2/23/14    PROTECT THE WEKEPEKE

 

Article 51, passed unanimously at the Sterling Town Meeting of May 13, 2013, stated:

 

To see if the town will vote to authorize the Select Board to petition the Massachusetts State Legislature to enact a law designating all the waters of the Wekepeke reservoir aquifer, owned by the town of Clinton, both above and below ground, to be available for the preservation and protection of its natural resources and for sustainable municipal usage, such as for drinking water supply, fighting fires, local businesses and farms, and to prohibit any and all commercial bottling in any form of said waters.

 

Citizen's concern:

To date, there has been no progress on this town voted directive. We are urging our Select Board to follow the instructions of the May 2013 town meeting and ensure this legislation is filed with the Massachusetts Legislature. This must, by law, be completed before July 1, 2014.

 

Nestlé's Chairman and former CEO has declared that "access to water should not be a public right." In Nestle's company policy, all water is a resource that should be considered as a commodity that can be bought and sold. Though Nestle does not have an option on the Wekepeke water at this time, it has an ongoing desire to obtain the water.

 

What Article 51 will do:

• Protect the natural resources of the Wekepeke land and water.

• Declare the Wekepeke water as a sustainable municipal water supply.

• Prohibit any and all commercial bottling or other corporate commercial venture.

 

What Article 51 will not do:

• Give Clinton the right to sell the Wekepeke water for commercial bottling. By law, Clinton does not and never did have the right to dig wells or sell the water to corporations for bottling. No town, including Sterling, has that right

• Article 51 does not take away Clinton's right to the Wekepeke as a municipal water supply.

 

Please come to the Wednesday, February 26 2014 Select Board Meeting in support of Article 51 for the protection of the Wekepeke. Butterick - SB Room 2nd floor 7:40pm

 

 

On 6/3/2013 Clinton is voting on the below bill: below is a history of the Wekepeke saga.  Clinton still wants to sell the water to Nestle.

Article 25 in Clinton town meeting warrant

To see if the Town will vote to authorize the Board of Selectmen to petition the

Massachusetts State Legislature requesting that it oppose any further restrictions on the property commonly known as the Wekepeke Watershed Lands consisting of approximately 564 acres of upland forest and associated wetlands located in the Town of Sterling and Leominster, Worcester County, Massachusetts, which property is already restricted pursuant to a Conservation Easement a/k/a Conservation Restriction granted by the Town of Clinton to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in June 2008 and recorded at Book 43304, Page 1, in

the Worcester County Registry of Deeds, or act in any manner relating thereto.

Fact:
Sterling is not in any way restricting Clinton.  The Sterling article 51 passed at the May 13, 2013 annual town meeting allows Clinton to have the only right it ever had which is to take Wekepek water for its own municipal usage


Clinton and the Wekepeke water supply

The story begins in 1874 when Clinton realized that its population had grown significantly and that the town could no longer depend on private wells and cisterns to meet its water needs.  So in 1875, the town petitioned the Massachusetts legislature to allow Clinton to supply itself with water.  The act, Chapter 98, was passed on April 4, 1876 giving Clinton the right to take any pond or stream within the town limits as a water supply. 

 

Sandy Pond, located in the southwestern part of Clinton was the chosen source   Sandy Pond was a beautiful pond with an  excellent and bountiful source of pure water.  There was only one problem.  Everyone in Clinton lived uphill from Sandy Pond.  Clinton would have to build expensive pumping stations, and Clinton did not want to spend the money.  Instead, Clinton looked for a gravity feed system and found it in the Wekepeke area, which were the highest hills in Sterling.  .

 

In  1882, Clinton sent a new petition to the state Legislature, which was granted in Chapter 14 of the Acts and Resolves passed in that year.  Chapter 14 allowed Clinton to take the waters of Wekepeke Brook and impound it in reservoirs.  All of the residents of that area were forced to sell their land to Clinton for a price determined by Clinton.  Several families had farmed their land for generations.  There were at least three mills and other small businesses on the Wekepeke Brook providing employment.  All were lost and it did not matter to Clinton

 

Clinton immediately began building the necessary infrastructure as well as five reservoirs to impound the waters of Wekepeke Brook.   The following year, 1883, Wekepeke water was flowing into Clinton.  Clinton was delighted to have saved vast sums of money. They had free water and in their annual reports, declared a profit.  It was a total gravity feed system and there was enough pressure for the water to flow up to High Street

 

Under the provisions of the law, Clinton was only allowed to take surface water; no drilling of wells was permitted.  That has never changed.   A stipulation of the law required Clinton to keep all the infrastructure, reservoirs, dams, buildings and pipes in good repair.  The law also required Clinton to pay in-lieu of taxes to Sterling. 

 

 Then in a series of drought years, Clinton realized there was not enough water in the Wekepeke to supply itself.  Rather than look to Sandy Pond,  Clinton wanted another gravity feed system.  It looked again to Sterling and found East Lake Waushacum, uphill from Clinton.   Clinton successfully petitioned the state legislature and acquired East Lake Waushacum as a second and additional gravity feed water supply.  Clinton began to build the infrastructure necessary to pipe the water of the Lake to Clinton – the Coffer Dam and the pipe under Chace Hill Rd heading toward Clinton still exist.  Clinton never finished the project because East Lake Waushacum was taken over by the state as part of the Wachusett Reservoir system in the late 1890’s.  In the 1930’s the state turned East Lake Waushacum back to Sterling.

 

After completion of the Wachusett Reservoir Clinton obtained some of its water from the Wachusett Reservoir for free, and also continued to take water from the Wekepeke until 1962.   By then, Wekepeke infrastructure needed some repairs, and Clinton decided not to spend the money for those  repairs, although by law it was required to do so.  About this time, it also ceased to make in-lieu of tax payments to Sterling.

 

Clinton again successfully petitioned the legislature.  Now, all of its water came from the Wachusett Reservoir for free.  So there it stood for several decades.  The Wekepeke infrastructure continued to crumble and no one was using the water for municipal needs.  Then in 2007 Clinton decided it would sell the water to Nestle Corporation, which planned to drill wells and pump water for its bottling industry. 

 

Overlooked by Clinton was the fact that they did not have the right to sell water to any corporation.  The Chapter 14 law was very specific:  Clinton could provide itself with surface water from the Wekepeke.  When Clinton wanted to sell water to Lancaster, it took an act of the Legislature, Chapter 114, to allow them to sell the water.  When it wanted to sell water to Sterling, it took another act of the Legislature, Chapter 322.  Legally, Clinton had no right to sell water to Nestle.  It would have required an act of the Legislature to obtain that right.  Sterling leadership overlooked that requirement as well.

 

Sterling residents found out about the proposed Clinton-Nestle negotiations at the last minute.  Nevertheless, Sterling residents mounted a determined and exhausting campaign to prevent Clinton from selling water to Nestle.  Clinton backed down, Nestle backed down and the Sterling Select Board supported the people. 

 

Although Nestle has said it has no immediate plans to pursue the Wekepeke water, it has admitted it is still interested and would like to have the water.  But the facts are clear.  Clinton does not have the right to sell the water to Nestle.  Sterling is not restricting the only right Clinton has which is the right to use Wekepeke water for municipal purposes only.  Sterling residents are trying to forever protect the Wekepeke