OK, everybody, we have a lot to get through tonight, so if everybody could take their seats, uh, we can get started. um, and, uh, there’s some extra seats in the back in case we get some late arrivals. So need to turn to I think. Is this better? No it needs to be. Everybody needs to sit down.

OK. All right. Well, that’s. Good evening everybody. I am Deisha Ruble. I’m a member of the steering committee of the League of Women Voters of Hamilton and Wenham. Welcome to shaping our water future. Tonight’s event is a follow up to last year’s very popular speaker series event called Water Resources and Conservation. Uh, if you are

unable to attend that event, it was recorded and it’s available on our website if you’d like to, to go back and, and see that. This evening, uh, our event tonight is presented by the league in partnership with the Ipswich Watershed Association and is supported in part by a grant

from the Hamilton Weham Cultural Council, a local agency which is supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council. The leader of women voters of Hamilton Wenham has been a force in our community since 1959. We are a nonpartisan political organization that encourages informed and active participation of local citizens in their government. We work to

increase understanding of major public policy issues and influence public policies through voter education and advocacy. Motivated and thoughtful members care deeply about empowering vote, voters, and defending democracy. League envisions a democracy where every person has the desire, the right, the knowledge, and the confidence to participate. To learn more about the league, please visit our membership

take alow back. Lindsay, you can give a wave over there and Lorraine uh. You could check out our website and you can also ask us about the league. Uh, we have a number of members here if you guys would stand up, uh, they’re all around. Some in the back, 10 days standing up, or to stand up.

Uh, they love to talk about our work, so please ask about, um. Now, uh, one more. Um, housekeeping matter you’ve all got, uh, some event evaluation forms on your seats. We really would appreciate you all fill those out at the end of the event. This helps us to develop meaningful, you know, impactful

and meaningful programming that is of interest in our community. So please fill those out. Now it is my great pleasure to introduce tonight’s moderator, Erin Bonny Casey. Erin is a native New Englander and water management, excuse. After previously engaging in market research in the water sector, she joined the Ipswich River Watershed Association in 2021 to

advocate for sustainable water resource management and to build the organization’s ability to implement river resiliency plans and actions. In 2024 she became IRA’s executive, I say I I sorry, I knew I screwed that I was going to keep saying Ipswich River Watership. Executive director, it is focused on strengthening connections with the watership

community and amplifying. He was that I could yeah resiliency. It’s not about me, it’s about her restoration and community engagement efforts. She holds a BA from Bates College, a master’s of Science in water, science policy and management from Oxford University. Erin and her family live in Salem. She spends her spare time restoring their

historic home and exploring outdoor spaces across New England. Uh, Erin, turn it over to you and you. OK Um , thank you all so much. It’s, it’s really wonderful to see so many people come out to talk about water on a chilly evening. We don’t always get this type of response, and so I’m really

thankful that you all are here and giving me the opportunity to speak about this really important issue. Um, for, you know, tonight’s discussion, so I’m gonna start with a few comments. I have a very brief film to watch, um, so that I don’t have to just talk at you, um, and then we’re going

to invite, um, our elected officials to come up and offer their perspectives on the work that, um, we all. Collectively are doing on this issue that but they have really been leading on um we’re expecting Senator Tar any moment uh and Representative Castro and Representative Kearns are here

with us now, and I want to thank you both for making the time in your schedules to come and talk about this issue. Um, so very briefly, uh, if any of you are not familiar with the Ipswich River Watershed Association, we are a community-based nonprofit organization, uh, headquartered

just down the road in Ipswich. Um, we are the voice of the Ipswich River and we work to protect nature. And make sure that there is enough clean water for people, fish and wildlife today and for our children and theirs. Um, we recently put together this model graphic to try and communicate with,

um, our community, the breadth of the work that we’re doing in pursuit of that mission. Um, across these, these four areas, um, and we’re talking about restoring the river, we’re looking at undoing past harms that humans have most of the time unwittingly inflicted on the river. So for us that looks

like updating infrastructure in terms of right sizing culverts, removing dams, um, it might look like removing invasive species that have been. Um, erroneously or harmfully introduced to the environment and really restoring the natural function of our rivers and streams, uh, when we talk about protecting the river, we’re we’re looking towards the future

and we’re, we’re trying to future proof the river, um, so that it is healthy enough to withstand the challenges that we know it’s going to face moving forward. For these other two icons, um, engage and enjoy, you might notice that there are people in them, and that is because a watershed is not

only a geographic area, which it is, and we can talk a little bit about that in a couple of minutes, um, but it is also the community of people that live and work in that area and uh we are committed to a vision for the future where the where

the needs of our ecosystem and our river are balanced against the needs of the people that live and work here. And so our work is really centered on those people and on connecting people with their environment. When you look at this, the Enjoy icon and our little paddler, this organization grew out of a

community of people who love the river, and that love really stems in many cases from the ability to get out and enjoy the river. If you haven’t been paddling on the Ipswich River and you live in Hamilton or Wenham, you are absolutely missing out and you should come stop by our headquarters and go

paddling. Uh, we hope that by getting out on our river, one of the most beautiful in Massachusetts, you will fall in love with it as we have, um, and want to restore and protect it and help us in our work there. The the little engage icon up there is really where the work that we’re doing

tonight comes into play, um, and that is connecting people in our community with the work that we’re doing and to helping them engage with their elected officials to make sure that we’re making decisions and setting up systems um that are protective of river health now and in the future. For us, the

number one issue for facing the Ipswich River, uh, is under this protect category. We are trying to protect the water and keep it in the river, um, and that touches on what we’re gonna be talking up here tonight, which is how do we balance the needs of our communities in terms of water

supplies now and for the future with the needs of the river. The Ipswich River is very intensively used. There are 350,000 people that drink Ipswich River water. Um, and it’s not a very big river. It starts up in Wilmington or Burlington. Uh, it meets the ocean, uh, by Crane Beach, and

in that in that short 35 mile span, 350,000 people, uh, withdraw that water. And so the task force that we’re gonna be talking about tonight is one of the primary ways that the watershed Association and many of the communities in this watershed are thinking about how do we protect this river

going forward. And with that, I’m going to play this very brief video and hopefully with no technical difficulties whatsoever. The problem is we don’t have enough water . My first campaign was in 2022. It was one of the biggest droughts we’ve had recently. It was literally at every single

door that what is the biggest issue that we’re experiencing is water. And not just, you know, my lawn is dry. It’s, you know, the river was a series of ponds. It wasn’t a river. Water withdrawals is the number one issue facing the Ipswich River. The river is very intensively used. We’re pulling

water out of it all the time for all of the things that we need water for, for drinking. For bathing, for washing, for irrigation, for industrial and commercial use. When there is not a lot of water available in the river in the summertime or during drought conditions, we’re pulling enough water out

of the river that it’s going dry. This is really unusual. This kind of drought. I’ve heard from, you know, some measures that this is the second to worst drought since we’ve been recording droughts. You know, it’s not a time of year when people use a lot of water for the growing things. I think

a lot of people don’t notice it as much, but we do know there were a lot of fires. The conditions were dry and we had an unusually large number of fires around the state. I live on the park and I’ve been there since 1983. I’ve seen a rapid decline of the water quality and the water quality.

