Eel River group seeks conditions on Plymouth's irrigation usage

By Robert Knox, Globe Correspondent  |  July 29, 2007

The Eel River Watershed Association, an environmental group that has clashed with the town of Plymouth before, is challenging the town's right to pump water to irrigate a recreational complex and golf course without a water-management plan to protect water levels in the nearby Eel River.

The association is seeking conditions that would prohibit the town from pumping water from the river during dry periods to irrigate the Forges Field recreation area and the town-owned Crosswinds Golf Course.

Lowering the river's level harms it by promoting weed growth, raising the water temperature, and choking fish and other creatures adapted to living there, according to the environmental organization. It has appealed a state permit allowing the town to pump 42 million gallons a year to irrigate the two facilities.

The appeal is aimed at adding a "streamflow-triggers" condition to the town's permit that would force a reduction in pumping when the river falls below normal levels.

The group's president, Mettie Whipple, said her association is pushing the town to accept the same kind of conditions under which the nearby Pinehills residential development operates. A permit granted Pinehills by the state this month includes limits aimed at maintaining the river's water level. Pinehills accepted that provision after negotiations with the Eel River Watershed Association, according to state Department of Environmental Protection spokeswoman Theresa Baroa.

Town officials say that restrictions are not necessary because of conservation measures agreed to by the town, such as frequent inspection of the fields and golf course to prevent over-watering. State officials have backed that position, noting the town's conservation measures, and citing a state policy that calls for balancing environmental considerations with social and economic ones. David Gould, Plymouth's environmental manager, declined further comment.

The town's facilities fall within the largely undeveloped 14-square-mile Eel River Watershed, home to 31 state and federally listed rare and endangered species. It's also home to a rare cold-water fish called the slimy sculpin.

The watershed association wants state regulators to consider all human demands for water from a watershed before granting anyone permits to pump more. The state's Water Management Act, they say, supports determining the total amount of water that can be withdrawn without harming the environment before a new water withdrawal permit.

But determining what is a "safe" water yield is not always clear cut, state officials say.

"The development of a standardized approach to defining basin safe yield has been and continues to be elusive," the state environmental agency's deputy regional director, David DeLorenzo, who approved the town's withdrawal permit, wrote in a letter to Whipple. The permit will not go into effect until the appeal is settled. Preliminary motions will not be accepted until November.

Robert Knox can be contacted at rc.knox@gmail.com.
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