To the MWRA Board of Directors: We understand the goals and mission of the MWRA; that is, to provide clean drinking water and sewage disposal to member communities, economically and efficiently. You perform that service very well. With the help of our fierce and devoted legislators, the Quabbin watershed communities ask to be recognized as full stakeholders in the MWRA organization, as we supply the raw water that you rely on to serve your customers and maintain your operations.
That recognition must include a meaningful seat at the table and fair compensation for watershed communities that continue to bear the responsibilities and restrictions created by the Quabbin system.
MWRA member communities enjoy abundant clean drinking water at wholesale cost, apparently unaffected by drought, even as watershed communities have endured drought conditions for over a year. Our wells are dry, lawns and gardens are drying up, and we face restrictions while MWRA customers can still water lawns, wash cars, and benefit from planned system expansion.
The advantages do not stop with water supply. The MWRA funds and manages infrastructure construction and provides low- or no-interest loans to member communities. Our small towns receive no such support: we bear the sole responsibility to secure engineering firms, obtain funding, manage repairs, and implement important water and sewer projects. We must compete for grants and earmarks because taxpayer dollars alone are not sufficient.
The present-day inequities rest on a much older sacrifice. Four towns were wiped off the map to create Quabbin, and all homes, farms, businesses, churches, and schools were removed or destroyed. More than 7,500 bodies were disinterred and moved to a central location outside the watershed. More than 2,500 people were forced to leave their homes, farms, businesses, and communities, my father’s family among them.
The surrounding towns remain responsible for protecting the seized land and its watershed from development, fire, and vandalism, even as you help yourselves to our water.
In your Belchertown meeting last Friday, you heard directly from watershed communities about the ongoing challenges created by the Quabbin and by the responsibilities that followed.
The MWRA relies on water diverted from our basins. We saw you sitting with stony faces and backs turned to the audience in Belchertown, but we are done being sidelined. We are not going anywhere. We will continue to press until watershed communities are fully seated at the table and fairly compensated.
Jane Peirce lives in Orange.