Lynnfield Center Water District (LCWD) meetings don’t attract the same attention from town residents as Town Meeting or School Committee sessions. But the District’s May 10 Board of Commissioners meeting matters to anyone in town who waters a lawn or garden.
The LCWD is considering a plan to negotiate a water system connection with the Town of Wakefield that would allow the district to pipe in Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA) water through Wakefield’s water system.
Under the proposed Wakefield partnership, LCWD and Wakefield would connect water systems at Bay State Road and Main Street.
To match water demand, the LCWD has been forced to institute conservation measures restricting summer watering. These measures reached a critical point this past summer with the pandemic keeping more people at home and water use levels eclipsing higher-than-average levels.
The agenda for the 6 p.m. meeting at the high school includes Article 18, which asks ratepayers to approve borrowing money to pay for the Wakefield connection.
The LCWD’s website states that drawing on MWRA waters will add up to 250 gallons per minute to the district’s supply, improving flow and water pressure. “This would supplement existing supply by nearly 25 percent,” states the website.
The connection plan with its nearly-$2 million price tag, has attracted critics who warn that drawing water from the MWRA means paying MWRA prices for water, without any guarantee that Lynnfield’s water needs will be completely met during the summer drought season.
More technical criticisms urge the LCWD to ensure combining district and MWRA water won’t result in mixing two different types of chemicals used to treat water for drinking.
The LCWD deserves praise for reaching beyond its jurisdiction to proactively solve local water shortages. The Wakefield connection is a complicated and expensive plan, and we hope residents turn out in force on May 10 to question commissioners about the Wakefield/MWRA alliance.
We hope they will also raise broader questions that ultimately cannot be answered by the LCWD board alone. Development in Lynnfield and the town’s relatively heavy reliance on wellfields for water merit discussions on local water use and supply stretching out well beyond 10 years.
The LCWD’s proposal to meet local water needs with help from a neighboring town underscore the reality that water demand and supply are regional concerns, which are likely to intensify if Eastern Massachusetts’ population and development accelerate.
The May 10 meeting is an important first step to discussing a concern that extends well beyond Lynnfield’s borders.
