At first glance, SD828 — the Quabbin Equity legislation — sounds like a well-intentioned effort to support Massachusetts towns surrounding the Quabbin Reservoir. But a closer look reveals deep concerns about balance, responsibility, and sustainability — concerns that the MWRA Advisory Board outlined in a recent letter to the MWRA Board of Directors. The Advisory Board voted overwhelmingly at its March 20, 2025, meeting to oppose this bill and has formally asked the MWRA Board of Directors to consider the issue at its next meeting.
What Is Fairness?
At its core, fairness is about three things: balance, responsibility, and sustainability.
- Balance means recognizing past sacrifices while ensuring no party bears a disproportionate burden going forward.
- Responsibility lies with those entrusted to manage and protect vital resources.
- Sustainability ensures that obligations are clear, predictable, and don’t balloon indefinitely over time.
These values mirror the roles of the three key players in our water system:
- Quabbin host communities, whose historical losses deserve continued support.
- The Division of Water Supply Protection (DWSP), which manages and protects the watershed.
- MWRA and its ratepayers, who provide the funding and bear the costs of running and sustaining the system.
BALANCE — Recognizing What Has Been Given and What Is Being Asked
Since 1985, MWRA ratepayers have contributed over $850 million to preserve and protect the watersheds — including more than $200 million in direct payments to the Quabbin host communities. These include Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) contributions paid at each town’s highest tax rate, plus a “hold harmless” clause that ensures no annual payment drops below the previous year.
The proposed legislation would impose an additional $35 million annually on ratepayers, pushing water assessments up by nearly 14% in the first year and triggering the first double-digit rate increase in over a decade. This would be on top of the already generous and stable funding structure that has been in place for four decades.
The Quabbin host communities have already been recognized and continue to be supported. Fairness means knowing when an obligation has been met — not transforming a historic agreement into an open-ended entitlement.
RESPONSIBILITY — Who Is the True Steward of the Watershed?
Some argue that proximity to the reservoir makes the host communities its natural stewards. But true stewardship is about active management, not geography.
That role belongs to the Division of Water Supply Protection (DWSP), whose mission is to preserve the watershed and safeguard drinking water for over 3 million people. DWSP:
- Maintains forest health and water quality.
- Manages public access and recreation.
- Enforces watershed rules and regulations.
Meanwhile, MWRA and its ratepayers supply the funding that makes DWSP’s work possible and ensure PILOT payments continue year after year. Stewardship is not about being nearby — it’s about doing the work.
SUSTAINABILITY — Preventing Open-Ended Financial Obligations
The revised version of this bill replaces a per-gallon water tax with something even more troubling: a mandatory $35 million annual transfer to a new Quabbin Host Community Trust Fund, with no sunset clause and escalating costs each year.
It also attempts to undo a long-standing legal precedent by requiring PILOT payments for submerged land — land traditionally excluded under Massachusetts law. This change could cost MWRA ratepayers millions more annually and disrupt the state’s entire PILOT system.
Add in the expansion of a water service feasibility study from 12 communities adjacent to the Quabbin to over 70 communities, and it’s clear this legislation asks too much, too fast, with too little justification. The MWRA is not an economic development agency. And ratepayers should not be footing the bill for a study that strays so far outside the MWRA’s core mission to the tune of approximately $2.5 million.
A Call for Measured, Responsible Action
This is not a question of whether Quabbin host communities deserve recognition. They do. And for decades, MWRA ratepayers have acknowledged that through generous and sustained support.
But fairness isn’t a blank check. It isn’t one-sided. And it isn’t sustainable if it undermines the very system it claims to support.
At its March meeting, the MWRA Advisory Board approved a letter to the MWRA Board of Directors urging them to join in opposition to SD828. We believe this legislation would severely impact our ability to keep rates affordable, maintain good governance, and sustain a working partnership with host communities that has already achieved much.
We urge everyone involved to return to the shared principles that have served our region well for four decades: balance, responsibility, and sustainability.
📄 Read the full letter here
