May 27, 2025​

Secretary Rebecca Tepper

Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs
Chair, Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA) Board of Directors

Dear Secretary Tepper and Members of the MWRA Board of Directors,

To commemorate the nearly 100-year anniversaries of the passage of the Ware River
Act (1926) and the Swift River Act (1927) which sealed the fate of our region, we write
to you as community members in the Quabbin watershed, representing watershed
communities.

Every day our towns and our neighbors provide environmental stewardship — largely
through volunteer labor — on which the MWRA relies. Our zoning and environmental
conservation practices, articulated in law and regulation, are based on ensuring water
quality protection for our communities and for the Quabbin.

The east and west branches of the Swift River, the Ware River, and the surrounding
tributaries are protected from development so that as they flow into the Quabbin, water
quality is preserved.

Every day of the year, for 87 years, our towns have stewarded the water that you sell,
but not to us. Our communities have no access, even though we face significant potable
water concerns of our own.

Expansion of the MWRA water system is a profitable enterprise in every way

imaginable.

As economic growth and residential development continue in the metro Boston area
and beyond, our towns remain small, our budgets stretched way too thin — without
commercial or industrial development.
The ability to sell water to communities with public well contamination or to large
multi-use developments on the South Shore is made possible by the existence and
preservation of high quality Quabbin water. There is an expectation that this water will
always be available. When there is a declared statewide drought, and our communities
are conserving water, the MWRA allows all of its full water users to continue using
Quabbin water for outdoor watering. Western Massachusetts streams can run dry, river
health can decline, and Quabbin reservoir levels can decrease, but clean water
continues to be transported and treated each day to eastern communities.

Our community voices are woefully underrepresented on both the MWRA Board of
Directors and Advisory Board. The ability of the MWRA to continue selling Quabbin
water demands the acknowledgement that the Quabbin watershed towns are an
essential partner in preserving this resource for the future. It also underscores that we
must receive just recompense for our work and sacrifice.

Our Select Boards, planning commissions, public health boards, conservation

commissions, and more all do their part — and have, again, for 87 years.

The MWRA will continue to maintain the infrastructure to move and treat the water, and
the Department of Conservation & Recreation (DCR) will continue to monitor public use
of the watershed. Our towns that surround the Quabbin will continue, every day, to
protect this land and water for the years ahead.

The following are remarks from town officials and individuals from Quabbin watershed
towns which help to illustrate the complexities and sacrifices our communities make:

Bob Agoglia, Pelham Select Board Chair

Pelham’s 1,341 residents have consistently supported restrictions in zoning and other
forms of regulation to protect the quality of water for private wells and watersheds,
including of course, the Quabbin Reservoir. The volunteers who serve on our boards
and committees have committed many hours to creating and enforcing these
protections year after year. Working together with the other Quabbin Reservoir
bordering towns and the MWRA we have helped to maintain the pristine quality of the
water that millions of people in eastern Massachusetts depend on. In addition, Pelham
has had to forgo opportunities for growth that could enhance our financial picture
because many acres of desirable land are protected in the Quabbin watershed. These
significant contributions should be recognized and valued by the MWRA. One important
way to acknowledge what we contribute is to dedicate funding in a fair and equitable
manner to support the bordering towns.

Judith Eiseman, Pelham Planning Board Chair

Each of our towns has issues that result in the need for help with finances. Pelham, for
example, recognized decades ago that its unique geological situation required action to
protect the water resources within its own borders for our own private wells but also
because Pelham is watershed for Shutesbury, Amherst, Belchertown, Springfield, and
the Quabbin. Creating a Water Supply Protection Area that covers the entire town
prevented some sorts of business as well as large scale development from happening
here. Protecting our residents’ as well as other towns’ water has resulted in higher taxes
but not necessarily sufficient revenue to pay our public employees for highway, police,
and fire protection that they deserve. All of this is a good thing for the environment and
for water supply but goes unacknowledged by all the beneficiaries of our forward
thinking and economic sacrifice.

Rita Farrell, Shutesbury Select Board Co-Chair, and Eric Stocker, Shutesbury
Select Board Member

Shutesbury is a town that borders the Quabbin Reservoir. We have a population of just
over 1700 people. Approximately 30% of our land is owned and controlled by the
Quabbin. We have no municipal water supply and have worked diligently over the last
two decades to adopt strict wetlands and watershed protections that benefit not only our
town residents but also our Quabbin neighbors. Four years ago “forever chemical”
polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) were detected in wells in the center of town as a
result of our local Fire Department using foam containing PFAS for putting out “practice”
fires. This seemingly widespread, innocent practice has contaminated about 80 wells in
Shutesbury. As of this writing, our small town has had to spend nearly $700,000 to
temporarily mediate the situation. These costs are ongoing as we are required to do
quarterly testing which is expensive and time consuming. It is within the realm of
possibility that we will eventually need to install a municipal water system to at least part
of the town at a cost of millions of dollars. It is ironic that one of the watershed towns
that has worked for decades to protect the water for our fellow citizens from the eastern
part of the Commonwealth will go broke trying to keep water for its own townspeople
potable.
Susan Cloutier, Rick Taupier, and Mailande DeWitt, New Salem Select Board
Members

