Hanover Mall Update

NSRWA Executive Director Samantha Woods attended the public forum on the Hanover Mall last week and spoke about how the NSRWA is working in partnership with the mall to remove the dam they own on the Third Herring Brook that is blocking fish passage. She spoke about how the redevelopment of the Hanover Mall is a once in a lifetime opportunity to showcase how we can grow, prosper and improve our water resources for our children, but only if we insure that the mall is redeveloped with water conservation in mind. The town of Hanover was recently fined and is under a consent order for overwithdrawing water above their permitted amount in 2016. This impacts streamflow in the Third Herring Brook and Iron Mine Brook – two tributaries in our watershed that are impacted by low and no flows in the summertime due to public water withdrawals to meet the high summer water demand for lawn irrigation.  The new Hanover Crossings could be a demonstration for how to be “WaterSmart” by making water conservation a priority,  through the use of innovative technologies like recycling grey water for toilet flushing (the New England Patriots do it!), capturing roof rain water for irrigation, planting drought tolerant landscaping, reducing paved surfaces, recharging storm runoff through rain gardens and much more! To see more about the Hanover Crossing project, go to thehanovercrossing.com