Daily Archives: February 14, 2014

Julie Blatt, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Rivers Alliance, will speak at the Newton Free Library’s Druker Auditorium, Homer Street in Newton, on Monday, February 24 beginning at 7 pm as part of Newton’s Greening Our Community Series.  The event is co-sponsored by Green Decade/Newton and the Newton Free Library.

Though Massachusetts receives 44” of precipitation a year, about a fifth of the state’s streams suffer from unnaturally low flows during dry summers, a condition that could worsen with climate change. To curb the overuse of water and leave enough in streams to keep them healthy, the Patrick Administration introduced the Sustainable Water Management Initiative in 2010 to reform the allocation of water. Since, 2009, Julia Blatt has served as Executive Director of the Massachusetts Rivers Alliance, a statewide group that works to improve river protection across the Commonwealth. She will speak about the changes afoot in the way the state doles out the right to use water, and the challenges in getting to “yes” on this contentious issue.