Acton Wakefield Watersheds Alliance

awwaadmin May 27th, 2008

The Acton Wakefield Watersheds Alliance (AWWA) is a non-profit volunteer organization formed in 2005 to protect and improve water quality in the lakes and streams in the Acton, ME / Wakefield, NH border region and ultimately in the rivers, estuaries and bays into which they flow. The Alliance is registered with the State of New Hampshire and holds 501(c)3 status. AWWA has active directors and officers who bring a wide range of expertise and affiliations to the group. Each local lake association is represented on the board and members have expertise in engineering, water resource management, environmental education, computer programming, volunteer management, office management, and construction and landscaping.

The mission of the Acton Wakefield Watersheds Alliance is to protect and restore water quality through the prevention of nonpoint source pollution in the border region of Acton, Maine and Wakefield, NH.

In 2006, AWWA received a two-year Watershed Assistance grant from the NH Department of Environmental Services to initiate a Youth Conservation Corps (YCC) program. In 2008 the NH State Conservation Committee awarded AWWA a Moose Plate grant to continue its YCC work. In its first three years the YCC; which is comprised of a Technical Director, Crew Leader and four - five high school age crew members; completed 44 projects on nine lakes and streams resulting in the prevention of 50+ tons of sediment from reaching the receiving waterbodies annually. The YCC Technical Director designed an additional 90 technical assistance plans for property owners wishing to install their own solutions. Homeowners pledged to complete at least one of the recommended designs. Project sites were chosen from all the requests based on a set of seven criteria with the most important being the amount of potential pollution prevention.

In addition to the YCC program the AWWA board members have been actively promoting water resource awareness in the communities. They have presented a shorefront landscaping workshop, taught in the local schools, worked with the town boards, presented at local lake association meetings and staffed informational displays and activities at community events. AWWA encourages regular press coverage for its activities and has been featured in the local newspapers on several occasions. AWWA board members have been invited to share their YCC model with presentations at the NH Lakes Congress, the Green Mountain Conservation Group Watershed Weekend, the Maine Lakes Conservancy Institute Lake Science Academy and the NH Watershed Conference.

As the initial YCC project period was completed the AWWA Board recognized the need to focus its efforts to reduce the effects of stormwater runoff and applied for and was awarded a NH DES Watershed Assistance grant to develop a watershed-based management plan (WBMP) for the headwaters of the Salmon Falls River including Great East Lake, Horn Pond, Lake Ivanhoe, Lovell Lake and Wilson Lake. The WBMP will allow AWWA to focus its outreach and remediation efforts on areas with significant problem areas.