Green Acton Supports Water Rate Study Article for AWD Annual Meeting

The warrant for the Acton Water District (AWD) 2023 annual meeting includes an article asking the district to commission an external expert study of water rates. Green Acton Directors voted to support this article because it has the potential to support Green Acton’s mission by conserving water resources and advancing environmental justice.

The Acton Water District is a municipal entity separate from the Town of Acton. As such, it holds an annual meeting analogous to, but separate from, Acton Town Meeting. The 2023 AWD annual district meeting will be on Wednesday, March 15, at the R.J. Grey Junior High School, 16 Charter Road, at 6pm. All citizens of Acton can speak and vote at the annual district meeting, regardless of whether or not they are customers of the AWD.

Article 25: Water Rate Study is a non-binding resolution, brought by Citizen’s Petition. It states:

To determine whether the Annual Meeting shall request that the Acton Water District, as part of its next 5-yearly Master Plan update or through another timely mechanism, commission an external expert study of options for structuring future water rates, with the goal of generating sufficient revenue to cover operations, maintenance, and debt service, while strongly encouraging water conservation and keeping water affordable for low-income Acton residents.

Much of the background information that informed this warrant article can be found in two Green Acton web posts:

• The Challenging Interrelationships among Water Rates, Conservation, and Environmental Justice
• Perspectives: Options for Funding Acton’s Response to PFAS

Green Acton’s support for the article was approved as the first use of Green Acton’s newly formalized process for deciding to support, oppose, or take no position on warrant articles proposed for Acton Town Meeting or the AWD Annual District Meeting. That process begins when a Green Acton Committee assembles a “Case Statement,” including an explanation of why the article is good (or bad) for Acton and how supporting (or opposing) it aligns with Green Acton’s mission, together with draft text to be read aloud at the meeting. (The case for supporting the Water Rate Study article was brought forward by the Water Committee.) The relevant committee presents the case to the Green Acton Directors, who then decide on whether to accept the recommendation of the committee. If the Directors vote in favor of supporting or opposing an article, the statement of support or opposition is finalized and read aloud at the meeting by one of the Green Acton Co-Presidents.

Green Acton’s statement of support for Article 25: Water Rate Study says:

My name is _______; I’m an Acton resident and Co-President of Green Acton.

I’m speaking on behalf of the Green Acton Directors, who support this warrant article. We do so because our mission includes protection of Acton’s water resources and advancement of environmental justice.

The water study proposed by this article has the potential to identify practical ways to use the price signal to incentivize greater water conservation by residential, commercial, and municipal customers, especially during seasons of greatest water scarcity.

Such a study might also discern ways to decrease water costs for low-volume users, who are often lower-income residents, while protecting the district’s financial status and stability. This potential speaks to Green Acton’s environmental justice goal of making environmental goods and benefits — in this case, clean, safe drinking water — available to all.

The 2023 AWD Annual Meeting Warrant includes several other articles of potential interest to environmentally minded Acton voters. Article 17 asks voters to appropriate funds to acquire a parcel of land bounded by Main Street, Brook Street, and Great Road (at 549 Main Street). As described on the Acton Conservation Trust’s website, this parcel would be protective of groundwater quality and quantity at the AWD’s Central Acton well field, and also has high historical significance and conservation value for wildlife. Articles 19 and 20 ask the voters to authorize funding to modify the South Acton Water Treatment Plant and the Central Acton Water Treatment Plant to treat for PFAS.