Quabbin region being studied for expansion

Western towns could see benefit

As House Democrats eye the expansion of its public drinking water service area, the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority is considering whether the communities where that water comes from should finally get to reap the benefits of the system.

The MWRA board is undertaking a preliminary study to direct water from the Quabbin Reservoir -- which provides Boston and other eastern Massachusetts communities with drinking water -- to the western to the value,” Senator Jo Comerford Mass. towns that surround and of Northampton said last protect the reservoir. year.

The agency currently provides Comerford and Representative wholesale water and sewer Aaron Saunders of Belchertown services to 3.1 million people filed a bill that would impose and more than 5,500 businesses a 5-cent per 1,000 gallon in 61 communities in eastern excise on Quabbin water. The and central Massachusetts, lawmakers estimate the tax though the system’s primary would produce $3.5 million, source, the Quabbin Reservoir, which would be directed to lies in the western part of the Quabbin watershed communities state. and local nonprofits with a

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“The Quabbin Reservoir focus on these towns’ health, provides life for eastern Massachusetts welfare, safety, and transit. and allows the eastern That bill would also mandate part of the state to grow and expand that the MWRA explore -- and yet for far too long, opportunities to expand into far too long, the recompense new communities in the Quabbin for towns that steward this water watershed, as well as towns has been a pittance relative in the Westfield River, Chicopee

River, Connecticut River, and Millers River Valley basins. The bill is currently in a gray area as the Senate waits for the House to agree on whether to extend its reporting deadline until June.

The study the MWRA is considering would expand the water service to Ludlow, Belchertown, Ware, Hardwick, Barre, Petersham, Phillipston, New Salem, Orange, Wendell, Shutesbury, and Pelham.

Some lawmakers, however, say the preliminary study is not ambitious enough.

Board members said they had met with some western Massachusetts lawmakers who think the MWRA should explore a broader scope, including some of the larger communities in western Massachusetts.

“I think the staff is viewing this as kind of the first good step,” said Colleen Rizzi, director of environmental and regulatory affairs at the MWRA. “And that’s to look at the communities right in and around the Quabbin itself, see what’s viable, what’s feasible before extending that to a larger geography.”

The expansion study, set to be completed by the end of 2024, will add to a growing pile of ways the MWRA has looked to expand its service.