The Watering Hole

This website, OneWater, is premised on a belief that the availability of quality drinking water is not a “right” per se. Rather it is a privilege – a privilege of geographic location, local, state, and national governance, and a savvy public. The four projects that have been recently added to OneWater expand our knowledge about how the Plymouth Carver sole source aquifer does its job and provide a litmus test to its health.

Who provides the "sole source" designation?

The determination “sole source” was issued on July 31, 1990, by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The determination acknowledges “(1) the  near total dependence of the residents on the aquifer's ground water for their drinking water supply; (2) the fact that there are no reasonably available alternative sources of water, and that proper boundaries have been delineated; (3) growth and development in the Plymouth-Carver region threaten the continued purity of the resource; and (4) the Plymouth-Carver Aquifer's designation as a sole source aquifer would heighten public awareness of the vulnerability of the resource and would encourage further protection efforts.” The quantity of water and the quality of water in the aquifer are the main determinants to its health. In different ways the projects that have been added to OneWater invite us to learn about how the aquifer functions and what we can do individually and as a town to protect it.

The Saltwater Freshwater Interface: Models and Scenarios

Hydrology of Coastal Aquifers of Southeast Massachusetts: Assessment of the impacts of the combined effects of sea level rise and terrestrial climate change and Assessment of groundwater flooding across the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, are led by Dr. David Boutt, Professor of Geosciences at University of Massachusetts – Amherst. The first of these seeks to develop an updated groundwater flow model for the aquifer, simulate freshwater/saltwater interaction, and incorporate scenarios for saltwater inundation (SWI) and sea level rise (SLR) in order to predict future risks associated with sea level rise and climate change.The slide below is from a presentation given by Dr. Boutt and his team to the SWI Task Force on November 21, 2022. The presentation is available for download here; a video of the presentation can be viewed here. Expect updates at least once a month over through June.

Citizen Science: High School Students Monitor Impact of Salinity Following Large Storm Events

The project Pond Water Sampling at Center Hill represents a citizen science effort to monitor salinity in the pond-groundwater complex of Center Hill Preserve and to explore the correlation between salinity and extreme weather events. For the past two years, interns from Rising Tide Charter School have collected water samples and processed them for salinity. On November 4th, I accompanied Alannah Kelliher as she collected water samples from the Center Hill Ponds and Black Pond and analyzed them for salinity. Expect regular posts, and a report interpreting the data collected this fall.

Blog Highlights Challenges for Land Use and Governance

The Community Land and Water Coalition Blog – Plymouth Updates (CLWCB-Plymouth) draws from the larger news aggregation project, the Community Land and Water Coalition blog (CLWCB). The Community Land and Water Coalition is a "statewide network of groups and individuals taking action to protect our land and water to insure a livable future for all life on earth." This blog highlights land use projects that may threaten the Plymouth Carver aquifer and that in some cases are permit challenged while in other cases receive permits that seem questionable given limitations of the Plymouth Carver sole source aquifer. The project raises issues related to governance and due process, and seeks to encourage citizens to learn about and to do what they can to protect what is a critical but limited natural resource for the region. Expect updates on the Claremont Development that has been permitted in West Plymouth and other stories that potentially challenge the quantity and quality of our sole source aquifer. .