He notices longer summer droughts. You see wetlands are drying up. That’s happening more frequently. Population increases are moving more towards the north shore, and so I see a direct impact from water withdrawals to the amount of population increases. We certainly can’t control the weather, but there are some things that we can certainly

control, and that’s our own use of water. The role of a watershed association is really to bring together all of the stakeholders within the watershed. We do a lot of education for what people can be doing in their own homes, in their own businesses to reduce their water consumption,

to reduce the demands on the river. We have a few 1000 kids and adults that come through our education programs every year and learn about how their actions are impacting the river and how they can reduce their impacts on the river. We also work with cities and towns to implement town-wide water

conservation measures, so that might look like incentives for installing local appliances. It might look like raising awareness for water users across the town. It might look like setting up a water conservation program at a town level. There’s a lot of things, complicated things that we need to do, and

we need to do them together because they are a costly capital expense. There’s state and federal funding for infrastructure, especially water infrastructure, clean drinking water, that we want to make sure that we’re working together to get to the solutions that we’re looking for for both the environment and for the water users. And as we miss out.

The issues that we’re going to have to deal with is developing additional supply and dealing with the issue of managing that supply so that we get the most effective use out of it. But a huge problem is going to be financing. All of these things are incredibly expensive, and that’s why it’s going to take

a team approach to be able to get the job done. On the state level, we advocate for legislation that is protective of our rivers. For the past few legislative sessions, our number one priority has been the passage of the drought bill, which is a piece of legislation that dictates how we declare

drought throughout the state and how we manage water during drought conditions. We are also advocating for changes to the Water Management Act. Because the Water Management Act was passed back in the 1980s, we’re still kind of living under a water management scenario that doesn’t take into account the impacts of climate change, that doesn’t take into account

the impacts of population growth. We and our allies are pushing for more scientifically sound calculations as to how much water is available to us now and how much water we can reasonably expect to be available in the future, given that drought conditions are becoming worse and more frequent. In October of 2024, the US EPA published a letter

indicating that they also believe that the Massachusetts Water Management Act needs revisions in order to be scientifically sound and to be protective of the environment going forward. Regionally we’re very involved with the North Shore Water Resilience Task Force, and that is a really unique and innovative approach that brings together all of the

stakeholders in the Ipswich River watershed to talk about regional solutions to regional challenges. The reason that that So innovative is because historically in Massachusetts water supply decisions have been made on a town by town basis and each town makes their decisions in a silo. When you start to extrapolate out and look at the impacts regionwide,

there’s really a mismatch between how we’re managing the water, the challenges that we’re facing. So the task force role is to bring together regional stakeholders to come to a consensus about the best way that we can move forward collectively. So there’s plenty to be enthusiastic about in

our region as we lead the way on this issue, and one of those things is that we’ve been able to secure over $600,000 of state support to be able to study the issue and to develop the best ways to address it. And those studies are underway right now. They’re delivering lots of information and it’s going to

be up to us to be able to use that information to make Census-based decisions, but as we do that, I firmly believe that we’re going to be setting the stage for that kind of activity all across Massachusetts, and we’re going to bring light to a situation that has been very vexing for

all of the communities in our state. We’re almost there and we’re continuing to work toward it, and we couldn’t have done it without the assistance of the Ipswich River Watershed Association.

Oh 00:15:30,500	Great, that’s a like it. Um, so with that I would like to invite um to the panelists hot seats, um, Senator Tar, Rep Casner, Rep Kierans, um, if you could, um, you guys saw that this, this issue of water is a really acute issue for the North Shore and the Ipswich River Basin in particular, um,

it is a statewide issue, but we are really the poster child for these challenges and as a result our elected officials, uh, both. At the state level and in our towns are dealing dealing with kind of unprecedented challenges in the space and so um I do want to give a big thank you for the

leadership that our elected officials have shown this issue in this region, um, in highlighting it and working on it so diligently. That Sure, actually I’m gonna have Senator Tar. I’m gonna have you speak first, Senator if you’d rather stand, but if you want to offer, uh, your thoughts on the

founding of the task force and a little bit of an update of where we are now. The shy people are singing. Yes, yes, it is. We got a few silhouettes going on there on the screen as everybody moves around. All right, well, first of all, um, it’s great to see so many people here tonight engaged in this

issue, um, and wanting to know more information and I hope, uh, wanting to be involved in our efforts to move forward with addressing the situation that we face with regard to. Droughts not only in Massachusetts but more specifically here in our region and I think the uh video that we just saw was an

outstanding way to express what is happening here in on the North Shore which is unique but we hope will be replicable all across the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The effort really began a number of years ago, uh, back when, uh, Representative Hill was in office and Representative Speli

Otis was in office, and there were a group of us that frequently talked about the fact that we were too reactionary when it came to the situation of drought that we only thought about it and tried to act on it when we’re in the middle of one. And that we needed to spend the time in

between droughts being more proactive and developing strategies to address the consequences of drought before we were in the midst of the next one. And so initially the task force was somewhat informal. It was largely about information exchange. We gathered people together. We had conversations about the state’s drought management plan about

MS-4, the treatment of water from, uh, basins, drain basins, and all those kind of things. And then unfortunately we wind up with a situation as we’re having those discussions of the pandemic and the pandemic pretty much paused the operations of the task force because we were meeting in person and we’re

meeting fairly frequently but that just wasn’t possible during COVID-19. So as we began to turn the corner and come out of the pandemic, we made a decision that it needed to change in terms of its focus that we certainly would continue to share information and convene those conversations but we

needed to narrow the focus and begin to work toward an action plan. And so we tried to formalize the organization we tried to make sure that everyone was involved and that was inclusive as possible and we tried to begin moving down a very specific course of action with several alternatives.

