Romney's budget cuts affect our waters too

Governor Mitt Romney's budget cuts for this fiscal year have been a hot issue in the local news. The negative affects of his cuts in state employee health insurance and local campus funding, upon which most of the publicity has been focusing, have raised much public concern. There has been, however, a lack of attention shed on the detrimental impacts of Romney's budget cuts on our waters -- a serious problem that affects us all.

Due to the reorganization of state programs to accommodate the budget cuts, an award-winning environmental program -- the Massachusetts Watershed Initiative (MWI), has been eliminated. The MWI, launched and run by Massachusetts Executive Office of Environmental Affairs (EOEA), is a coalition of state and federal agencies, conservation organizations, businesses, municipal officials, and individuals that protects our natural resources and ecosystems on a watershed basis. In other words, it is a group of organizations that have agreed to approach the network of waterways, such as the streams, rivers, groundwater, etc that drain into a common body of water, bounded by the 27 designated areas of land, as one collective entity -- a watershed, rather than individual ecosystems.

There are a total of 27 major watersheds in the state of Massachusetts. Each watershed provides its own unique situation, and therefore the restoration efforts for each have been similarly unique. For example, in the Buzzards Bay watershed, wetlands were constructed to control storm water runoff and protect the severely threatened shellfish population. As for the Cape Cod watershed, the problem of animal organic waste run-off was dealt with by constructing fences around the stream to restict animal access. In facilitating the recognition of each watershed's unqiue problems, the MWI program has improved the efficiency in resource allocation by directing our taxpayers' money to resolve the areas with the most critical needs. The MWI has also improved the coordination of government agencies and promoted the shared responsibility of watershed management. In a nutshell, it has effectively protected and restored our water resources.

Since its implementation, the success of the MWI program has shown nothing but groundbreaking environmental results. Sadly, however, just as the program reached its pinnacle of success, it had to be abandoned due to Romeny's cuts in environmental budgets. Due to the termination of state funding for the program, critical monitoring projects and funding for science to better understand how the Mystic River watershed system works are in jeopardy of being stopped before all the data has been gathered. Many watershed team leaders have also been laid off and asked to return to their home agencies. So far, the program has been eliminated for less than a month, but the negative impacts have emerged at an exponential rate and are evidenced by the surge in pollution in the Mystic River.

I am most disappointed with Romney's justification for eliminating the MWI. He claims that since the program is so well-established and has achieved its goals, it should be able to stand on its own without state funding. This is ludicrous since a program can only maintain its effectiveness with funding and support. I am additionally disappointed because the MWI is a nationally recognized program that has triggered much interest from other states and has revolutionized the nation's environmental decision-making. It is a program that all people of Massachusetts should be proud of, yet Romney has eliminated it. For this reason, I would like to call upon all Tufts students who care about our waters, to please voice your disapproval towards the elimination of the Massachusetts Watershed Initiative. You can do this by writing a letter to Governor Romney and address it to: State House, Office of the Governor, Room 360, Boston, MA 02133. Alternately, you can fax to 617-727-9725.

Marilyn Tang is a sophomore majoring in International Relations.