Did You Know? Clean, Plentiful and Free Flowing Water in 2013 Thanks to Watershed Associations

by Dorie Stolley, Watershed Action Alliance Coordinator and Outreach Manager

With Thanksgiving recently passed and the New Year on its way, it’s a good time to look back over the year and the accomplishments of watershed associations in southeastern Massachusetts, which work for clean, plentiful and free flowing water for both wildlife and people.

Clean Water. This year scores of watershed volunteers across the region participated in cleanup efforts, removing debris that can strangle streams, plastic that can poison fish and people, and old traps and other items that can mutilate or kill wildlife. For example, one hundred shopping carts, 12 bicycles, toilets and tires were hauled out of the choked Neponset River during one day in August. Plastic drink bottles by the hundreds, several lobster traps and innumerable pieces of Styrofoam were gleaned from the mouth of the Eel River in November.  The Butt Brigade was launched in Narragansett Bay to gather data about discarded cigarette butts, which will be used to target solutions for this insidious littering problem.

Volunteers haul a shopping cart out of the Neponset River in August.

Other things that foul our water are less visible. Common pollutants include pesticides, bacteria, and nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus, which, in excess, can over fertilize water causing rampant algae and plant growth. The algae can clog waterways, choke out useful plants and even lower oxygen levels causing fish kills.  The biggest nutrient problems come from wastewater treatment plants, leaky sewage systems, and untreated polluted runoff from roads and yards during storms, which also can provide a lot of bacteria. To combat these evils, in 2013 watershed associations worked on a host of projects including installing rain gardens, pushing for better regulations for wastewater treatment plants and proposing less costly alternative to updating septic systems.

Rain gardens not only remove nutrients from runoff, they filter out other pollutants and sediment, which makes them cost effective in the fight to prevent tainted water from entering our streams. A rain garden is strategically placed in a depression near a runoff source, like a road that channels water or the edge of a parking lot. It is planted with deep-rooted native plants, which also beautify the landscape, and must be maintained periodically for best performance.

Westport, MA is enjoying numerous new rain gardens and avoiding the costs of more expensive rainwater runoff treatment techniques because of a partnership between the Westport River Watershed Alliance, the Town of Westport and the Buzzard’s Bay National Estuaries Program. Volunteers contribute to this work, too: for instance, they planted over 500 plants in the rain gardens at the Westport Middle School.

Other ways that watershed associations in southeastern Massachusetts worked to achieve cleaner water included identifying areas where nonpoint source pollution was worst and working with towns to install structural filters, recommending practices for protecting groundwater and Cape Cod Bay for the Plymouth Nuclear Power Plant, and educating residents on how to keep pollutants out of the water, for instance, by cleaning up pet waste and using minimal amount of fertilizer (or none) on lawns.

New sign in Scituate reminding watershed
residents to conserve  water.

Plentiful Water. Not only did watershed associations work to keep water clean, they worked to keep it plentiful. Plentiful water in streams and rivers is necessary for river herring to travel upstream to spawn in the spring. In the summer and fall, the outmigration of young herring from their hatching grounds in freshwater to the ocean where they spend much of each year is dependent on adequate water as well. To this end, in 2013, summer residential water restrictions on alternate days put in place by North and South Rivers Watershed Association once again saved 30,000 gallons per day on First Herring Brook in Scituate. A new sign reminding residents to conserve water during summer months and thanking them for their efforts during times of adequate streamflow was installed along a major travel route.

2013 saw a giant step forward in the decades-long effort to restore adequate streamflow to the Jones River in Kingston. Silver Lake is the headwaters of the Jones, however, the City of Brockton withdraws so much water from it that the stream has not flowed normally for decades to the great detriment of wildlife, particularly aquatic species such as river herring. This year, as part of the Sustainable Water Management Initiative, a grant allowed for a report on water use operations of Silver Lake and the nearby Monponsett Ponds. Its conclusions were that the present use is not sustainable and is detrimentally impacting the ecological health of the river, meaning that more water is needed to flow in the Jones. The completion of this report is an important step in returning enough water to the Jones for fish to flourish and the ecosystem as a whole to thrive.

 

Plantings on the restored stream bank by the former
Whittenton dam in the Taunton watershed.

Free Flowing Water. This year saw much headway on projects to remove outdated dams that block the flow of water, form obstructions to river herring and other migratory fish and trap stagnant water. For instance, in the Taunton watershed, after 170 years in place, the Whittenton dam came down and its waters were released back into the original channel. Within weeks, a crew rebuilt its stream banks and replanted the wetlands. It is the second of three dams along the Mill River to be removed. Once the third is gone, an unprecedented 30 miles of habitat will be opened up to migratory fish like river herring and American Eel. Other benefits of this project are the elimination of the risk of catastrophic flooding from a breach of the dam and new recreational opportunities for residents.

This is just a smattering of all of the work done by watershed associations in 2013. The member organizations of Watershed Action Alliance work for you to protect water resources and the wildlife that depends upon them and to provide opportunities for water recreation. Join your association to support their work. To find your watershed association, visit http://watershedaction.org.