One of the most significant things that happened is that every single public water supplier in the watershed and that is affected by the Ipswich River. Worked with every environmental organization led by the Ipswich River Watershed Association and signed a landmark charter, a charter statement by which everyone agreed to work together in a respectful, productive

manner to address the issues that we face. Every single water supplier. Every single environmental organization that was involved in the watershed all working together, and I wanna thank my colleagues that are here. I wanna thank Representative Karens and Representative Casser because they came on board with this effort very, very quickly and

have been incredibly incredibly engaged and incredibly helpful as we move forward. I also want to thank Joe Demeowitz, uh, who has played a vital role in helping us move the agenda of the task force together and, and has helped us to troubleshoot when we’ve encountered some challenging situations. And as we’ve done that we’ve begun to build that

focus that I described was a landmark accomplishment to get everyone to sign the charter statement but next we had to figure out what information did we need to be able to make decisions around action steps and I should point out that the task force does not supplant the authority of the local

officials. The task force’s job is to build consensus so that we can agree together on a course of action. And the conveners of the legislative delegation from the region, but we do not make decisions from a top-down approach. We’re there to build consensus. So, what are we thinking about?

We did secure, as the video indicated thus far. About $600,000 in funding to conduct some very intensive study work and the work of the task force is facilitated by 3 volunteers presently, um, two from uh the uh MAPC, the Metropolitan Area Planning Commission, Leah Robins and Martin Pillsbury, and one from uh Department of Conservation and Recreation,

Sarah. And we’re looking at a number of different things. First of all, we want to know what are our options for bringing increased supply of water into the region. Second We want to know if we can bring that additional supply into the region, how do we make sure that it gets distributed so

that every community that depends on the watershed can have a reliable source of drinking water for the foreseeable future. And so principally we’ve talked about a couple of different ways of introducing that supply. One is either a temporary or impermanent connection to the MWRA to bring in MWA water into the watershed. The second is the

consideration of an idea that’s been around for a long time, which is to build a reservoir in the town of Topsfield on land that was purchased for that purpose by the Salem Beverly Water Supply Board. Those are the two Major overarching thoughts we bring in a supply one way or the

other. And this is a good time for me to remind everybody that there are 2 co-equal goals of the task force. One is to protect the natural resources of the river and the watershed, and the second is to ensure a reliable supply of drinking water, and those are coequal goals. One is not subordinate

to the other. They are. So the first of the studies which we just recently had returned completed is to look at those options. And to my surprise, while we were all thinking about either one or the other in sort of a binary way, the report that the consultant sent us back indicates that there may be some

hybridization that we may be able to take some options from both of those categories, some supply from the MWRA some supply from increasing the capacity of the Salem Beverly Water supply board and maybe we can get the job done without even needing a reservoir. The cost of the reservoir, by the way, is

estimated at somewhere north of about a half a billion dollars just so you know it’s a very costly enterprise because you have to have not only development of supply, but you have to have adequate treatment of that supply and compatibility of the finished water with the communities that’s going into

and their water supplies is an important issue. So the MWRA option was originally studied by the MWRA I think many people may know the MWRA did look at expanding to the north and to the south, and the cost of bringing the MWRA here is at least a half a billion dollars, but the way that the MWRA

studied it. The planned buildout would take as much as 25 years. Communities in our region can’t wait that. So the consultant has shown us some options where we could accomplish all of this in 10 years or less. And some of the hybrid options actually cost about half of the amount that I mentioned earlier, about

$250 million. Now that’s still a heavy lift. But it’s a much different lift than a half a billion. So one set of studies looking at all those options. Second study is looking at a stream flow model, which is critically important to advising the work that we do. To bring water supply into the region and

essentially what it’s looking at is how much flow do we need in the river to maintain the ecosystem in a healthy robust way. And how do the actions worth thinking about impact that slow? And I’ll just give you a little bit of a preview in that one of the interesting things that the study is

starting to tell us is that there are some significant things we can do in the headwaters near Wilmington that have major impacts downstream. And they may be the most cost effective things that we could do. So as we’re getting all that information, uh, we’re working through a number of different subcommittees again my colleagues here are very

involved in those subcommittees and we are about to uh procure some additional technical expertise, some assistance to help us sort through the information. And I hope very soon we will be at the point of having very serious discussions about what our best options are. And I’m so incredibly proud of how this organization has developed,

how it’s making progress and how in the face of what seems like a daunting some days nearly insurmountable challenge we are taking definitive action steps and every day moving closer to sustainable solutions we’ve got a long way to go and we won’t get there unless we can continue to work together.

But we faced a lot of challenges together one of the most difficult things we had to do was write a narrative that reflected our collective view, everyone’s view about where we are and where we need to go, and we’re able to get that done. There were some very difficult meetings. Representative Casner participated in many of them,

but we got it and so that’s a little bit about. Where we’re going and I can’t say enough again about the participation of the watershed association but also the public water suppliers. Every one of them have come to the table and are actively engaged in our discussions and our hope is

that by the time we’re done and we may not be done for a while, we can look at what was proclaimed the 8th most endangered river in the United States of America. And call it the number one most sustainable resource in America. That’s the kind of transformational stuff that

we’re focused. Thanks so let me share a few thoughts about that. OK. Thank you, thank you, Senator Tar um. I, I just want to emphasize two things that Senator Taur touched on, and then I’m gonna keep passing the mic along, but one is that it truly is transformational that this task

force has coequal goals, and it’s so important to us that the improvement of ecosystem health is one of those goals, you know, it really is about balancing needs of humans and needs of the environment and the fact that this task force fac facilitates conversations between, you know, our organization representing

the voice of the river and all of the water suppliers. It is really a unique proposition. The other thing that’s unique about this task force, um, especially within the state of Massachusetts, we’re a home rule state. Our towns do things on their own. They make their own decisions and, uh, resource

management is a very difficult challenge to tackle town by town. And we’re seeing that on the North Shore in the water supply space. So the fact that all of these towns are talking to each other and thinking about a collaborative solution is, is really innovative and and revolutionary in the state,

um, and this model is, um, or this task force is really being held up as a model is how we might make collective decisions going forward, um, rep Kirns, do you wanna offer your thoughts on the task force and, and the role that it plays in consensus building? Thank you. Thank you Erin. um, thank you Deja and

the amazing League of Women Voters for everything that you do. Um, thank you, uh, to everyone who took time on a frigid evening. We could be skating on the Ipswich Rivers and hike, um, so thank you all for coming. Um, thank you, Senator Tar and to my terrific colleague as well,

Representative Casner. Um, Senator Tar, as he described, pull together this group. I’m not sure he has conveyed adequately the painstaking nature of the work that has gone into getting all of these communities, their water all the suppliers, everybody at the same table, um, and it’s really quite a feat and it’s exciting to see. This collaboration

beginning to take hold and dialogue between. Danvers in Middleton Peabody, uh, for, for my part, I represent, by the way, I’m Sally Kearns. I represent the 13th Essex District. Um, I was elected, uh, in 2020, I was elected 25 years ago with Senator Tar. We were both at the house.

