Taunton River Watershed Study

The Final Report of Phase I of the Taunton River Watershed Management Plan is now available! This report is available for download below.

This Taunton River Watershed Management Plan is intended to be a comprehensive long-term roadmap to protect and restore the sensitive natural resources of the Taunton watershed while enhancing the quality of life and vitality of the residents who live, work, and play in the watershed. The planning effort has been divided into three phases consisting of:

Phase I – data collection, initial watershed assessment, long-term visioning and scoping for subsequent phases;
Phase II – implementation of targeted pilot projects to highlight and demonstrate specific management measures; and
Phase III – widespread implementation of management measures and plan adaptations as necessary to reflect changing conditions.

This report is the culmination of Phase I which included the following important accomplishments:

The collection of detailed baseline data related to water use and water transfer throughout the watershed;
Development of a planning-level water balance tool to evaluate human impacts to the natural water balance in the watershed;
Performance of a planning level assessment of hydrologic conditions and ecological indicator conditions in the over 100 sub-watershed of the watershed to prioritize the sub-watersheds future management efforts;
Evaluation of local codes and practices in a case study community (Town of Easton) to highlight potential smart growth, low impact design (LID), innovative wastewater management and other practices to improve management of and limit impacts to water resources and habitat areas;
Development of a broad set of conclusions from which to build upon in subsequent phases of the planning effort; and
Development of a detailed scope of work for Phase II of this planning effort.

Section 1 of this report provides a brief introduction. Section 2 describes the significant data collection effort required for the development of the water balance tool and for the general understanding of the conditions and methods of water management in the watershed. Section 3 of this report describes the significant public outreach and public participation component of this project. Section 4 describes the water balance tool, including the methodology, assumptions and results. Section 5 describes the analysis of riparian buffers and land conservation. Section 6 presents the case study of the Town of Easton . Section 7 presents general conclusions for Phase I of the project, and Section 8 presents the scope of work for Phase II of the project to develop the Taunton River Watershed Management Plan. Appendix A provides a description of the assumptions used in the Water Budget Tool. In addition, the database of watershed data used for the water budget analysis is provided, along with maps of the estimated water and sewer service areas that were created for use in the water budget analysis.

Download the Final Report by clicking the links below.

A hard copy has also been provided to the Bridgewater State College Watershed Access Lab library (http://www.bridgew.edu/wal/index.htm).