Who draws water from the Ipswich River? Who makes that decision?
Fourteen communities draw all or part of their water supply from the Ipswich River Watershed: Beverly, Danvers, Hamilton, Ipswich, Lynn, Lynnfield, Middleton, North Reading, Peabody, Reading, Salem, Topsfield, Wenham and Wilmington. These communities are currently authorized to pump a total of almost 37 million gallons a day from the river, reservoirs and wells, according to the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). DEP regulates large water withdrawals (100,000 gallons per day or more), under the Water Management Act. Water withdrawals that had been established prior to the passage of that law (in 1986) were essentially “grandfathered” through a registration process with DEP. The law allows permitting of additional water withdrawals, above these “registered volumes,” only if the “safe yield” of the water source is not exceeded. The law requires that the interests of the Act be protected in a balanced way. Despite this mandatory provision, the registrations in the