We in New Salem agree that our Quabbin watershed towns have carried out significant
stewardship responsibilities beyond the limits of the watershed owned by the
Commonwealth. We protect the water from degradation through zoning, wetlands
protection, and placement of land under development restrictions, further limiting tax
revenues. Providing that safe landscape beyond the limits of the State-owned
watershed ensures clean drinking water for eastern Massachusetts.

Boston and surrounding towns that take water from Quabbin are towns with a tax base
that provides funds for well-maintained town buildings and grounds, enough money to
pay employees competitive salaries, and maintain roads adequate to local needs.
Towns that provide that water are forced to survive with few employees and with
volunteers without whom that stewardship would not occur. Our actions enable the
ecosystem services of forests and fields to keep the Quabbin waters clean. We give up
the additional revenues of businesses or housing density that would bring more revenue
but could impact water quality. We seek compensatory support from the State for our
many years of stewardship so that we too can enjoy the quality of life that comes from a
well maintained municipality.

Susan Dougherty, Petersham Select Board Chair

The Town of Petersham is almost entirely within the Quabbin Reservoir Watershed with
significant conservation efforts in place to safeguard the water quality. With such a large
portion of the town now covered by water (approximately 20%) or under conservation
mandates, the town struggles to provide adequate services for residents due to a
decreased tax base. In essence, the town relies on PILOT payments in order to
preserve basic services such as fire protection, policing, road maintenance, and
schooling. Our Conservation Commission, which enforces Wetlands Protection Act
regulations (amongst other duties), is entirely unpaid. The Town of Petersham seeks
financial support from the State and MWRA in order to continue to safeguard this
valuable resource and provide a safe environment for our community.
Jane Peirce, Orange Select Board Member
The Town of Orange enforces strict protection of the watershed land within our
boundaries, particularly in the area of Lake Mattawa. We have highly efficient, 24/7
Advanced Life Support (ALS) fire and police departments, both of which ensure optimal
response to emergencies in Orange and surrounding watershed towns. We are mindful
of resource protection in our planning, zoning, open space, and recreation strategies.
Meanwhile, the challenges facing our town are great, including the need for critical
funding to upgrade our wastewater infrastructure and wastewater treatment plant.
As I write, an unnamed branch of the Swift River runs through my woods, past blooming
lady slippers and skunk cabbage and rolling onward through cool green forest until it
reaches the mighty Quabbin. My dad was of the sixth generation of Peirces to live in the
Swift River Valley. He and his parents were among the very last to leave their beloved
home in Greenwich. So many of us can tell similar stories about how our families were
uprooted to create a water supply for Boston. We ask for acknowledgement of that
sacrifice, and just recompense for our contribution to clean water.
William Tinker, Hardwick Select Board Vice Chair
For nearly a century, the towns surrounding the Quabbin Reservoir — including
Hardwick — have sacrificed land, economic opportunity, and essential services to
safeguard this vital resource. Yet despite their stewardship, these communities receive
little support from the Commonwealth. For 84 years, Hardwick and neighboring towns
have shouldered the burden of maintaining one of the cleanest water supplies in the
country — without fair compensation, recognition, or relief. The Commonwealth has
drawn billions of gallons from our lands while the communities that protect it are left
struggling. Our residents act as unpaid guardians of the Quabbin, preserving its purity
for millions of others.
Hardwick is a working community with Revolutionary roots and generations of farmers
and families who’ve honored our duty to the Quabbin. But the Commonwealth has
forgotten us. Our community has been hollowed out — our ambulance service is gone;
our police station is in another town; we have no hospital, emergency care center, or
senior center; our roads crumble; and our infrastructure fails.
Recently, Hardwick was offered $2 million annually to host a 150-acre regional landfill
just miles from the Quabbin. A clear threat to the reservoir. We stood up and said no —
even though Boston had no idea we were being asked to make that choice. But we’re
broke. What happens when the next offer is $5 million or $10 million? What happens
when the weight of generational neglect outweighs principle?​
​
Bill Zinni, Hardwick Conservation Commission Chair, and Erik Fleming, Hardwick
Planning Board Member
The Town of Hardwick stands with our neighboring Quabbin Reservoir border towns, in
expressing continuing concern for fair compensation, for the custodial responsibility of
ensuring future water quality of this critical water supply for eastern Massachusetts. The
water that fills the Quabbin runs off adjacent Town land, and its quality depends on land
use activities that are reviewed and permitted within the Towns. Hardwick hosts over
5,900 acres of Quabbin watershed lands, including lands under state control, private
ownership within the watershed boundary, and over 1,200 acres of submerged Quabbin
bottom for which no compensation is received. The Town’s PILOT payment from the
Division of Water Supply Protection for slightly over 4,700 acres is only $24/acre, and
the Town continues to forgo property tax it would collect if the Division land were in
private ownership. The Watershed Protection Act also rightly places additional
regulations on use of private lands in proximity to tributaries that flow into the reservoir,
also limiting land uses and local tax revenues. Our towns are subjected to opportunity
costs not experienced elsewhere in the Commonwealth.

