Safe Yield

You may have read the Boston Globe's front page article on Thursday, October 15th, 2009.

Link to Article

TRWA is also greatly troubled by the DEP's unilateral action on Safe Yield, taken with no advice or consent from either their own WMA Advisory Committee or the Water Resources Commission or the general public.

Following is some background information and a way for you to take action now by participating in the statewide letter campaign to protest the outrageous "Safe Yield" determinations issued by DEP.

Below is some relevant information about the Safe Yield issue. We thank Paul Laurenstein, a TRWA member, for authoring this information.

The Water Management Act (M.G.L. c. 21G) became effective in March 1986. The Act authorizes the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to regulate the quantity of water withdrawn from both surface and groundwater supplies. The purpose of these regulations (310 CMR 36.00) is to ensure adequate water supplies for current and future water needs.

The intent of the Water Management Act (WMA) is to protect water resources by limiting withdrawals within a watershed to the "Safe Yield" of the watershed (see http://www.mass.gov/czm/permitguide/regs/watermanagementact.htm).

For more than two decades, the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection issued and reviewed WMA permits without determining Safe Yield for any of the watersheds in Massachusetts. The initial set of 20-year WMA permits is now expiring, and new permits must be issued. Despite requests from the environmental community to limit the term of WMA permits to five years, DEP is planning to re-issue 20-year permits with scheduled 5-year increases based on population projections. Although WMA permits are theoretically reviewed every five years, in practice the 5-year review is frequently skipped and the scheduled increases are often granted automatically. Therefore, most of the water withdrawals allowed in the WMA permits about to be issued will be in effect for the next two decades, regardless of the need for more aggressive environmental stewardship as climate change progresses or advances in water use efficiency.

Many in the environmental community have been insisting that WMA permits issued in the absence of any determination of Safe Yield violate the Water Management Act and could be invalidated in court. In response, on October 8, 2009, DEP unveiled its determinations of Safe Yield for the 27 major Massachusetts basins. Many people familiar with water policy in Massachusetts are alarmed that DEP's Safe Yields are far too high to provide meaningful resource protection, and that the inflated Safe Yield figures would allow over-exploitation of the Commonwealth's water resources.

Following are three cases that illustrate the degree to which DEP's Safe Yield calculations are not protective of water resources:

1) Billings Brook in Sharon is a tributary of the Taunton River. During the drought of 2007, classified as only a moderate drought by the U.S. Drought Monitor, Billings Brook dried up downstream of Sharon's Well #7, even though it continued to flow before reaching the well. The Taunton River, recently classified by the federal government as a Wild and Scenic River, has been rated as "medium stressed" by the Massachusetts Water Resources Commission. DEP determined the Safe Yield for the Taunton River watershed to be 242.95 MGD, 2.5 times more than the total amount of water, 95.0 MGD, allocated by DEP within the watershed. Why would the WRC classify the Taunton as "medium stressed" if total withdrawals are only 40% of Safe Yield?

2) In 2003, American Rivers declared the Ipswich River to be the third most endangered river in the United States. The Massachusetts Water Resources Commission has rated the Ipswich River as highly stressed. DEP determined the Safe Yield for the Ipswich River watershed to be 55.48 million gallons per day (MGD). The total amount of water allocated by DEP within the watershed is 34.7 MGD. Even though total water withdrawals in the watershed are less than 2/3 of DEP's Safe Yield determination, the Ipswich often dries up completely in summer.

3) According to Gary Berti, Trout Unlimited's Eastern Brook Trout Campaign Coordinator, declining brook trout populations can provide an early warning that the health of an entire stream, lake or river is at risk. Brook trout occupy less than half of their original range in Massachusetts. (see http://www.mass.gov/dfwele/dfw/fisheries/trout/trout_info.htm. However, DEP found that Safe Yield had not been exceeded in any watersheds in Massachusetts.

Here's the "Safe Yield" spreadsheet that DEP circulated at the WRC meeting last Thursday afternoon. It shows the "Safe Yield" for each of the 27 basins (watersheds) in Massachusetts, the current allocations in each basin, and also the allocations as a percent of "Safe Yield." It says that the Safe Yield of the Taunton River basin is 2.5 times greater than the total of all the Water Management Act withdrawal permits issued within the basin.

Please participate in CLF's letter writing campaign to protest the outrageous "Safe Yield" determinations issued by DEP last Thursday.

Go to: http://www.clf.org/#