Public Water Withdrawal Permit Set To Increase If Land Bank Restricts Milestone Road Property

The Land Bank is poised to set aside a parcel of land off Milestone Road for drinking water mitigation, allowing the town to withdraw more water from the island’s aquifer by guaranteeing that the land will only be used for walking and natural conservation.

“We're going to gain a lot of water,” Nantucket Water Department director Mark Willett told his commissioners last week.

In Massachusetts, voluntary conservation restrictions on land near public drinking water wells can be used to protect the water beneath from development and other intense use.

The news comes as the Wannacomet Water Company prepares to open a new well in North Pasture, off Polpis Road, in hopes of supplying the town with an additional water source. While the drought conditions that have plagued Nantucket for nearly a year are finally easing, the island isn’t clear of the drought yet, and, especially as climate change continues to change precipitation patterns, it is always possible that there is another dry summer on the horizon.

“When that well gets turned on, if we're in a drought situation again next year, when the new well is up and running, we're going to have more water and more availability of water to pump in our permit because of the Land Bank,” Willett said. “They deserve a big kudos.”

How much water? Willett projected that the state withdrawal permit for the town’s public water wells could increase from 20.6 million gallons per day to 21.4 million gallons.

“The ability for us to gain even 250,000 gallons of water a day is huge,” Willett said. “It just gives us more freedom and more flexibility to manage the situation we're in.”

The Land Bank Commission is scheduled to vote on whether to endorse the proposal on Tuesday.