Proposal: “Developing a Regional Solution to Water Quality, Ecosystem Function, and Sustainable Water Supply in the Central Plymouth County Water District”

Application to EPA – Funding Request under Southeast New England Program for Coastal Watershed Restoration

Excerpt from CPCWDC introduction letter:

[This is an] application by the Central Plymouth County Water District Commission (CPCWDC) for funding under the current Southeast New England Program for Coastal Watershed Restoration grant opportunity EPA-R1-SNEP-2016. The application includes a Proposal Narrative, completed Forms 424 and 424A, a budget description, and four commitment letters demonstrating public support for our plan to develop a regional and sustainable solution to long-standing problems that beset our District.

CPCWDC was established by the Massachusetts Legislature in 1964 to assess and improve water supplies within the 8 municipalities within the District (including the City of Brockton), and to ensure that a balance is struck between providing the volumes of high-quality drinking water necessary for each community, and maintaining the recreational values of the lakes and ponds used for water supply. After making some general recommendations, the CPCWDC was dormant for many years, but has been reconstituted recently in response to increasing stresses being placed upon the water resources of the district, notably the increasing cyanobacteria outbreaks in the Monponsett Ponds, one of the reservoirs that serves the City of Brockton.

The CPCWDC is working with a number of partners to advance a final resolution to problems that have plagued water supplies in the District for many years: susceptibility to drought, lack of capacity to support the increasing population in the district, and outdated management practices that have negatively impacted the ability of the water bodies in the District to support recreation, fisheries, and other ecological functions. The CPCWDC has, under its legislative mandate, already taken actions to improve streamflow in affected waterways to improve their ecological functions in support of fisheries in the Taunton River watershed. CPCWDC, in seeking this grant, hopes to tackle the problems of regional extent by working with our partners, which include the Old Colony Planning Council, the Monponsett Watershed Association, the Massachusetts Department of Ecological Restoration, the Jones River Watershed Association, Massachusetts Audubon, and Save the Bay,. These partners, along with our State legislators and delegates from the District’s communities, have shown extraordinary enthusiasm in helping us reach our goal. With this grant CPCWDC hopes to identify and document elements of a regional water management policy that will address the water supply needs and ecological restoration goals of the District’s communities, and the economic costs associated with implementing the policy. The resulting document will be a roadmap for the CPCWDC in implementing solutions to the problems that have gone unaddressed for so long. Keep reading >>