Worcester Watershed Land Protection Partnership (MA)
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| Muschopauge Brook Photo: Jerry and Marcy Monkman, Ecophotography.com 2007 |
The City of Worcester, Massachusetts, obtains its water from ten reservoirs located in the nearby towns of Holden, Leicester, Paxton, Princeton, and Rutland. The entire watershed for the ten Worcester reservoirs covers about 41 square miles. About 30 square miles of this area, encompassing the watersheds of Quinapoxet, Pine Hill, and Kendall Reservoirs, is located within the Nashua River Basin and is tributary to Wachusett Reservoir.
TPL has been working with the City of Worcester Department of Public Works and Parks since 2004 to acquire priority watershed land on its behalf. Although the City owns most of the land directly adjacent to its reservoirs, there is additional unprotected land that should be acquired, especially along tributary streams, to further protect the water supply, which serves more than 200,000 people in the Worcester area.
Since 1860, Water Operations at the Worcester Department of Public Works has protected more than 6,000 acres of critical watershed land and has maintained a high level of water quality in its reservoirs. Currently, Worcester's watershed protection efforts include land acquisition, extensive water quality monitoring, security patrols, review of development plans, and mapping of resources and potential threats, and the City presently owns about 25% of the watershed area.
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| Muschopauge Brook Photo: Jerry and Marcy Monkman, Ecophotography.com 2007 |
In TPL's first project with the Worcester DPW, the watershed of the Tatnuck Brook, which supplies water to Holden Reservoir #1, has been substantially protected with the acquisition of a Watershed Preservation Restriction over 75 acres in Holden, Massachusetts. The property will continue to be owned in fee by the current landowners, who will operate a modest farm on a portion of the property and will be the stewards of the forestland that protects the Tatnuck Brook watershed and the quality of water flowing into Holden Reservoir No. 1. Nine hundred feet of the Tatnuck Brook are protected by this acquisition.
In addition to this early success, an additional 209 acres were acquired and protected in late 2005 along the Muschopauge Brook. In two separate transactions, the City of Worcester acquired a 95-acre Watershed Preservation Restriction and a 114-acre property in fee. Between the two conserved properties, 1.7 miles of brook frontage have been protected. The Muschopauge Brook flows directly into the Quinapoxet Reservoir, a drinking water source that serves the City of Worcester and ultimately flows into the MWRA water system.
Most recently, TPL again worked with the City to acquire a 75-acre Watershed Preservation Restriction that protects nearly one mile of frontage on Scott Brook before it flows into Holden Reservoir #1. Once again, the strong partnership between TPL and the City of Worcester resulted in the award of a Drinking Water Supply Protection Grant from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts that covered 50% of the acquisition cost.
TPL is currently working to complete a 100-acre Watershed Preservation Restriction on land in Rutland that drains into the Pine Hill Reservoir. Fifty percent of the funding has been secured through the state Drinking Water Supply Protection program, and the remaining fifty percent will be considered by City Council shortly.
Related Links:
Worcester County Conservation Initiative
Updated 3/2008
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