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By Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone

May is Water’s Worth It month and a good time to reflect on how vital our water system is to our day-to-day lives and what we can do to make sure we protect it. 

2.1 million people: More than 2 million people in 61 communities including Somerville get some type of water and/or sewer services from the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA). The water in the MWRA system comes from the Quabbin and Wachusett reservoirs in Central Massachusetts and the MWRA provides services to most communities in Eastern Massachusetts, from the North Shore to South Shore, and to communities as far west as Chicopee.

70+ locations monitored: The MWRA monitors water quality in more than 70 locations in the Boston Harbor and its tributary rivers, including the Mystic River. Discharges from the Deer Island Treatment Plant can introduce bacteria into the water system. Prior to 1991 water in the Boston Harbor frequently had levels of bacteria above water quality standards. Thanks to a federally mandated 20-year, $5 billion Boston Harbor project, those numbers are way down. Maintaining healthy bacteria levels is good for wildlife that lives in and around the Boston Harbor as well as for swimmers who want to enjoy the water. We can also help to keep local waterways healthy by not sending chemicals and medication down the drain because whatever goes down the drain ultimately ends up in our water system. If you’re not sure how to dispose of something, visit the Somerville Waste Wizard at www.somervillema.gov/wizard where you can type the item in and find out the correct way to handle it.

21 tests per week: Each week, Somerville’s Water and Sewer Department conducts 21 water quality tests at locations around the city. Somerville’s drinking water is pre-treated by the MWRA, but these tests let us know if there is a local problem that affects water quality. Watch your mailbox in the coming weeks for the 2018 water report, which has information on both the MWRA system and the results of our local testing.

13 million tons: Many of us think about plastics as being a problem for landfills and fossil fuel use, but discarded plastics are also threatening our waters and water wildlife – and they can clog sewers and exacerbate flooding. According to the World Economic Forum, 13 million tons of plastics find their way into our oceans each year, and they estimate that by 2050, there could be more plastics in the oceans than fish. They also report that toxic and carcinogenic chemicals used to produce some plastics are ingested by sea life and can make their way up the food chain into the food we eat. So putting recyclable plastics in your zero-sort recycling bin and reducing your plastics consumption overall can help reduce this problem.

0.5% available fresh water: Although more than 70% of the Earth’s surface is water, very little of it is available to be used for drinking, agriculture, and many industrial uses. Fresh water makes up only 3% of the planet’s total water, but 2.5% is still unusable because it’s part of glaciers and polar ice caps, part of the atmosphere, in soil, too polluted, or is so far underground that it can’t be tapped affordably. We can’t afford to lose more of our usable water supply, which is why we need to do what we can to keep our water systems healthy.

Pre-1940: Like many older cities, Somerville has an aging water and sewer system. The vast majority of our water and sewer system was built before 1940, including a large amount built before 1900. That means we’re simultaneously working on making immediate repairs and undertaking longer term projects to upgrade the system. Just to give you an idea of what that entails: Somerville has 125 miles of water mains, 128 miles of sewer mains, more than 29,000 water and sewer connections, and over 1,600 fire hydrants.

Data-based decision making is at the core of how the City of Somerville develops policy and sets priorities. Every day we check the latest 311 stats, and throughout the week we meet for in-depth review of departmental data and city trends. The Data Download column shares some of the data we’ve been reviewing recently, as well as interesting updates. To see more Somerville Data, visit the online Somerville Data Farm at www.somervillema.gov/datafarm.