He was there for a minute. Uh, and then I, I served 3 terms and then I took a break because I had a young child and it was all a bit of a whirlwind and I said, OK, I’m taking a break, never thinking I would run again, never thinking I would

run again and then the pandemic came and I’d heard talk of this Ipswich River watershed, uh. Uh, process beginning to take hold. My predecessor Ted Spiottas was very involved, as was, um, Brad. So, um, fast forward, and I was elected and then there was a redistricting plan. So I, I ran again in 2020.

The pandemic came. 10, very good, solid, excellent representative said, I’m retiring. I said, oh. That I’m running because I loved that job and I would like to go back to that job. So I’m on my second tour and um. In all of those years I know that at my select board meeting and town meetings,

the conversation about water would come up and people would sort of throw their hands up because they didn’t know what to do about it. They couldn’t corral it and because I, I represent the 13th Essex, that’s all of Danvers, that’s Ward 6 in Peabody up near Linfield, half of Middleton, half of

Topsfield, half of Wonder weather. And to watch the conversations literally at these meetings between, you know, the Beverly Salem Water Supply Board was always kind of like being in Beverly Salem and now they’re talking and they’re talking with my with my people from Danvers and, and now we have of course a very interesting twist I we haven’t

even talked about this which is that the city of Peabody and has just announced that they will be purchasing. Property from the former Eastman gelatin plant, uh, Russolo, not property at that site on Washington Street but elsewhere in Peabody with several wealths, and this will have implications,

good implications for them down the road and so as we talk about alternatives and ways of. Protecting the river, increasing supply, looking at other storage options, maybe bringing in MWRA that everybody is ready to faint when they see all of us are, when we see the price tag, you just think that is maybe a

bridge too far. However, um, The other alternatives are not cheap. None of this will be inexpensive, and I, it, it just comes at a time when we can’t afford to wait any longer. Um, the droughts are getting more frequent. We have to take this action, and so this process is going to bear fruit and it’s,

it’s really exciting. I also just wanted to make a note, uh. To shut out the Middleton stream team if I didn’t already. They were in the video. Oh good. We have someone here from Middleton stream. I am I I want to congratulate my two colleagues on. Debut earlier. I don’t know where I was that

day. Um, you also managed to use a photo, one of the few photos of the Aggie that I somehow missed the photo, but I assure you I’ve been very much a part of this and enjoyed it. Um, the Middleton stream team was in the video, and they

are a determined group of folks. They went out on a It wouldn’t have been a paddle, but they were meeting at the river on Sunday at one, and I, I just, I couldn’t get myself there. I just, God love you have at it, um, but the other note that

I wanted to make was just in terms of this ongoing collaboration, um, we saw another tremendous value of the river this past fall. I’ll be honest, maybe I had been to the Vernon Russell treatment plant in um Middleton, which Davros owns, kind of like the way rep Jerry Pariel said to

me. Early at one of these meetings, yeah, like kind of like when we convinced you guys in Danhurst to give us your reservoir in Beverly, um, so the Platinum Reservoir in Danhurst is owned by the Beverly Salem Water Supply Board. The Emerson Brunk feeds the Middleton, uh, uh, the reservoir in Middleton.

This past fall. When wildfires were creeping and creeping and creeping, we had occasion to be up and we were up there together at the reservoir and public safety might not be the first thing that we think of when we think about unnecessary dependable water supply of course it’s drinking water of

course it’s public health. But so too is it public safety and we really really saw that this this past fall, um, and I don’t know how much was taken out but maybe some of you saw the helicopters, um, zooming over literally dropping water and that that was right here, right here in our backyards. Um, so,

uh, I have a couple of notes, but I, the senator, as he does, has covered a great deal. Um, I think Erin wanted me to say a little bit about the PFAS, um, issue, but I also want to leave enough for my terrific colleague, um, Kristen to talk

about with her work on. Maybe it’s just a word on the PFAST issue. I was on the interagency task force on for poly floral alcohol substances, um, 4 years ago, and in a way it was this intensive course in the science of PFAST. I think now people really understand. What PFAST needs, how prevalent it is,

it’s a hormone disruptor. They’re everywhere. They don’t leave your system, so clearly we have to take action. Now last, uh, at the end of last session we did pass a bill to address PFAS in firefighter turnout gear, which a senator well knows because he’s been part of this, uh, and you’re a

firefighter, right? So. I put out a lot of fire maybe created one or two over there in the Senate, um, uh, so we did pass legislation to, uh, require a ban on PFAS in firefighter turnout gear. Now that’s only one part of it, um, again, these, these substances are everywhere and so we need to

get um. Really serious about helping communities to deal with their PFAST issues, the presence of PFAST, we have this full drinking water. Uh, you can go to the website, uh, you can see where your community stands, look at your. Um, clean water drinking report and the state revolving fund will be

very important to this effort, but so will federal money and so will they’ll be bonding and again all under the rubric of this will not be cheap, um, OK, with that I’m gonna let Kristen come up and talk about what she’s been. Working on, which has been a lot.

00:38:28,869	Thank you. I’m Kirsten Kasner. I represent the 2nd Essex District, um, including, uh, Hamilton, Ipswich, Raley, Newbridge, Georgetown, and Topsfield Precinct. I have the, um, pleasure to. Uh, share all of my communities with under tar and share Toshield with um Rourk. So, um, and I’m honored to be part of the North Shore Water Resiliency Task

Force, North Shore Water Resiliency test, yeah, it’s about right, um, I sentence I just write the letters at this point, um, but it’s been, it’s been a true pleasure. I started talking about water. Well, we, I mean, obviously we this wonderful environment that we live in and it’s a

river, it’s in our, you know, in our backyards where. Um, enjoying the river whether we’re on it or looking at it or being around it, but it’s truly a precious resource and my first conversations about water water supply actually began here, um, with Joda Molowitz and Jack Lawrence, um, and, uh, Rosie

