Celebrating Source Water Protection Week
- leahkeating
- Oct 3, 2025
- 2 min read
Over the past several days, the Commission has been celebrating Source Water Protection Week (Sept. 29-Oct. 4) to appreciate and raise awareness of the critical work necessary to protect drinking water sources from pollution and contamination. The Commission views its Source Water Protection program as the first step in the treatment process, well before water enters the water treatment plant.
The Commission’s Source Water Protection team actively manages 14,000 acres of protected forest land surrounding the Cobble Mountain and Borden Brook Reservoirs, the Commission’s main drinking water supplies in the Little River watershed. Healthy forests act as natural filters, providing a buffer to development, capturing potential contaminants and runoff, and protecting against harmful erosion. The Source Water Protection team in turn protects these “filters” through management activities that promote biological and structurally diverse - or put more simply, resilient - forests.
Some of these management activities include monitoring watershed property for water quality threats; maintaining watershed roads and culverts to prevent erosion; developing and implementing forest management plans; tracking and controlling invasive species; and strategically conserving property from development within the Little River watershed as opportunities arise.
Forest regeneration can be impacted by disease and invasive species (especially if the diversity of species and tree is age is limited) as well as by wildlife. The Source Water Protection team employs modern and innovative approaches to these issues, such as mechanical removal of invasive species (no herbicides are used to protect water quality) and slash walls. Slash walls are physical barriers made from low-value logging materials to promote new forest regeneration by preventing deer browsing. The Source Water Protection team also employes silviculture, or the science of controlling forest ecosystems to promote biodiversity by contracting with a certified forester to develop and implement forest management plans with the long-term goal of protecting water quality.
When the new West Parish Water Treatment Plant is online, Source Water Protection work will continue as always to act as the first line of water quality protection. For more information about the Commission’s Source Water Protection program, visit https://waterandsewer.org/education/source-water-protection/.
