THE PROJECT BASICS
The Town on average per year filters 375 million gallons at the current water treatment plant.
The Wastewater plant dumps on average 300 million gallons of clean water into Greenwood Creek per year.
That means the town dumps 80% (300/375=0.80 or 80%) of the water that we originally clean at the water plant then recleans at the wastewater plant which dumps into the river closing the river to clamming.
The red line represents the distance needed for the town’s current proposal (over 2 miles).
The blue line represents the distance needed in the Ipswich Sustainable Water Project (under ¼ of a mile).
An educated decision for the future of our water is coming soon. Let's put our democracy to work by voting to utilize nanotechnology and reverse osmosis to filter our drinking water.
Greenwood Creek Pipe from the plant to the River/Creek
WHAT THE EXPERTS HAVE TO SAY
If you are a local or "townie", you're familiar with the water drought. We have watched our water bills rise and the river decrease in size.
The following is an article from 2021 posted on masslive.com by Jackson Cote
"This Massachusetts river is among the top 10 most endangered in the country, called ‘poster child’ for outdated water system
In Ipswich, outdated laws are keeping much of the watershed from being subject to regulation, officials said. Around 80% of the roughly 30 million gallons of water that is withdrawn from the river every day for human use is exported and "gone forever," according to Wayne Castonguay, executive director of the Ipswich River Watershed Association. (Courtesy Steve Fantone/Ipswich River Watershed Association)
Last summer, at the height of Massachusetts’ worst drought in years, the 35-mile-long Ipswich River was flowing at a meager rate of 0.5 cubic feet per second — “basically nothing.”
Those are the words of Wayne Castonguay, executive director of the Ipswich River Watershed Association, who explained in October 2020 how whenever dry conditions hit the state, the waterbody he monitors so regularly is typically hit the hardest, in large part because of an antiquated state law that allows for an excessive amount of water to be withdrawn from the Ipswich."
He is referring to the Ipswich River. If we do not address this problem, our children, grandchildren and great- grandchildren will be suffering the consequences. We have a viable solution here to end the draught while saving an exorbitant amount of money in the process.
courtesy Steve Fantone/Ipswich River Watershed Association
WHAT IS NEEDED?
We need support and awareness of the problem. Water filtration may seem complicated but when a plan is in place and the data is there to back it up (which it is), all we really need is your awareness and vote. We will be the first in the state to utilize this technology and therefore set the standard in water preservation in Massachusetts. The drought will only get worse over time, and we are in a unique position in that we need a new water treatment plant. This type of treatment plant does not dump our water into the river but reuses and recycles it. The cost is about 10% of the cost of the current proposed water treatment plant. This would free up funds for the building of our school and civil service buildings.
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The filtration systems (above) come fully assembled, delivered, setup and tested by the company's technicians and then turned on and ready to go. It creates 99.9% pure water.
These photos show the low water levels in 2016 behind Ebsco. If we install this new system, it will decrease the pressure that draws from the River by 50%. The map of the Ipswich-Parker River basins shows all of the towns that use the River water in and out of the watersheds. If Ipswich adopts this Project, others may follow suit and the River will flow correctly again. Even if other towns do not adopt it, we will have clean drinking water that is drought proof.
