BCAT News

Burlington is sending a representative to an area task force looking to find solutions to water supply issues in the Ipswich River. 

On Monday, the Burlington Select Board voted to make Conservation Administrator John Keeley the town’s representative on the North Shore Water Resilience Task Force, which aims to identify and advance long-term solutions to improve water supply resilience and ecosystem health in the Ipswich River Watershed. 

Keeley said the Ipswich River is in dire straits and all communities that either are adjacent to it or draw from it should be working on maintaining the health of the waterway. 

“The Ipswich River Watershed is one of the most endangered rivers in the United States because it doesn’t really have enough water to supply the needs of all the communities that draw from it,” he said. “And it’s a lot of communities, and big communities like Salem and Beverly.”

Keeley added that Burlington itself does not draw from the watershed but noted the river begins in town.  

“We’re in the watershed but we don’t take any water from it but they’re still looking for our representation,” he said. “They’re trying to figure out ways of preserving the flows of the river and keeping the ecological health of the river along with providing the water to the communities that it provides drinking water for.” 

Here are some ways the task force is looking to accomplish its mission to advance long-term solutions to improve water supply resilience and ecosystem health:

• Working to understand one another’s important challenges and goals; 
• Engaging in meaningful and in good faith in discussions determined by the group as key to regional success; 
• Working to reach a common understand of the best potential solutions to achieve water supply resilience and ecosystem health; and 
• Seeking full consensus on actions to support the most promising solutions. 

The task force will look to answer such questions as: 

• Can the regional Improve water resource resilience and long-term supply security/sufficiency through a more robust interconnected network? Can an Integrated Water Resource Planning approach be a part of the solution? 
• What is the feasibility and desirability of bringing additional water to Ipswich-reliant communities from adjacent watersheds? 
• What is the feasibility and desirability of bringing in more MWRA water as part of the solution? 
• What is the feasibility and desirability of desalination in the region? 
• How can the region most productively spend earmarked money available for task force efforts in fiscal year 2022?