What do towns do to protect water quality?

Towns have two powerful ordinance tools to help protect water quality in the river:

• requirements for setbacks of septic systems from the river bank to make sure that leachate is filtered through natural soils before reaching the river’s water
• minimum buffers of natural shoreland vegetation to collect and filter runoff. 

Existing vegetation management regulations vary widely among the four towns in the Wild and Scenic section of the river, from no requirements to maximum cut levels within a 150' zone. There is similar disparity among septic system regulations. Only Durham requires the recommended 150' septic setback. Other towns' setbacks are as follows:  Lee, 100', Newmarket, 75', and Epping, 100'. Unfortunately, no town provides for additional setbacks due to steep slopes.

Town residents can always petition for more protective standards, such as mandatory septic system pumping, reducing the amount of paved surfaces allowed on new construction projects, or increasing the width of naturally vegetated buffers between the river and lawns or pavement. Certain sections of the river receive additional protection by state regulations, especially those mandated by the Comprehensive Shoreland Protection Act. “The jurisdiction of the CSPA includes all fourth order and higher rivers and streams and designated rivers and river segments managed by the NH Rivers Management and Protection Program under RSA 483:15.” As of 2011, this applies to the Lamprey River and most of its tributaries. In 2011, the NH State Legislature was in the process of reviewing and renaming the CSPA. For more information, please visit http://des.nh.gov/organization/commissioner/pip/factsheets/sp/documents/sp-4.pdf.