April 12, 2018, 10 a.m. to noon
Massachusetts State House, Room 428
Watershed Action Alliance and allies demonstrated that there is a strong, vocal constituency that cares about clean, plentiful and free-flowing water. Experts from WAA shared their knowledge with legislators and citizens about critical regional water issues. Senators Vinny deMacedo, Marc Pacheco and Patrick O'Connor spoke about future plans to address these issues and other pressing environmental concerns. Senator deMacedo was the legislative sponsor of the gathering.
The following state representatives (and/or their staff) attended the breakfast:
- Jay Barrows
- Edward Coppinger (staff)
- William Crocker (staff)
- Josh Cutler (staff)
- William Driscoll
- Carole Fiola and a staff member
- William Galvin
- Louis Kafka (staff)
- Joan Meschino (staff)
- Paul Schmid
- William Straus (staff)
Schedule
10:00 am-10:10 am Meet and mingle
10:10 am-10:20 am Introductions - Sara Grady, PhD, South Shore Regional Coordinator for the Massachusetts Bays National Estuary Program and Watershed Ecologist at the North and South Rivers Watershed Association
10:20 am-10:45 am Presentations by WAA members (click on title for a pdf of the presentation)
- Water quantity/water withdrawals - Alex Mansfield, Ecology Director, Jones River Watershed Association
- Water quality/stormwater - Kerry Snyder, Advocacy Director, Neponset River Watershed Association
- Water connectivity/river restoration - Samantha Woods, Executive Director, North and South Rivers Watershed Association
10:45 am-11:15 am Presentations on future work in support of water
- State Senator Vinny deMacedo
- State Senator Marc Pacheco
- State Senator Patrick O'Connor
11:15 am-11:30 am Attendees organized to visit legislators' offices in small groups
11:30-noon Visited 39 state representatives and 9 senators with information packets including these fact sheets.