PROTECT THE WEKEPEKE BROOK HEADWATERS AND ITS NATIVE BROOK TROUT POPULATION–OPPOSE THE STERLING D.P.W.’S INCIPIENT PLAN TO LOCATE A TOWN WELL IN THE WEKEPEKE RESERVATION OWNED BY THE TOWN OF CLINTON

According to the latest Sterling D.P.W. Board Agenda– https://www.sterling-ma.gov/sites/g/files/vyhlif1266/f/agendas/agenda_dpw_2-22-2022.docx –it is now planning to put a Town Well in the Wekepeke Brook headwaters area, known as the ‘Wekepeke Reservation,’ owned by the Town of Clinton as water resource. This would endanger the Wekepeke Brook’s native brook trout population. The 2002 Town of Sterling Open Space and Recreation Plan, that I can no longer locate on-line, had a section on the Wekepeke Brook’s sensitivity to drought and said that in times of drought groundwater seeping and feeding into Wekepeke Brook helps to keep its waters cold enough to sustain its native brook trout population. Pumping down the groundwater level in the Wekepeke Brook’s headwaters area would constitute a grave threat to those brook trout. Wekepeke Brook is a Commonwealth of Massachusetts-protected ‘Coldwater Fishery.’ SEE https://www.mass.gov/regulations/321-CMR-500-coldwater-fish-resources

Back in 2007-2008 the Sterling Select Board was caught red-faced at having negotiated secretly with Nestle Waters North America and the Town of Clinton Select Board about permitting Nestle Waters to pump down the Wekepeke Brook headwaters-area groundwater for profit. The plan was illegal. The applicable late-1800s state legislation only allowed the Town of Clinton to take by eminent domain and/or by purchase Wekepeke headwaters watershed land to impound and use its surface water only, not groundwater, for ITS MUNICIPAL PURPOSES. Moreover, Nestle’s proposal violated Sterling’s Zoning By-Laws. The Sterling Select Board was forced to back down– https://www.telegram.com/story/news/local/north/2008/04/04/sterling-officials-oppose-nestl-pumping/52460116007/

A local group is intent upon protecting the Wekepeke– https://wekepeke.org/

Apparently the Sterling D.P.W. Board forgot about the 2007-2008 Wekepeke Fight. If wants another one now it will get more than it bargained for.

A Sterling Town Well further downstream in the Wekepeke Aquifer area–fed by additional tributary streams–would be much less environmentally sensitive than a Town Well in this headwaters area, but of course the Sterling Zoning Board of Appeals a/k/a The Developers’ Doormat Vice-Chair, Joseph Curtin, spearheaded 2021 Annual Town Meeting Warrant Article 46– https://www.sterling-ma.gov/sites/g/files/vyhlif1266/f/uploads/2021_atm_final_warrant_june_7_2021_003_0.pdf — to reduce in size the North Sterling Wekepeke Aquifer Wellhead Protection Zone II in order to bring in more Light Industrial development, thereby rolling back the protected zone that intelligent and forward-looking Sterling voters had approved at a previous Sterling Annual Town Meeting many years before. If you have a chance thank Joe for his brilliance and foresight.

J.G.