Saugus River advocates join battle vs. new state water withdrawal policy

LYNN – The Saugus River Watershed Council – an advocacy group formed to protect the 13-mile long waterway that is Lynn’s primary drinking water source – on Monday denounced a new state policy for managing water withdrawals.Gov. Deval Patrick, the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs and the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) last week unveiled a new approach to managing water withdrawals by redefining “safe yield” – the amount of water that can be drawn from a river. Under the revised definition, the term no longer takes into account conditions that would protect fish. Rather, it uses drought conditions as its measure of fish sustainability.”The new policy could undermine all the work being doing at the local level to monitor and restore historic fisheries such as rainbow smelt in the Saugus River watershed,” said Joan LeBlanc, executive director of the Saugus River Watershed Council. “Defining ‘safe yield’ as drought conditions makes no sense and completely ignores the goal of protecting a river’s natural resources. Until now, ‘safe yield’ has meant maintaining a level of water flow needed to protect fish in a river. During drought conditions, fish are often killed when segments of the Saugus River dry out and they become stranded. Clearly, those conditions are not safe for fish.”According to LeBlanc, the new policy couldn’t come at a worse time. “Our river systems are becoming more and more stressed by extended dry periods and sporadic weather conditions associated with climate change. Unfortunately, the state has dropped the ball on environmental protection for rivers at a time when we need strong environmental leadership the most,” she said.The Saugus River council is “adamantly opposed” to the state’s new Integrated Water Initiative, a policy LeBlanc described as “a huge mistake.””We hope Gov. Patrick and his environmental team will drop the new policy and develop an approach that will protect the natural resources of the Saugus River and other watersheds throughout the state,” she said.Daniel O’Neill, executive director of the Lynn Water & Sewer Commission, said the commission has a 10-year water registration, issued by the state in 2008, rather than a water withdrawal permit. The new policy applies to communities with permits, he said, adding that the LWSC shares many of the same goals and objectives as the environmental advocacy groups, four of which resigned in protest last week from the DEP’s Water Resources Management Advisory Committee.The Saugus River headwaters begin as an underground spring at Lake Quannapowitt in Wakefield. The river passes through Saugus and Lynn before emptying into the Rumney Marsh and Pines River estuary and, ultimately, the Atlantic Ocean at the Gen. Edwards Bridge on the Lynn-Revere line. The watershed encompasses all or part of 11 communities – Everett, Lynn, Lynnfield, Malden, Melrose, Peabody, Reading, Revere, Saugus, Stoneham and Wakefield.