New Partnership to Protect Source Water on Private Land in New Hampshire
Lauren Zielinski, Merrimack River Watershed Council
All water in New Hampshire comes from somewhere, usually starting as rain. It enters ponds, lakes, and rivers on the surface, or is absorbed into the soil and stored as groundwater. The areas where these water sources are available for human use is referred to as “source water.” Protecting these source water resources is critical for human health, and for financial and ecological reasons. Humans require drinking water that is free from contaminants, such as bacteria, heavy metals, and toxic substances. Public drinking water systems take water from natural sources (such as rivers, streams, lakes, reservoirs, springs, and groundwater), treat it, and then pipe it to households and businesses. In rural areas, homeowners pump groundwater directly to their homes. The cleaner all of these water sources are, the less time, energy, and money it takes to treat it to meet drinking water standards. In addition, clean water also promotes a healthy ecosystem, which in turn can function to remove contaminants naturally and increase resilience to pollution events. By protecting our source water areas and their ecosystems, we are ensuring a sustainable future for our local communities and natural ecosystems.
NHDES currently supports source water protection efforts through small grants to help local suppliers, municipalities, and organizations delineate and protect source water protection areas, as well as larger grants to protect important lands in source water protection areas through the Drinking Water and Groundwater Trust Fund (DWGTF).
In 2021, NHDES joined the New Hampshire Source Water Protection Partnership, which provides funding and technical expertise for important conservation and restoration activities in source water areas on privately owned lands. The goal of this Partnership is to develop multi-benefit projects that will protect high-priority source water areas for drinking water, enhance climate resilience related to flooding and drought, and restore habitat for threatened fish and wildlife species. The $6.8 million in funding provided by the United States Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service complements other local, state and federal funding sources, including the grant programs from NHDES, to bolster conservation and restoration activities in New Hampshire.
The Source Water Protection Partnership brings together nine New Hampshire-based organizations that specialize in land conservation and ecological restoration: Southeast Land Trust, Society for the Protection of NH Forests, Merrimack River Watershed Council, Trout Unlimited, Connecticut River Conservancy, The Nature Conservancy, NHDES, DWGTF, and Pennichuck Water Works.
If you are interested in learning more about opportunities under this Partnership, please contact Lauren Zielinski at lauren@merrimack.org.