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Public Works, Energy & Utilities Water mitigation plan boosts conservation effort
Mass Innovations, From The Beacon, October 2009
In Danvers, where efforts to conserve water go back at least two decades, a mitigation plan introduced in 2007 has served to strengthen the town’s campaign to make homes more water-efficient.
Danvers’ “Water Use Mitigation Plan,” sometimes referred to as a “water bank,” resulted from an agreement with the Department of Environmental Protection designed to relieve stress on the Ipswich River Watershed. While Danvers itself was already meeting state standards for daily water use, action was deemed necessary because the town also supplies water to neighboring Middleton, where the population has increased notably over the past decade.
The mitigation plan applies both to commercial development and to residential projects consisting of at least three units. Any showerheads, toilets, washing machines or dishwashers that are installed in these new structures are required to be energy- and water-efficient. If there is an in-ground irrigation system, it must include a rain- and moisture-sensing device.
The developer is also charged a fee that is roughly equivalent to $9 for each gallon of water that the new development will typically draw per day. The fees, designed to pay for mitigation efforts that will conserve roughly twice as much water as the new development will use, are deposited in a fund administered by the Public Works Department.
The fund is being used to expand a rebate program for water-saving devices that Danvers can offer residents as part of WaterSense, a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency program in which about 15 other Massachusetts municipalities and water districts also participate.
Previously, the town could afford to offer rebates of only $50 for products such as low-flow toilets and water-efficient washing machines, according to Pamela Irwin, customer service advisor for the town’s Water Division and a New England Waterworks Association board member. Thanks to the fees generated through the mitigation plan, Danvers is now able to triple some of its rebates.
“If you’re offering rebates in the $50 range, that may not be enough,” Irwin said. “But if your rebate is $150, that may make it possible to take things a step further.”
Danvers was the first Massachusetts city or town in almost a decade to create a mechanism for mitigating the impact of water needs resulting from new development. Weymouth introduced a water bank in the late 1990s after the DEP directed it to account for the impact of future growth on its water supply. While the Weymouth water bank has been in place for about a decade, such programs continue to be regarded as daunting, due to concerns about the potential impact on development and the possibility of legal challenges.
“You have to be very careful in how you structure the program and what you do to show the direct impact” of the fees collected, said Danvers Town Engineer Rick Rodgers, who helped set up the water mitigation plan.
Martha Duffield, the DPW official responsible for dealing with the questions and concerns of developers, said that it is important to make prospective builders aware of what will be expected of them.
“The earlier in the process that people are aware of the [mitigation plan’s] fees, the more it helps them to plan for them and budget for them,” Duffield said.
For more information, contact Rick Rodgers at (978) 777-2668, ext. 637.
Public Works, Energy & Utilities Water mitigation plan boosts conservation effort
Water mitigation plan boosts conservation effort
Mass Innovations, From The Beacon, October 2009
In Danvers, where efforts to conserve water go back at least two decades, a mitigation plan introduced in 2007 has served to strengthen the town’s campaign to make homes more water-efficient.
Danvers’ “Water Use Mitigation Plan,” sometimes referred to as a “water bank,” resulted from an agreement with the Department of Environmental Protection designed to relieve stress on the Ipswich River Watershed. While Danvers itself was already meeting state standards for daily water use, action was deemed necessary because the town also supplies water to neighboring Middleton, where the population has increased notably over the past decade.
The mitigation plan applies both to commercial development and to residential projects consisting of at least three units. Any showerheads, toilets, washing machines or dishwashers that are installed in these new structures are required to be energy- and water-efficient. If there is an in-ground irrigation system, it must include a rain- and moisture-sensing device.
The developer is also charged a fee that is roughly equivalent to $9 for each gallon of water that the new development will typically draw per day. The fees, designed to pay for mitigation efforts that will conserve roughly twice as much water as the new development will use, are deposited in a fund administered by the Public Works Department.
The fund is being used to expand a rebate program for water-saving devices that Danvers can offer residents as part of WaterSense, a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency program in which about 15 other Massachusetts municipalities and water districts also participate.
Previously, the town could afford to offer rebates of only $50 for products such as low-flow toilets and water-efficient washing machines, according to Pamela Irwin, customer service advisor for the town’s Water Division and a New England Waterworks Association board member. Thanks to the fees generated through the mitigation plan, Danvers is now able to triple some of its rebates.
“If you’re offering rebates in the $50 range, that may not be enough,” Irwin said. “But if your rebate is $150, that may make it possible to take things a step further.”
Danvers was the first Massachusetts city or town in almost a decade to create a mechanism for mitigating the impact of water needs resulting from new development. Weymouth introduced a water bank in the late 1990s after the DEP directed it to account for the impact of future growth on its water supply. While the Weymouth water bank has been in place for about a decade, such programs continue to be regarded as daunting, due to concerns about the potential impact on development and the possibility of legal challenges.
“You have to be very careful in how you structure the program and what you do to show the direct impact” of the fees collected, said Danvers Town Engineer Rick Rodgers, who helped set up the water mitigation plan.
Martha Duffield, the DPW official responsible for dealing with the questions and concerns of developers, said that it is important to make prospective builders aware of what will be expected of them.
“The earlier in the process that people are aware of the [mitigation plan’s] fees, the more it helps them to plan for them and budget for them,” Duffield said.
For more information, contact Rick Rodgers at (978) 777-2668, ext. 637.
Written by MMA Associate Editor Mitch Evich
