Worcester Receives Drinking Water Supply Protection Grant
The city of Worcester today received a $400,000 grant from the state's Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA) department to acquire the Muir Meadow property in Paxton and Leicester in an effort to protect its drinking water supply.
Drinking Water Supply Protection Program grants were awarded by Lt. Gov. Timothy Murray and EEA Secretary Rick Sullivan in Paxton and also included another $400,000 for a 21-acre land acquisition in Danvers.
The Muir Meadow parcel includes fields, wooded uplands, streams and a portion of a pond which drains into Worcester's Lynde Brook Reservoir, a water source for about 200,000 people in the Worcester area. The 57-acre property is an existing water supply source for Worcester, Auburn, Paxton, Holden, Millbury and West Boylston and involves a partnership among the city of Worcester, the towns of Paxton and Leicester and the Greater Worcester Land Trust.
"We are absolutely delighted by the purchase," said Allen Fletcher, president of the Greater Worcester Land Trust. "It connects to the very first piece of land we acquired, and we have been after it for a long, long time."
The property links existing protected open space to hiking trails and wildlife corridors. The project will complete nearly 13 miles of continuous protected land stretching from Rutland to Leicester and protect it from development, which officials say could pose a threat to the reservoir. The property will be open to the public for passive recreation.
The program has protected 2,491 acres of land since 2005 and provides funds to assist cities and towns throughout the commonwealth in protecting the quality and quantity of public drinking water supply sources. Funding comes from the Energy and Environment Bond Bill signed by Gov. Deval Patrick in 2008.
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