (SWMI). SWMI is a multi-stakeholder approach to determining how Massachusetts will allocate water withdrawals in the future. The NRWA is also a member of the Environmental League of Massachusetts.
• NRWA participates in the Water Supply Citizen Advisory Committee (WSCAC) meetings on water supply and protection in relation to Wachusett Reservoir. The reservoir, the second largest in Massachusetts, was formed when the South Nashua River was dammed early in the 20th century. Water from the Wachusett and Quabbin Reservoirs supply 2.5 million people with water in 61 communities in the Greater Boston area. WSCAC was formed to advise the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA) on water resource policy decisions affecting that water supply. NRWA has been advocating for a more naturalized flow to the South Nashua River. The river receives between 3 million gallons per day, the legislatively mandated minimum, and over 100 million gallons per day, depending on the MWRA’s water supply and management requirements. These flows can vary dramatically from day to day and interfere with the development of a natural river ecosystem. Setting an adequate baseline release and moderating increases will improve the habitat for fish and other wildlife along the South Nashua River. NRWA has advocated for a higher minimum flow and a stepped up and stepped down flow management to minimize impacts. NRWA believes that a scientific study of the flow impacts and management requirements would help to clarify what would be optimal for the ecology of the river.
• One of NRWA’s staff is a member of the NH Rivers Management Advisory Committee (RMAC). The members of the RMAC are appointed by the Governor and Executive Council for three-year terms. The RMAC assists the NH Department of Environmental Services in administering the Rivers Management and Protection Program. Another important responsibility of the RMAC is to advise the Department on the adoption of rules for the protection of instream flow. The RMAC is also responsible for reviewing and making recommendations on plans to dispose of State-owned property along rivers or providing access to them.
• The NRWA’s Executive Director serves as Vice Chair of the Safe Drinking Water Act Assessment Advisory Committee. The eleven members of the Committee are appointed by the Commissioner of the MA Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and include six public water suppliers. In Massachusetts, there are 1,712 public water systems providing clean water to 6.3 million people. The Safe Drinking Water Act Assessment provides funding that helps the DEP’s Drinking Water Program to maintain primacy to implement the federal Safe Drinking Water Act.
• Our staff attend professional conferences such as “River Monitoring for Climate Change” presented by the MA Department of Fish and Game’s Division of Ecological Restoration (formerly, the Riverways Program), and the Central Mass DEP SMART Volunteer Monitoring Summit, held annually. Summit topics have included climate change, monitoring, and river classification. To learn more about water and climate change issues, visit the state sites for Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

For more information on NRWA’s work on water policy, please contact Martha Morgan, NRWA Water Programs Director, at (978) 448-0299, or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

River Continuity: Dams and Culverts

Our rivers and streams once flowed naturally and freely through the landscape. Human development necessitated the building of dams to control water supplies and harness their power. Road construction for our transportation systems meant stream crossings, frequently accomplished by the use of culverts rather than bridges. These interruptions to the natural flow of the river impact aquatic life, and attempts, such as the building of fish ladders, have been made in the past to reduce that impact. NRWA’s river continuity projects focus on examining existing man-made features that fragment our waterways, determining their current usefulness, and seeking methods to modify them that will allow our river ecosystems to return to a more natural state.

Dams

Hundreds of dams dot the landscape throughout the Nashua River watershed, remnants of industries long abandoned. A handful of the dams, mostly on the Nashua River Mainstem, include hydropower operations that actively generate power. Dams create small ponds and lakes, offering recreational opportunities and a link to a way of life from days gone by. An increasing number of dams, however, are falling into disrepair and are becoming a burden to dam owners liable for damages if the dams fail. Municipalities and private dam owners have to make the difficult decision regarding whether to repair, replace, or remove a dam. All three options are very costly, and the deliberations regarding the repair and continued upkeep, or removal of any dam involve ecological, safety, political, economic, and cultural issues.