It is worth noting that undeveloped farm and forest land in the border towns is currently
experiencing increasing pressure for subdivision and unplanned development, putting
Quabbin water quality at increasingly greater risk over time. The current purity of the
water requires little treatment and related expense, but this isn’t guaranteed and future
treatment could become necessary. Hardwick’s Select Board, Planning Board, Board of
Health, Conservation Commission and Building Inspector are mainly volunteer or
limited-time positions. As such, we have an increasingly hard burden keeping up with
project review to administer zoning and Wetland Protection Act regulations and building
codes. Hardwick residents and officials hope to continue this important stewardship and
custodial role, but we ask that consideration be given to additional financial support to
make it possible.

Steven J. Williams, Belchertown Town Manager

The MWRA’s feasibility study, designed primarily for MetroWest, North Shore, and
South Shore communities, fails to address the distinct geographic, demographic, and
stewardship roles of Quabbin watershed towns. Our communities play a vital role in
protecting the water supply for millions, yet our unique challenges and contributions
remain largely unrecognized. The study also lacked sufficient engagement, offering only
minimal opportunities for local officials and volunteers—many of whom could have
provided valuable insight—to participate meaningfully. Additionally, the proposed project
designs overlook existing infrastructure, exclude major regional stakeholders like
Amherst, and do not reflect the realities of towns such as Belchertown, which forfeits an
estimated $9.5 million annually in potential tax revenue to preserve the watershed.
Despite these sacrifices, there is no discussion of fair compensation or recognition. For
the study to be effective and equitable, it must include a more localized approach,
comprehensive engagement, and appropriate acknowledgment of the financial and
environmental burdens borne by Quabbin communities.
Stuart Beckley, Ware Town Manager
The Town of Ware through its leaders, regulators and citizens has long honored the
importance of the history, the ecology and the water supply of the Quabbin Reservoir.
The loss of neighboring communities and displacement of families remains in Ware
residents’ thoughts and actions. The Town has invested greatly in planning, zoning, and
regulations such as stormwater protections that enhance the protection provided by the
Quabbin reservation. Quabbin is part of the quality of life for this region, but that quality
presents some limits on the ability of the region’s communities to provide services and
address infrastructure. For example, Ware’s water supply has iron and manganese
concerns that, along with the need to plan for PFAS, will ultimately require the
construction of a treatment plant with an estimated cost of over $30 million. The Town
had conducted a study on the cost of connecting to MWRA’s system. Several years ago
that cost was $25 million. The local environmental and historical stewardship given for
the protection of the Quabbin resource should be considered as the region’s towns with
less means are faced with mounting costs and decreasing ability to meet local service
needs.
We all look forward to continued and productive conversation to achieve much
greater regional equity, just recompense, and mutual respect.

Regards,

Bob Agoglia, Pelham Select Board Chair

Stuart Beckley, Ware Town Manager
Susan Cloutier, New Salem Select Board Chair
Lexi Dewey, Pelham
Mailande DeWitt, New Salem Select Board Member
Susan Dougherty, Petersham Select Board Chair
Judith Eiseman, Pelham Planning Board Chair
Rita Farrell, Shutesbury Select Board Co-Chair
Erik Fleming, Hardwick Planning Board Member
Jane Peirce, Orange Select Board Member
Eric Stocker, Shutesbury Select Board Member
Rick Taupier, New Salem Select Board Member
William Tinker, Hardwick Select Board Vice Chair
Ware Select Board
Steven J. Williams, Belchertown Town Manager
Bill Zinni, Hardwick Conservation Commission Chair

cc:

Governor Maura Healey

Lieutenant Governor Kim Driscoll
Kristen Elechko, Director, Western Massachusetts Office
Anne Gobi, Director, Rural Affairs