MAPC and state agencies can help to identify water reuse pilot projects and provide technical assistance to developers, municipalities, and water utilities.  EOEEA should work proactively with communities, businesses and institutions to promote reclaimed water use projects by helping communities to identify specific water reuse sites such as ballparks, golf courses, malls, and other commercial developments. 

Capturing material that can be diverted from disposal requires the active participation of those who generate waste – the residents and businesses of Metro Boston.   Making it convenient for them to separate and recycle or compost waste is essential to increasing diversion.  This means designing convenient waste management into new and retrofitted buildings, developments, and municipal infrastructure.

Price signals influence decision making and behavior at each stage in the path that discarded material takes to reuse, recycling, composting, or disposal.  Current signals often incentivize disposal, or fail to differentiate between disposal and diversion even when there is a significant fiscal benefit from diversion.  Changing these price signals for those who do not otherwise experience them would yield significant additional diversion.

The zoning measures described above can protect water resources from the impacts of new development, but zoning grandfathers existing development.  Yet many communities have existing patterns of development already located within aquifer and watershed areas.  In order to regulate these existing land uses, communities may implement non-zoning or “general” bylaws and ordinances or other local controls such as Board of Health regulations.

Cities and towns, through their home rule powers, hold the key to protecting the long-term quality of their drinking water supplies.  The federal Safe Drinking Water Act establishes the maximum levels of contaminants allowed in public water supplies to meet public health needs, but achieving those quality standards is largely a local responsibility.

Septic management programs involve monitoring, testing, and required maintenance of private septic systems in order to improve performance and extend life span.  These programs help to protect water quality and prevent widespread system failure, deferring or eliminating the need to extend sewer to neighborhoods with failing septic systems.  

Stormwater bylaws and ordinances grant a municipality the authority to establish standards for discharge of stormwater runoff.  These controls can be structured to promote Low Impact Development, minimizing site alteration and stormwater pollution.  Numerous municipalities in the region have already adopted stormwater regulation; there are numerous models available and lessons learned regarding adoption and implementation.  It is necessary to catalog the bylaws that have been adopted and to develop a next generation of model bylaws.  

A water bank is a system of accounting and paying for measures that offset or mitigate water losses due to water withdrawals, sewering, and/or increased impervious areas that prevent aquifer recharge.  The purpose of a water bank is to provide a water supplier with the resources necessary to mitigate the demands of new development through conservation, leak detection, education, or infrastructure improvements.  For example, a water banking program might require that new connections or increased demands be mitigated through payment into a fund, proportional to the amount of water r

Municipal stormwater systems epitomize the concept of “stranded infrastructure.”  Unlike water and sewer systems, there is no dedicated funding stream to ensure adequate maintenance of stormwater systems.  Capital funding (grants, bonds, or developer mitigation) pays for new infrastructure, but constrained tax revenues and competing priorities mean that public works departments are under resourced.  Municipal staff are unable to conduct routine maintenance such as cleaning catch basins, repairing pipe, or removing blockages, resulting in lower pollutant removal an

Water audits offer detailed information to targeted classes of users.   An audit includes a customer-specific on-site survey of water usage patterns and specific recommendations for increasing water efficiency.  It may also involved distributing and/or installing water-saving devices.  Audits can be conducted for both indoor and outdoor use for residential and nonresidential customers.