Kennedy when I was a member of the, uh, Hamilton Master plan committee of just like water. Oh, this water is something that we need to be looking at. Um, and really the issues that started in the issues of, you know, to wanna be in the water was PFAS, and I mean all of these capital expenditures are

so expensive and really finding out that our infrastructure for water is our infrastructure of water and Manchester’s is their infrastructure of water and Essex is theirs and Ipswich is and we had very. Few options for interconnection. We started talking a lot about emergency services. Can we put out the

wildfire if that happens? Um, so really it just really beginning that introduction and, and Jack Lawrence and I are going to speak with Wayne Castingway at Irwood. So what, you know, what is this picture? What should we do and really introducing us and me at least before even being in this role,

um, to the task force and the work of the task force and the tremendous work of the task force bringing together all 18 communities from Burlington. All the way to Ipswich to talk about water, um, the importance of, um, a reaching consensus on regional solutions, water supply resilience to improve the

ecosystem health, um, of the watershed is also ensure what we. Um, what we all need, um, to be the water water suppliers, so, um, it’s truly an amazing experience of consensus of, um, being in the room agreeing that this is the two shared goals, um, but also I said I was lucky enough to sit on the,

um, joint narrative task force which really got to agreeing on consensus of the problem in front of us and the potential pathway to breach consensus on solutions. Um, and that was, that was, you know, we all can nod, yeah, that sounds good. And then we actually talk about it we have water suppliers and,

um, the watershed and water, you know. Yeah, it’s, is it water supply is it water withdrawal and it’s OK. Well, the river’s not a river in a series of ponds and the water suppliers, we don’t all need green lawns, but there’s a lot of middle ground there in terms of what we all what we need,

um, and what we need to be sure we’re not withdrawing as well as looking at the picture of the differences in seasonality and where we have reservoirs that we can capture water in the winter and. Um, and where we don’t, and when we’re pulling from the river all summer long here, um, in Hamilton and parts

of Ipswich, um, and that being a really, really big issue we’re not looking at drought either in the subbasin level or looking at how seasonally the water picture changes, um, so we. Looked at that in the joint narrative we um noted that these are some of the issues we also noted that the Water Management

Act in the 80s and some metrics back then didn’t take into account the picture we have now in climate change um and even just the, the built environment that we have around us and how we’re using it um so that was wonderful work and ongoing at that time was kind of a where we are um reports

um that were 2021, 2021. Um, and then there’s been. Um, subsequent reports that are just released now is really looking at these alternatives for solutions and it’s, it’s, as the senator mentioned, it’s, you know, it’s is it this or is it this? Well, it might not be this and it might not be

this, but this hybrid approach of, well, you know, if we’re sending all this water to Salem Beverly and then it’s going to treatment and going out into the ocean and not coming back to replenish our aquifer is there options there that might be different than options on on the lower watershed and it’s

really exciting getting a lot of that data. Um, and seeing the generation of the new model which I very much, um, anticipate that there’ll be a lot more conversations about a lot more public meetings and input, um, because as mentioned, it’s the community still decide, um, as to kind of the directions

we’re all going in but whatever those directions are right now we’re all facing issues with water quality with PFAST with um with organics and. A lot of communities are already looking at um whatever they need to do for treatment options and how can we be looking at this um efficiently among all of us

we have all that have similar needs and and I also realized that water with a uh compatibility of water is an interesting science um and to make sure that we can all, you know, play together, um, but really it’s gonna take a lot of work, a lot of information, a lot of that ground data, um,

is wonderful to see now that we can. Really start to use and come to a solution and informed solution and and start to measure, um, you know, measure where we are but also measure where we need to go to solve some of these really big water quality problems um and I also and I’ll be brief,

but I just wanted to say if I still have my piece of paper here um that it’s not going unnoticed to the administration and. Um, our federal delegation are doing our wonderful partners, um, and they’re doing a great job getting, um, funding out last year, um, I think at this. Meeting, um, last year

they, um, Hilly Driscoll Administration awarded $2.3 million to seven Ipswich River communities, um, to help to towns improve water quality and treatment. Um, I think just today DEP, um, announced on their $50,000 grant for water quality in the Ipswich River watershed and just there’s many, many more things that are happening, but we’re the group

is being re. Recognized as a group of 18 communities building consensus and I think and that just it it’s really going a long way to to get the momentum we need to start solving these really difficult expensive problems together. So thank you so much for having me and having all of us and

thank you, um, Amon Key and Dasha and all the other members of the League of Women’s Voters and happy to take questions and.

00:45:18,170	So, um, I was just sitting here and I was, uh, reflecting on all of the work that. Um, has been articulated about what the task force has been doing, and it occurred to me I have actually served on every single subcommittee so far, um, uh, along with Rob Castner, uh, and, and Joe, that joint

narrative, uh, subcommittee was quite the experience, um, but, uh, I’ll give a quick kind of up to the minute, uh, update as to where the task force conversations are now, and then we’ll open it up for questions from all of you, um. So as uh Senator Tar mentioned, we commissioned the task force

commissioned 3 reports or 2 reports looking at water supply alternatives and modeling the impacts on the river. Those reports were, um, made available to the task force last fall. We’re actually having a meeting tomorrow, uh, which is a Q&A session to offer, um, members of the task force clarity on

those reports. The summaries of those are available to anyone who wants to just dive in, um, on the task force website. Um, and from there, uh, now that we kind of have all of this information about what our options are, we move into, uh, what we’re calling decision making mode or consensus

building mode, um, and the task force has been actively working to bring on some additional support, um, in terms of facilitation team and the decision making, um, support tool uh that will help. Us reach consensus among these 19 stakeholders that are signatories to the task force, um, and we’re really looking to move quickly on this process,

um, because time is really of the essence we know that the water supply challenges are not getting any easier. The longer we wait the more expensive things get typically, uh, everywhere, um, and. Running up against deadlines around PFAST treatment, so, um, towns are having to treat for uh emerging contaminants. That’s very expensive to do, especially

if everyone is doing it individually, um, so there are potential savings that we could realize if we are able to um move collectively, um, towards centralized treatment system or um communal treatment systems, things like that. So I think that’s kind of where we’re at now. Um, I’d love to

open it up for questions if anyone has done. Yeah, could you just say a word about, uh, can you have a ability to water Yeah. So the question was, um, uh, on if we could speak to the compatibility of water issues. So one of the things that we

have to make sure is if we’re gonna interconnect and sharing water is gonna be a very important part of whatever we do, and that’s why we’ve also been studying interconnections between the communities and what it would take for that to happen. You really have two choices. Number one, you can

