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.