In Pursuit of Water/Wastewater Infrastructure Funding

Procuring water and wastewater infrastructure funding for communities and the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA) is priority number one for the Advisory Board.  

Staff submitted testimony to the Joint Committee on Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture outlining critical components that must be part of any Infrastructure Bill. The Advisory Board is advocating for a bill that contains the following:

1) There must be a dedicated fund set aside for Massachusetts communities, water and sewer districts and authorities such as the MWRA to draw from.

2)  The pool of funds needs to be large enough to make a dent in the funding gap.

3)  As the bill looks to address future funding needs, it must also look back at the commitment and sacrifice that ratepayers have made and continue to make in areas such as the MWRA service area.  The bill must include Debt Service Assistance, which was/is the main tenet of the Commonwealth Sewer Rate Relief Fund, which in its peak funding year was greater than $50 million and today (FY14 State Budget) is set at $1 million statewide.

4)  The bill must set aside a portion of the dedicated funding to assist communities to replace and/or extend water/wastewater infrastructures to allow for immediate economic development, which would benefit not only the local community, but also the entire Commonwealth.

We will be working closely with the MWRA Legislative Caucus and its leaders, Rep. Ron Mariano and Sen. Anthony Petruccelli to ensure these priorities are included in the bill.

Last week the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued the draft Clinton National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Permit for the Clinton Wastewater Treatment Plant.  

Staff is currently reviewing the permit specifically as it relates to co-permittee language, increases to community I/I requirements and Collection and Maintenance Plan reporting.

The Clinton permit is the precursor to the Deer Island Treatment Plant NPDES permit. 

The MWRA has requested, and EPA granted, a 30-day extension on the comment period.  Advisory Board staff will keep you apprised of any actions that might be warranted. 

DCR Relaunches Watershed Forestry Program

The Advisory Board has pushed hard to restart the Watershed Forestry Program.  

The Forestry Program is a critical piece of watershed protection, as well as providing an offset to watershed budget expenses.  

MWRA Advisory Board Chair Katherine Dunphy and Executive Director Joe Favaloro recently toured the forestry operations at the Quabbin.  

In their press release, the Department of Conservation and Recreation acknowledged the timeline and approach to relaunching the Forestry Program.

2013 Water and Sewer Retail Rate Survey

Thank you to all who have returned your questionnaire for this year's Retail Rate Survey!  Each year your responses make possible our most requested document.  To date, the Advisory Board has received only 60% of the MWRA communities' information.  If you haven't yet returned your completed questionnaire, please do so as soon as possible. Please contact us at mwra.ab@mwraadvisoryboard.com if you need a new copy to fill out. 

Update Your Contacts!

The Advisory Board is pleased to announce that it has updated staff email addresses to distinguish itself from the MWRA.  You can now email everyone in our office with the format FirstName.LastName@mwraadvisoryboard.com.  

Don't worry though - all of our old email addresses still forward to our inboxes so you can reach us no matter what!