The Town of Franklin DPW is committed to protecting the future of our national and local water supplies through water-efficient practices, products, and services.
As part of the town's commitment to the long term stewardship of its water resources, the town is actively developing projects to improve the health of it's water supplies. These projects include creating plans for priority sub-watersheds in Franklin to demonstrate approaches for meeting the Upper/Middle Charles River Nutrient TMDL and designing and building green infrastructure retrofits on town property to manage stormwater on site. Examples of the infrastructure improvements can been seen throughout town in the form of rain gardens, tree wells and roadway narrowing.
What is a watershed? A watershed is an area of of land that drains water to a particular river, lake or ocean. Large watersheds, such as the Charles River Watershed, may contain hundreds of smaller sub-watersheds that each drain into a single tributary of the larger river or other water body. The Charles River contains 80+ sub-watersheds, ten of which are located either partially or fully in Franklin.
What is a TMDL? A total maximum daily load (TMDL) is a calculation of the maximum amount of a pollutant that a body of water can receive, while still maintaining water quality standards. A TMDL is developed for each pollutant/waterbody combination. For example, if the Charles River is threatened by two different pollutant sources, two TMDLs are developed for the river.