Did you Know? Keeping Watersheds Healthy as the Climate Changes

By Dorie Stolley, Watershed Action Alliance Coordinator and Outreach Manager

Raining cats and dogs

Does it seem like rain is falling harder these days compared to year past? It’s not an illusion. Here in New England, it’s raining more and with greater intensity due to climate change. Between 1960 and 2010, the total amount of precipitation we receive in Massachusetts in one year increased by about 10%. In Boston, that has meant a change from 40 to 45 inches, and over time more of that precipitation is coming in heavy downpours.  

This presents a challenge to maintaining healthy watersheds. Big, heavy raindrops slamming down forcefully on bare dirt wash a lot of soil into the waterways. Also, when a lot of rain falls in a short time, the ground is unable to absorb it all. The water runs off the surface, washing through lawns, yards and streets and down hills, picking up pollutants, sediment and trash as it heads toward our streams and rivers. And, if an area is mostly covered with asphalt and pavement, so-called impervious surfaces, runoff rates are even higher.  

There are important things to do in your backyard, in your town and in new developments to lessen the impacts of greater and heavier precipitation on water quality.

One of the most important strategies in your yard or in your town is to plant and maintain riparian buffers, dense planted areas next to streams and ponds. The vegetation breaks the force of the water as it falls preventing it from eroding as much soil. Buffers also slow the water’s rush downhill and filter out pollutants.

Rain garden next to Great Herring Pond in Plymouth, MA

Individual homeowners and municipalities can also maintain grassy swales, or vegetated ditches that run along contours, where water can collect during a storm, travel more slowly to waterways and percolate into the soil.  Another common tool is the rain garden, a depression in the soil planted with a variety of native plants to filter and uptake greater quantities of water while also beautifying an area and providing food for pollinating insects.

Wherever your town is considering allowing new developments, it is very important to keep climate change in mind to keep water quality high. Reducing the amount of allowable impervious surface promotes a healthy watershed. This can be done by clustering houses together and leaving natural areas free from development, which can then double as recreation amenities, such as hiking trails.

Want to find out more about your watershed? Visit: www.watershedaction.org

Did You Know? How to Keep Your Watershed Healthy in Autumn

Autumn colors along the Taunton River by Bharani Padmanabhan, MD, PhD 

There is nothing like the glorious New England fall foliage reflected in the crystal clear waters of our ponds and streams. Let’s make sure we keep our water clean and plentiful this autumn. Here are some easy ways for you to help your watershed during this time of year. Reduce the amount of water you put on your lawn and garden. Stop fertilizing your lawn until the spring (or forever). Pump out your septic tank. Clean up your pet’s waste. Join your local watershed association (Find yours at: www.watershedaction.org).

These easy actions help combat three common autumn issues in watersheds--low stream flow, eutrophication and bacterial contamination--and help to keep our waters beautiful and unpolluted.

Low stream flow means there is too little water in a stream, which might go completely dry, stranding fish in ever diminishing pools of water. This is not a pretty sight nor healthy.

More frequently, water is still visible in a stream, however, levels drop so low that fish and other wildlife have trouble traveling and completing critical stages in their life cycles. For instance, due to little rain and use of water in the summer, streams can drop too low for young river herring, hatched upstream in the summer, to migrate downstream to the ocean where they will grow to adulthood.

Everyone can help by conserving water in the summer and early fall, such as by using sprinkler systems in the early morning or evening rather than during midday when the heat will cause much of the water to evaporate.

In fact, this is such a simple, feasible and successful idea that the towns of Hingham, Hull and Cohasset, served by Aquarion Water Company, implemented mandatory water restrictions in early July to protect their water supply before it became critically low. Residents could only use sprinklers or irrigation systems every other day and only before 10 a.m. or after 6 p.m. North and South Rivers Watershed Association estimated that this simple procedure saved 30,000 gallons of water per day. This assured that residents would have water all summer long and that streams wouldn’t run dry. A double winner.

Eutrophication is another issue at this time of year. It happens when a water body receives too many nutrients, which causes explosive plant growth. When the plants die they sink to the bottom of the water body where bacteria feed on them. This process uses up the oxygen that is dissolved in the water, which can lead to fish kills. The excess nutrients are often a result of human activities. For example, fertilizer from farm fields or lawns, sewage from faulty septic systems or leaky sewer pipes and pet waste can all contribute to nutrient overloading in water bodies.

Fortunately, there are some easy ways for everyone to help solve this problem. These include: decreasing fertilizer on lawns (or not using any), getting septic tanks inspected and pumped on a regular schedule (every three to five years is recommended), and picking up pet waste.

The third watershed issue in the late summer and early autumn is bacterial contamination. Many beaches are closed to swimming in the summer because of high bacteria counts, which can continue into the fall, often not noticed because monitoring stops, beaches close for the season and fewer people are swimming. Bacteria in the water can cause many undesirable problems including eye, ear and stomach infections.

There are two important ways to help solve this problem: getting your septic tank pumped out on a regular schedule and picking up pet waste. Sound familiar? These actions both reduce bacterial contamination and nutrient overloading.

For more ways to help your watershed all year long, visit: http://watershedaction.org/index.php/take-action/at-home.