supply finished water or number 2, you can supply raw water. If you supply raw water, then the community still has to provide treatment and that may not be the most efficient thing. If you supply finished water, you have to ensure that the water chemistry is compatible with the existing system that’s

providing drinking water. So for instance, for disinfection. Different communities use different methods, different chemicals, and uh different levels of things like acidity and pH and so you need to make sure that whatever you’re providing to those communities is compatible for with what’s already there and one of the things that Erin made reference

to that’s important is the EPA has established a mandate of 2029 for all communities across the nation. To comply with new PFAST standards, and those are very daunting and they’re gonna be very costly and so one of the things that we think about a lot is would it be better to have centralized treatment

and provide finished water to reduce the incompatibility issues but also reach economies of scale with regard to the treatment of PFAS and that’s one of the things that we’re looking at very seriously, but compatibility is a huge issue. And, and I would also raise the point that when the MWRA

studied the region, their plan was to build out to the last mile pretty much everywhere with new infrastructure that’s why it’s so costly and so expensive we think that the best way is through interconnection and sharing and and one of the things that we’re looking at is maybe dividing out in a different way, reallocating which water

supplier serves which communities. So we’re taking a new look at the Beverly Salem Water Supply Board and seeing if maybe we could shift some of their communities to MWRA but shift other communities to the Beverly Salem Water Supply Board. So interconnection is critical and if you’re gonna do interconnection, chemistry is important. It’s I do, I do just

want to add something that was unsolicited, which I’m known to do, but, um, the three of us were, were talking, one of the things that we didn’t mention, but we want to make sure to stress is that we’re also looking at conservation. Because water that is saved is as important as new water

that’s brought into the region and the task force actually has a subcommittee to look at conservation where a lot of information is already being shared about best practices between the communities um as to how to conserve water and that’s that’s also part of the equation that we’re looking

at. And say water is cheaper. It is indeed. They caught me. Thank you all so much. Could someone talk a little bit about? What the task force has looked at in terms of planning for future water because I know that we’re looking at needing to build more housing which to my mind means more need for

water from each of our communities so as you’re looking at planning um what so what can you share with us what sort of modeling has been done for growth and water demand and how to meet. Not just now, but uh projected growths. Thank you. Well, I, um, and I should stand I referenced the um

situation with Peabody looking ahead and acquiring several wells, um, I think the, the Trument process and so for instance I mentioned Dammers and Middleton have a intermunicipal agreement that I’m told is we need probably. The whole East Coast, it’s a very unique arrangement. It has not been revisited since I want to say, 1997. And so the water

permitting regulations will have to be sort of revisited so that we’re sure that. What we have matches what we we hope to do and then in terms of I think your question might be around development and what do you do about um balancing development and and water need and availability and I think

we’re going to have to be looking at things like uh what I mentioned and um there was another one of recharge is that what I’m thinking is that the concept I’m thinking about. Um, so. You know, all of the above everything, conserving, interconnectedness, sharing, wheeling water, um, you know,

it’s not like we can’t suddenly make more of it. So, um, I think that gets into good conservation, good storage, forward thinking, and I think this is the task force subcommittees are going to come up. That’s where this new report is really going to be very helpful in guiding us with some

science, how to do that. So I could jump in to that for just a minute and, and I know Aaron wants to get into this too so but so so the model that I mentioned that’s been developed by the consultant is part of one of our studies

is gonna be a tool that we can use uh for the foreseeable future to model demand and how we meet that demand with supply and one of the things that the model is looking at is how do we create surplus capacity. Which when you’re talking about a situation of drought, it seems like a strange thing to think

about how do you have a surplus but our hope is that through conservation through bringing in additional supply through communities that have surplus water at different times sharing it with others will create the extra capacity that we’re gonna need. Now it’s hard to predict perfectly what development is

gonna be like, but we know as a for instance. That in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts taking the average of the numbers we need about 200,000 units of housing. Some of that will definitely come from our region trying to make sure that we can supply that is an important part of our

consideration so we are trying to look forward, we are trying to use the model to anticipate developing surplus capacity to respond to that development. One of the difficulties is figuring out where the development’s going to occur. Because who supplies that area could be a different thing depending on which model that we use and we definitely if

we don’t address this, we will have a conflict because we are trying to force the production of more development or cause the production of more development and at the same time we know you can’t have development without water so we’re trying to reconcile those two things. Little. I would also add from

the Watershed association’s perspective um we have for several years now been promoting the idea of water neutral growth and what that means is that you look at ways to continue developing and growing your communities but you keep your community wide water demand where it currently is and um

there are lots of ways to do that. So first kind of reality I would point out is that we use a lot more water in the summer than we do in the winter. In many of our communities, it doubles in the summertime. In Hamilton and Wenham, it’s like an increase of, it’s 150 to 175% summertime versus wintertime.

So we have to think about how do we bring that peak demand down because that summertime water, uh, we’re using it when we have the least water available, right? That’s when the river is naturally the lowest. That’s when we’re most likely to hit droughts, so we’re really thinking about driving

down peak demand and reducing the water that we’re we’re wasting outside. A lot of that water is going on the lawns, but it’s being evaporated before it even gets to the roots of the grass. So that’s a huge savings that we could have, and that water would then be available for arguably more

beneficial uses than evaporation. Um, I think this is very synonymous with the way that we’ve been thinking about energy for the past few decades. We have been saying for a long time now we have to keep growing, but we want our carbon emissions to stay level or even decrease.

How do we start thinking about water in the same way? And I, I would say as a water management professional, according to my bio that the water sector is behind the energy sector and having these conversations about what sustainable water use looks like. So if you start thinking about, um, I think Senator or

someone up here mentioned the word recharge, that’s the idea that you get water back in the ground instead of sucking it out of a well and then putting it in a sewer and then sending it out into Salem Sound. How do we get more of that water to stay here to recharge aquifers. Rivers and be

available that’s a longer term solution than what we’re talking about in the immediate term with the task force, but it’s absolutely something that, you know, we collectively need to be thinking about when we think about sustainable water management in the next coming decades. Let’s see we’ll go

over here. Thank you. I have two questions. I’ll ask them both and just address them. Uh, the first is, uh, we’ve talked about conservation and, uh, what the first step in conservation is education. Uh, in a completely unscientific poll performed by this single pollster, uh, I don’t, I have the impression

that the people of Salem and Beverly have no idea where their water comes from, and we see little in the way of restrictive use in those communities. Uh, why is there no effort to educate those communities about conservation efforts and where the water comes from? That’s question one. Question two,

in other parts of the world where communities have relied heavily on well water, which we’ve talked a little bit about, um, the draw has been so significant in seaside communities that seawater enters into the groundwater and pollutes those wells well inland of it’s it’s history. Is the committee that you’ve talked about, are they looking at that,

and is there any monitoring of those kinds of concerns going on? Thank you all for your work. Cheers. I talked to do that.

