This is a proposed updated Action Plan in the Buzzards Bay CCMP 2024 Update.

Manage Freshwater Withdrawals and Recharge to Protect Wetlands, Habitat, and Water Supplies

Problem

As development in the region has increased, both the quantity and quality of Buzzards Bay public water supplies have been threatened. In some cases, both public and private water withdrawals are cumulatively affecting wetlands, anadromous fish runs, and other wildlife habitat, particularly during droughts. Buzzards Bay’s growing population creates a need for additional water supplies, but available land to develop future water supplies is disappearing because of the intensity of land use and the loss of open space. Better management of freshwater recharge and withdrawals can help ensure aquifers and surface waters are protected, maintained, and resilient to climate change.

Goals and Objectives

Changes: The title was changed from “Managing Water Withdrawals to Protect Wetlands, Habitat, and Water Supplies ” to “Managing Freshwater Recharge and Withdrawals to Protect Wetlands, Habitat, and Water Supplies” to better reflect what needs to be managed and what needs to be protected. Irrigation and industrial withdrawals were added to explicitly identify all withdrawals that must be managed. One goal deemed redundant was deleted. Some objectives were re-worded improve clarity and readability. Two objectives were deleted because they were deemed redundant, and an additional objective was deleted because it was addressed in the stormwater Action Plan. Two new objectives were added to add clarify actions needed.

Goal 10.1. Manage drinking, irrigation, and industrial water withdrawals to protect and preserve groundwater and surface water supplies to ensure a sustainable supply of high-quality drinking water.
Goal 10.2. Protect and restore the natural recharge of the Buzzards Bay watershed, and manage drinking, irrigation, and industrial withdrawals to protect and restore the natural flows of rivers and the natural waters of ponds, lakes, estuaries, and protect the wetlands and habitat that depend on them.
Goal 10.3. Protect and preserve estuarine and brackish surface water habitats in river mixing zones.
Objective 10.1. Encourage water conservation, reduce water distribution losses, and increase utilization efficiency to minimize environmental impacts from water withdrawals.
Objective 10.2. Encourage water reuse for irrigation, industrial process water, and other non-potable uses within public health constraints.
Objective 10.3. Update state water withdrawal regulations to reduce the potential of affecting wetlands, surface waters, and other public water supplies.
Objective 10.4. Adopt local strategies, water rate structures, policies, and regulations that encourage conservation of both public and private water withdrawals.
Objective 10.5. Water managers should limit non-essential water use during droughts.
Objective 10.6. Improve the efficiency and resiliency of water supply infrastructure and minimize potential impacts on natural resources.
Objective 10.7. Identify and protect open space to support existing and potential future water supplies
Objective 10.8. Incorporate new information from studies water budgets, water withdrawals, and sustainable yields into local water resources planning and local and state water withdrawal regulations, and the State Interbasin Transfer regulations.
Objective 10.9. Encourage accurate tracking of water use by agricultural users and promote agricultural best management practices for water conservation.
Objective 10.10. Any future desalinization facilities must minimize entrainment and impingement impacts at intakes and preserve the natural salinity of receiving waters.
Objective 10.11. Collect and maintain water use data in support of this action plan and for tracking success.
Objective 10.12. Encourage revisions to the Interbasin Transfer Act to reflect impacts to individual river basins, like the Mattapoisett River basin, rather than addressing only transfers in or out of the Buzzards Bay basin. (New)
Objective 10.13. Promote research to understand drinking water and groundwater availability, and impacts of withdrawals (New)