NRWA’s policy regarding dam removal is to consider each on a case-by-case basis. Not every dam is destined to be removed. There are dams, however, that have reached their useful life, are expensive to rebuild, provide no ecological benefit, and in fact are a hindrance to the improvement in the overall stream ecology. Dams disrupt a river’s natural course and flow, raise water temperatures in the downstream reaches from the dam, and disrupt river continuity, resulting in isolating populations of fish and wildlife and their habitats within a river. Restoration of the natural flow to a river often results in the rebound in the diversity of aquatic life to a stream that supports the native species that depend on a free-flowing riverine system to survive.

Links to dam resources:
MA Office of Dam Safety
Division of Ecological Restoration
NH Dam Bureau

Culverts

River and stream road crossings can be barriers to fish and wildlife movement if they are undersized, installed incorrectly, or are damaged from erosion and settling. Culverts can become “perched,” requiring fish to jump up into the culvert, which they often cannot or will not do. In addition, each year thousands of turtles and other wildlife are killed when they choose not to use an undersized culvert and instead attempt to cross a road.

NRWA hosted a stream continuity training session in the summer of 2009 organized by the Squann-a-Tissit chapter of Trout Unlimited and conducted by MA Riverways. Participants learned methods for conducting a stream continuity inventory. The goal of the continuity assessments was to identify crossings that are barriers to fish and wildlife passage and to help set priorities in restoring stream habitat in the Nissitissit and Squannacook watersheds. Project partners included NRWA, Friends of Willard Brook, O.A.R., the Pepperell and Townsend Conservation Commissions, MassWildlife, and the U.S. Geological Survey. More on the Massachusetts River and Stream Continuity Project.

In 2011, with generous support from the Stephen F. Quill Family Foundation, NRWA was able to take part in restoring connectivity along native reproducing brook trout habitat in Gulf Brook in Pepperell. The project was a partnership among the Massachusetts Outdoor Heritage Foundation, the Division of Fish & Wildlife, the Frank Nims Family Trust, the Greater Boston and Squann-a-tissit Chapters of Trout Unlimited, and the Town of Pepperell. The two new open (natural)-bottomed culverts replaced two old pipe culverts, which will allow brook trout the freedom of movement from the upper reaches of Gulf Brook to the Nissitissit River.

For more information on the NRWA’s river continuity projects, please contact Martha Morgan, NRWA Water Programs Director, at (978) 448-0299, or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Why Do We Offer Environmental Education?

We offer environmental education programs because we believe knowledge leads to better decision making. Research has shown that “knowledge of environmental issues and knowledge of action strategies …contribute to environmentally responsible behavior.”¹

NRWA environmental education programs provide children and adults the opportunity to explore the outdoors. They enjoy learning about local plants and animals which they may have seen in their own backyards. Research has shown that an “attachment to local natural resources can influence environmentally responsible behavior in an individual's everyday life.”²

Our hands-on science lessons allow school children to act as “citizen scientists.” These activities are engaging and memorable. Environmental education has demonstrated improved standardized test scores.³

The goal of our environmental education programs is to ensure our natural resources will be valued today, and protected now and forever.

“The River Classroom canoe-based program has become an integral part of our science curriculum because it offers rich, hand-on opportunities for students to interact with, and learn from a resources right in their own backyards”
- JoAnne Curley, 4th grade teacher, Mary Rowlandson Elementary School in Lancaster, MA

“Thank you for bringing the watershed model. It was fun being able to participate in’ polluting’ the model. Doing this helped us understand point source and non-point source pollution.”
- Students from Hildreth Elementary School in Harvard, MA

“I wish science class could always be like this.”
- Student from Memorial Middle School in Fitchburg, MA

¹Jody M. Hines, Harold R. Hungerford & Audrey N. Tomera. (1987) Analysis and Synthesis of Research on Responsible Environmental Behavior: A Meta-Analysis, The Journal of Environmental Education, 18 (2), 1-8.

²Vaske, Jerry J. & Kobrin , Katherine C. (2001) Place Attachment and Environmentally Responsible Behavior, The Journal of Environmental Education, 32(7), 16-21.

³Lieberman, G. A. & Hoody, L (1998) Closing the Achievement Gap. San Diego, CA: State Education and Environmental Roundtable.