00:59:10,530	They did. Um, sure, just the first half of the question I’ll answer the second half about, um, seawater and wells, I will defer. But, um, in terms of Salem Beverly’s, uh, the comment I made about kind of the how the regulatory framework exists around water, um, in our region. And we have registered users

and we know permit holder users and those registered users that got a number in 1983 and they said this is how much water you can withdraw and if you were below that, and then everyone became a permit user and how to get a permit and then they got all their um kind of conservation conditions put

on but if you’re still at your registered number that’s why I think it’s important to recognize the history of our. Region, our communities, what’s happened in the communities. What was 1983 in Salem Beverly? What is 1983 in Salem Beverly today? Um, and I think part of these conversations, the

reason. You know, the kind of the reason why this thing has happened is somewhat. Um, regulatory, um, in terms of why is this an issue? Is it an issue because it just is an issue people don’t know, or is it an issue because of another reason so as we unpack a lot of these conversations,

um, with the task force and figure out the bigger picture of, you know, that we have 28 basins, but should we actually be measuring drought at a subbasin level to actually see what’s happening here, uh, in the Ipswich? Should we, um, be looking uh type of the watershed quite a bit about,

um. Wells and above threshold wells that everyone know we know what we was drawing from and below threshold, but there’s thousands of. And um just many of you, I know you, you heard people say, oh I can water my yard all summer. I go, well, well, we’re all standing on top of the same aquifer and

it’s just another straw in that it, you know, in the picture of water around here. So, um, you know, just really understanding that whole picture, um, and then what’s driving certain decisions and so part of the discussion and the answer, but part of this discussion is looking at why are we under kind of different. Historically different um

regulatory scenarios than others and really how do we look at that equally across the watershed to make sure we have the water we gave a consert at the same time and I will defer to anyone else about the other so I are you and, and I just want to point out that the representative is right

and a lot of what both representatives have talked about touches on changes to the Water Management Act. Which is an historic law that governs how uh water withdrawals are permitted and I would love to have some time to talk about that. So if the League of Women Voters, I would like to schedule

us for a weekend here at the community center, um, we’d be happy to talk about it, but, uh, just to get to your questions, number one, we are talking about how to do uh a regional education program. And how to do that together again for efficiency there there’s critical mass if we

all talk in the region about the importance of water supply and the importance of conservation so that’s a thought that’s in in the works in progress. Number 2, something that I should have mentioned about the structure of the task force is that there are 19 direct signatories to the charter statement.

But there’s also um an outer circle of communities that participate that are not signatories but that are in many cases coastal communities so Manchester by the Sea Rockport, Gloucester because we want to include them in the conversation. And so we do talk with them about how they’re sourcing water and

whether or not at some point we may even be able to expand sharing into those communities, uh, with regard to uh infiltration, uh, the INI that comes maybe from the saltwater in the environment that is monitored. Every permit holder they have to file reports relative to that um where you

get into an issue is if you had that INI and then you had an interconnection with one of those communities that could be a problem. So so far it hasn’t been, but that is an issue that, uh, we’re very mindful of and then, uh, third, we definitely want to talk about not only educating folks.

About where the water comes from, but what we can all do together they can serve it and some of those measures are fairly simple and some of them are fairly inexpensive but if you don’t know why it’s important, you won’t even undertake those measures so we’re hoping to have a major effort on that

and and I could tell you that. That subcommittee has brought to the task force some incredibly innovative best practices from some of the member communities that are in our region and our hope is to learn from that and expand it and then take it on the road statewide so you know we may

enlist the producers of that video uh to do the next one. Um, with a few cameos from some of us, um, relative to the importance of where your water comes from and why it’s important to conserve it because if you don’t know those things, the only thing that will govern your behavior is your water

bill, and if your water bill starts to go up, you’ll start to care about it. We need to get to it before it reaches that point. I’m also gonna give so I just wanted to add that in um Dan versus Hat Danvers is really good and pretty aggressive on conservation measures um we’re always

restricted very early in the game and for a very long time, but one of the things we’ve had success with and to this gentleman’s point, um. They get they try to match rebates, they get really good rebates for water conserving. Uh, to gadgets and appliances, yes, and so it does, it’s some of

it’s fairly low tech, and I have always assumed that every water department has this ongoing campaign. Maybe that’s something the task force can look at and spread the word and, and the best practices because that’s pretty low 93, yeah, so I will say to that point, um, Danvers and Ipswich

have really been leading the. Way on terms of um town led water conservation efforts um largely kind of encouraged by um some conditions on their water use permits. I have to also mention two things that the watershed Association is doing so when you’re saying the residents of Salem and Beverly

are not educated, we do education programs with our partners at Salem South Coastwatch. We go into every 5th grade classroom in Salem and in Beverly. Uh, to talk to them about where their water comes from, we also work with the kids at Collins Middle School, and we also do events

like this in Salem. We are trying to educate everyone about where their water comes from, um. Another issue that we are working on is to, you know, I think everyone in Hamilton and We are aware that the water bans are implemented unequally throughout the watershed. Rep Castner touched on this.

It’s a legacy of the regulatory decisions that we’ve been living under, um. The drought bill, which we mentioned it was mentioned in that film and maybe a few times since then, um, is a piece of legislation that is aimed in part at making it so that those water conservation standards are standardized

across the state. Everyone would have to conserve during drought, um, including those communities um that currently don’t because of their regulatory history. And the last thing I would say is that um the city of Salem is a large water user largely because it is a population center in our region. When you

look at per capita water use, Salem is actually quite low um because they don’t have lawns and they don’t have swimming pools and so if I’m looking at trying to reach one person and educate one person, Salem’s not the low hanging fruit because. Already are using around 40 gallons per person

per day, which is the number that we always cite as the target. Other communities are up above 60, up above 70 in the summertime. And so those are the communities where we see education as potentially having the most impact because you can start to change individual people’s behaviors and drive

down water use. like that, do you think? I urge and uh very involved with the Shabacco Lake water situation and watershed situation, and Dave Lash was here, but he had to leave so uh I just wanted to question and I really appreciate the task force and the work that all y’all are doing on

this, uh. The Peabody well signpoos and then drawing that into the Shabacca Lake watershed availability and other regional things that exist and emphasizing that obviously that’s not the solution to the big problem, but it seems like maximizing all of the local resources, making sure they’re protected. So that they can be used, can’t be so arrogant

to look at a potential watershed availability and say, well, you know, we need development here and if it kills the watershed, oh well, we’re beyond that, I hope. So anyways, I just wanted to see how that plays into anything since we are in Hamilton and uh how these local places can help mitigate

the issue. Thanks. I see S Yeah, what’s up?

