The Planning Board met on August 12 to discuss the water and storm water policy in Hopkinton with Representative Carolyn Dykema. Hopkinton is in the middle of developing its Master Plan for the town, and water has an impact on how Hopkinton can develop.
Dykema stated that there are many competing uses for water such as residential, commercial, conservation and growth, and that water is being shared across municipalities. The state’s role as they look at how to solve water issues will be to balance the needs for water and to make sure that each community has the amount of water they need, including the need for growth. Dykema referenced the Sustainable Water Management Initiative (SWMI) policy, which was created to find a way to balance the needs for water while recognizing that each community has different needs. The policy will allow communities to know how much water is needed for development projects and what a community would need to do to get the amount of water needed. The policy would look at different aspects such as water recharge and influent infiltration (INI), where water is lost through leaking pipes. Dykema then suggested that the Planning Board and other boards meet with DEP to discuss the water issue.
When asked if any estimates for the amount of water needed had been made, Planning Board Chairman Ken Weismantel stated that development projects are done privately which makes it hard to know what is needed. Weismantel stated that at the moment, developments in town are not able to receive town water. Weismantel also stated that the water department had been given a SWMI grant that mapped out the town and identified problem areas. During the study, it was found that the town could recharge 1,000 gallons of water per day. However, the cost for this on town-owned land would be $10,000.
Dykema stated that, as a whole, Massachusetts has more water than most states in the country.
“I think that access to water is going to be something we can sell as a state,” said Dykema.
Dykema then reiterated having a meeting with DEP to plan for future developments, and Weismantel agreed. Weismantel then pointed out some problems he had with the SWMI goals. In order for the water department to receive credit for storm water management, more records would need to be kept to show the process. The other issue was that the goals to reach were to return stream flow in mid-August to pre-pilgrim conditions. Dykema responded by saying that she did not think that was the intended goal or a realistic goal. Weismantel’s last concern was that SWMI would have developers build storm water management systems off-site. A potential solution to problems with storm water downtown is to have a collection district that will discharge into a pipe.
SWMI regulations will not be finalized until 2014 and there would be an open and public hearing process in the fall during which the town can make their concerns heard.
