The Hidden Story of Water

by Vicki Brown Stevens, Special to the Town Wide Mall,
with introduction by Glenn C. Koenig, webmaster

Maynard, MA - The Public Works Department in Maynard is in the process of establishing a 4th well field in town, in order to provide Maynard with enough fresh drinking water for current and estimated future needs.

For the first time, Town Wide Mall is fortunate to have a guest reporter - Vicki Brown Stevens, a resident of the town and an experienced journalist.  She has contributed an excellent article on Maynard’s efforts to provide enough fresh drinking water for its residents and businesses.  As with a number of surrounding towns, Maynard must operate its three water systems on its own: fresh water, wastewater treatment, and storm water drainage.

Vicki’s story is a detailed and fully illustrated report.  As it runs 10 pages, I have attached it as a PDF file, here below, for you to download and read, instead of incorporating it directly into this news feed.

maynards_water_story_an_update.pdf
File Size:	1385 kb
File Type:	pdf

Download File

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Comment

I cannot emphasize enough the importance of this story!  It is all too easy to take water for granted, as we use it on a daily basis.  The availability of fresh water is as it should be, ready whenever we need it.  Just open the tap, or flush the toilet and everything just works.  Unlike energy, which can readily be converted from one form to another, there is no substitute for local water supplies.  And yet, our very lives depend upon it.

Because water is so easy to use, it’s also easy to forget what makes all this possible.  This story, provided by Vicki, brings to light many of the factors and costs involved and I urge you to take the time to read it in its entirety, if possible.

The availability of water in Maynard is a key factor that impacts many other aspects of life in town. The amount we pay for water affects our cost of living here, of course.  But the availability of water also limits our use of existing buildings (residential versus business).  For the future, it limits our prospects for the redevelopment of the few remaining parcels of land we have available, which, in turn, limits our potential tax revenue.

Our democracy was established on the principle that individuals take an active role in overseeing government.  Since our nation was established, the technology that supports our lives has become more and more extensive and complex.  Our challenge is to work as diligently as we can to inform ourselves of the issues faced by government so that we can continue our role as active citizens.  Many of us have such demands on our time, on a daily basis, that it may be difficult to do this as well as we might wish.  For that, I forgive you. We each do what we can.

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