01:08:55,770	OK, I’ll start. I’ll start, um, so I think that the question here is around development and protecting our water resources, um, and this is another one of the, you know, considerations, especially the watershed association is thinking about, um, the developments that are happening right next to our surface water sources. So whether that be

the river or various ponds, tobacco lake, um. One of the best ways that you can protect water resources is to conserve the land around it. That’s not always possible. We’re, we also promote development, um, uh, methods that are most protective of watershed health, so leaving a buffer between a development

and. Um, the closest surface water, uh, letting water infiltrate into the ground. The ground is a great natural cleaner of water. And so if we can let water soak into the ground rather than running off sheeting across parking lots and straight into rivers is a Terrible thing for water quality and does jeopardize water sources when you’re thinking

about surface water supplies. Um, so all of those aspects again, it’s about balancing our need for developments and housing and how do we do that but protect the nearby, um, surface water. Supplies the watershed Association looks at every development project proposed in the watershed and will comment on the ones that we feel, uh, have the potential

to impact river and watershed health, um, and those are the types of things we’re looking at. How is this contributing to stormwater pollution? Are there things that we could do to mitigate the impacts of stormwater runoff, um, on the quality of those waters? Do any of you add anything to that?

Yeah, sure. Um, just in terms of, um, water resource protection and development, um, we spend. Yeah, I agree with, um, everything that Earn Body Casey mentioned in terms of when you have, uh, water supply and when in the investigations that we do when we look at land use in general,

um, as to what areas need to be protected and potentially free for development, what areas and what you’ll see is, um, some of the maps of zone one, zone 2, zone and other, um, areas of recharge and, um, and there’s different protection layers, um. On, on those different areas but also when

you have a water supply, I agree with Erin that you need to make sure. The areas that need to be protected and are the areas that we need to be careful about with development in terms of, you know, making sure that we’re mitigating stormwater runoffs and that we’re doing recharge instead of anything that runs

over the surface, um, for either roofs or parking lots or other things, um, to get the water back into the, um, back into the ground for recharge, um. But so I think it’s it I think it we just need to look at the kind of drawing the circle of

where these where certain the areas we wanna protect and then look at the other areas that we might want to um uh potentially grow um what we’re looking to to do so thank you. So I, I just wanted to take a minute to say thank you to Alex. um, you’re involved in a lot of these conversations

that we really appreciated it and of course Dave is a legend. He’s gonna be on the Mount Rushmore of water conservation whenever it gets built. So, so thank you for that. And one of the things that I, I just wanted to stress is. We’re very careful about not putting too much on the plate of the task

force so that we can continue to move forward and and stay focused, but there are several regional organizations that are working on issues like the Shabacco lake watershed issue and doing it very well, and we have had some conversations and I think you’ve been part of some of them about how we

might link some of those organizations together so that there’s a. Coordinated effort without undermining the core mission of any one of them individually and I think there’s a lot of promise in that and hopefully we can continue um to follow up on it and we do have conversations between task

force members of of the other associations so we’re trying to work on that and again as Erin has mentioned the Ipso Triver Watershed Association tends to look at um all of those and I know there are other people. In the room that car of the pie, uh, the, the three rivers, the, the Parker, the

Ipswich, um, and the others, uh, what the E is for Essex, um, to look at, to look at that. So there you have a couple of different rivers with 3 different organizations all working together. So I, I think the answer is to try to link them in a synergistic sort of way, um, and try to move forward

because there are a lot of issues of commonality and thank you for whoever said Essex. I appreciate that. Oh my goodness, um, I think we’re, we’re kind of running out of time here. Maybe we’ll do one more question. I, I will stay as long as people want to come ask me questions. So if you

want to come up afterwards, feel free, but um, I really do appreciate everyone coming out today and being engaged on this issue. Is there any, is there one last burning question? Sure. I think that regional education is one of the, the important things that I’ve heard tonight. And also I’m wondering how much

could more be done with the schools. And the ordinary citizens as far as education, as far as learning what to do about the water and also wondering if the local colleges, their professors or their students could be of assistance. And I get this. So, uh, this is a huge focus for the

Watershed Association this year. We’re doing a roadshow. This is my second event in one week doing talks like this. I was in Linfield last week, um, and we’re looking for opportunities to connect to people, specifically people that wouldn’t come to an event called the Future of Water. So how

do we start talking to people who are not engaged in this issue and get them engaged? And so to that end we’re looking for connections with any. Community groups that are interested in having these conversations we have really good, um, as I mentioned, relationships with our 5th grade

classrooms. Uh, we do work with local colleges, but we could always deepen those relationships, um, and I would say high schools to our untapped area where we’re we’re looking to penetrate deeper and, and get high school age kids involved in this conversation, um, and in the work that we’re

doing. Do any of you have any final comments either on the question of education or on anything else? Just thank you to all of the engagement look at this crowd uh freezing Tuesday it’s Tuesday, right? 1 freeze feels like Thursday freezing Tuesday night and this is wonderful. So thank you.

So yeah, first of all, we really appreciate your interest in this subject we’re all working very hard on this and to have you. Come out tonight, um, really provides us with a feeling of support for the work that we’re doing. Second, I want to remind everyone that you can follow the task force

on our website, which is actually a page of the Metropolitan Area Planning Commission website. We’re gonna work to make it more visible, but for now that’s the repository where you can find everything that we’re doing. And then as we move forward in the process we hope to have some public presentations so that we can involve everybody

in what we’re thinking about and what we’re talking about so again thanks to everyone that this has been great thanks to the League of Women voters, the watershed Association, but really for folks to come out, it’s been said several times uh on a little bit of a cold night in the middle of the week

to talk about water it’s really heartening to see so thank you. And. But again, I just echo, uh, Senator Char’s words on behalf of the League of Women Voters of Hamilton wins. Thank you for coming out. Uh, please, uh, visit the tables at the back of the room and drop off your evaluation forms. We really

appreciate, um, your feedback and have a wonderful evening. Thanks so much, everybody and thank you.