Draft State Water Plan Released for Public Comment

The Connecticut Water Planning Council is developing its first State Water Plan and wants to hear from water users—commercial, industrial, residential, and recreational.
Legislation approved by the 2014 General Assembly charged the WPC with developing a plan for managing Connecticut’s water resources and submitting it for legislative review by Jan. 1, 2018.
The draft plan follows 10 priority policy recommendations:

1. Water management should follow scientific
   examples.
2. As possible, remove obsolete water registrations.
3. Encourage innovation in agricultural water
   practices.
4. Water data (or access to it) should be centralized in
   a single database and/or portal to other sources.
5. Consider Class B Water for individual non-potable
   uses if environmentally prudent and cost-effective,
   using guidelines to be developed by the WPC using
   the Triple Bottom Line metrics (environmental,
   social, economic).
6. Develop an education and outreach strategy
   focusing on water conservation topics.
7. The WPC should provide ongoing review of other
   Connecticut state plans in order to identify and
   address inconsistencies.
8. Encourage regional water solutions where they are
   practical and beneficial.
9. Reaffirm support for the protection of Class I
   and II land contributing to water supply. Expand
   protections to other watershed lands and land that
   feed aquifers used for public water supply or by
   private wells.
10. Create a data-based water education program
    aimed at the general public and municipal officials

While public comments will be accepted online until Nov. 20, a hearing is also scheduled at Wallingford Town Hall on Nov. 8 from 6:30 to 8:30 pm that Rep. Mary Mushinsky (D-Wallingford) will host.
“The state’s drinking water sources are among the highest quality in the United States,” WPC chair Jack Betkoski said.
“We work to balance out-of-stream uses of water, like drinking water and industrial uses, and in-stream uses, like ecology and recreation.
“But there are many pressures on our water resources, and Connecticut’s good fortune will continue only if we can manage those resources wisely and consistently in the future.”

For more information, contact CBIA’s Eric Brown (860.244.1926) | @CBIAericb