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.

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.  

Currently, water supplier data required by the Water Management Act and reported to the MA DEP through Annual Statistical Reports is available only by visiting a DEP office and photocopying the paper reports.  While DEP maintains some usage data in electronic format, these data are not available online, and DEP staff do not maintain historical data. 

32.a    DEP should be provided with funding to make all non-restricted statistical data available on line

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

The US Geological Survey has completed hydrologic studies of a limited number of watersheds in Eastern Massachusetts, including the Ipswich, Upper Charles, and portions of the SuAsCo.  These hydrologic studies provide a platform for analysis of alternative growth and water supply alternatives.  Additional funding and support is needed to create more watershed models and to integrate the findings into comprehensive water resource planning at the local/subregional level and into the withdrawal permitting process.  

In 2008, MassDEP proposed a new set of regulations governing the permitting and operation of reclaimed water in Massachusetts, 314 CMR 20.00, entitled “Reclaimed Water Permit Program and Standards Regulations.”  These regulations reflect national experience in reclaimed water, MassDEP’s experience since the implementation of its Interim Guidelines on Reclaimed Water in 2000, as well as research and input from a MassDEP’s Water Reuse Task Force.  

Excessive pressure in water service connections can waste considerable amounts of water.  The Massachusetts plumbing code (248 CMR 10.14(g) Excessive Water Pressure) requires that a pressure reducing valve be installed on the water service connection to a building when the pressure is eighty (80) pounds per square inch (psi) or greater. Maintaining water pressure within the regulatory limit conserves water.

Even if water users understand the need for water conservation and know that they should be using more efficient technology inside, more water-conserving landscaping, and fewer, more efficient irrigation systems, the cost and/or the effort associated with obtaining replacements for their existing materials may be enough to prevent or delay them from doing so.  To reduce the burden on the consumer, municipalities or water utilities can offer rebates, vouchers, or can provide the materials themselves.  This reduces the customer’s investment by paying all or some of the costs o