Across the Commonwealth, climate change and ensuing droughts present steep challenges to communities’ access to water and ability to fight fires and keep residents safe. Traditional sources of water – lakes, rivers, and manmade retention ponds – can drop to critically low levels and become less reliable.

 

H.4112 aims to improve fire preparedness and resilience statewide. The bill calls first for a task force, led by the State Fire Marshal, to gather municipal input, estimate costs, and recommend strategy for a statewide cistern program. It also includes provisions to establish a dedicated funding source to help towns purchase and install cisterns in areas without hydrants.

A cistern project in Stow was the catalyst for this legislation. Stow’s Fire Chief contacted Rep. Hogan and shared plans to install firefighting cisterns in Stow. The long-term, multi-year project in Stow called for the installation of cisterns in 11 zones where access to water supplies was limited or non-existent – including areas that had previously relied on man-made or natural water retention ponds that have dried up.

 

Rep. Hogan worked with Stow’s federal delegation to allocate ARPA funds and also secured earmarks in the annual state budget to fund several cisterns in town and get Stow’s cistern project started.

 

“Access to water is a critical issue for many of our communities and has been exacerbated by climate change. Stress on our local water supplies means they are much less reliable and the risk of fire damage is much greater,” said Rep. Hogan. “Stow’s successful cistern program can be a model for similar towns. The lessons we’ve learned, along with the efforts of a future task force, will inform and guide a statewide cistern program to ensure that Fire Service across the Commonwealth has the ability to protect lives, property and our environment.”