Report says towns could share water in future
Aug. 11—HAMILTON — A new report says North Shore communities could literally connect with each other to help meet their future water needs.
The towns of Hamilton, Wenham, Ipswich, Manchester, Essex and Topsfield could build new water pipes and improve current ones to connect to each other, as well as to the Salem and Beverly Water Supply Board system, enabling them to share water based on their needs, the report said.
"It's a hopeful thing," Hamilton Town Manager Joseph Domelowicz Jr. said. "It's going to require a little more study and require the towns sitting down together and agreeing we all have to share in the sacrifices and the benefits of it."
The report, called the Regional Evaluation to Improve Water Supply Resiliency within the Lower Ipswich River Watershed, was commissioned by the town of Hamilton and the Ipswich River Watershed Association through a state grant. It comes at a time when the Ipswich River, which supplies drinking water for 350,000 people in 14 communities, is at its lowest point in years amid a drought. Last year a national conservation group named it one of the 10 most endangered rivers in the country.
Wayne Castonguay, executive director of the Ipswich River Watershed Association, said the report answers a question that officials and environmentalists have long been asking: "Is it feasible for all of the lower communities in the watershed to share water?"
The report estimated the cost of making and improving all of the connections at about $12.6 million. Hamilton's existing water system borders the other five towns and currently has interconnections with Ipswich, Essex and Wenham, placing it in the best position to serve as the hub for transferring water, the study said.
The report said it would cost $7.6 million to build a new connection between Hamilton and Beverly and $3.6 million to build a new connection between Hamilton and Topsfield. The cost to upgrade existing connections with Wenham, Ipswich and Essex would be about $1.4 million.
The interconnections would not increase the supply of water from the Ipswich River, but would enable communities to share water depending on their situations. When a town is not using all of the water up to its permitted withdrawal limit, it could share it with another town, Domelowicz said. In addition, the Salem and Beverly Water Board has a surplus of water due to its extensive reservoir system.
Castonguay said the new connections could be part of a longer-term solution that is being sought by the Ipswich River Resiliency Task Force, a group led by state Sen. Bruce Tarr, of Gloucester. The task force is planning to commission a larger study that will look at possible alternative sources of water, such as possibly tying into the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority or building a new reservoir in Topsfield on land owned by the Salem and Beverly Water Supply Board.
"That could be the real game-changer, if we find an alternative source that could be brought in and distributed amongst the towns," Castonguay said.
Salem and Beverly Water Supply Board Executive Director Alan Taubert said the report, conducted by Dewberry Engineers of Boston, shows that connecting the communities is "doable."
"The next step would be, is that good enough?" he said. "Right now everything's on the table. We have to be open to everything."
Staff Writer Paul Leighton can be reached at 978-338-2535, by email at pleighton@salemnews.com, or on Twitter at @heardinbeverly.
