As much as 55,000 gallons of precipitation falls on a 2,000 square foot roof in New England each year, approximately the same amount of water that would be used by three people living in a water-efficient home.

Encourage water reuse through state programs such as Massachusetts School Building Authority, state revolving loan fund (SRF), redevelopment of surplus land, and state building projects.

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Municipal boards and water suppliers should condition connection permits and development approval on evaluation of the potential for the reuse of treated wastewater in new developments, for toilet flushing, landscape irrigation, or industrial processes. 

27.a    The Executive Office of Environmental Affairs should require evaluation of water reuse for large projects through the MEPA process

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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.