Latest News on Proposed Legislation and Regulations

New legislation introduced in 2009 to protect rivers

WAA’s major legislative priority this year is the adoption of state Representative Frank Smizik’s proposed Sustainable Water Resources Act (Bill H 834). The bill would mandate state adoption of “streamflow standards” in every Massachusetts watershed, which would include specific criteria for protecting fisheries, aquatic life and other “instream” uses such as recreation. The bill would also require the state Office of Dam Safety to consider dam removal as an option for dealing with unsafe dams (removal of obsolete dams is highly beneficial environmentally). Finally, it would authorize public water suppliers to implement “waterbanking,” under which they could charge a small fee for new and expanded service to be spent on measures that conserve water supplies or protect them from pollution. When and if this bill comes up for a vote, we will post it on this website and ask you to voice your support to your legislators. For more information on the bill see: http://massriversalliance.org/sustainablewateract.html.