With SAFE as a co-sponsor, SERC hosted the State of the Ipswich River Watershed: Salem Edition on October 8th, 2025 at City Hall Annex with special guest IRWA.
By Janiela Quiñones
With SAFE as a co-sponsor, SERC hosted the State of the Ipswich River Watershed: Salem Edition on October 8th, 2025 at City Hall Annex, with special guest The Ipswich River Watershed Association (IRWA). IRWA is a non-profit organization based in Ipswich, Mass. whose goal is to “monitor water quality, spearhead restoration projects advocate on the state and local level, and educate the public.”
The meeting was opened by Mayor Dominick Pangallo, who said he was grateful for SERC and the City of Salem Sustainability Department. As mayor of a city with such a long history and active community, he makes it a point to note that water is not a major barrier in our community, particularly when it comes to housing growth. With 71% capacity of the water reservoirs connected to Salem, he ensures everyone in the room we have a reliable and consistent water supply. Though we are in a good place now, Mayor Pangallo ended his opening remarks by recognizing and advising the community that the choices we make now on water will affect the future generations to come.
With a brief transition, Erin Casey, Executive Director of IRWA and previous member of SERC, makes her way to the front accompanied by her slideshow presentation. She begins her part of the presentation by going over the pillars of IRWA.
Restore: Undo past harms done to the river, take out outdated infrastructures, support our ecosystem
Protect: Look at current policies and how they may impact the river.
Engage: Empower people to participate, environmental education for students.
Enjoy: Provide walks, hikes, and paddles for the public.
We then transition into the bulk of information that most of us had attended for: the current state of the Ipswich Watershed. Casey begins by going over common problems that affect not only the river, but the entire watershed system and its water supply. This includes droughts, chemicals, and other unnatural things or materials that end up in the waters.
Recently, droughts have been the main point of concern—IRWA having to target the questions, “how do we make sure the river is healthy enough to sustain drought seasons?” Although a straightforward question, tackling how to work with the river through this main issue has its obstacles. The major obstacle as of late is the reflection of climate change in the river. The river last experienced a drought season back in 2024–in October of all months. Casey noted there has been less water flow in the fall, around October-November, than in the summer months—when it’s supposed to be the opposite. Due to what we can assume is climate change, the river’s flow and response to seasonal changes has shifted away from how it’s supposed to respond in the decade or so. IRWA and–who we later are introduced to–the North Shore Water Resilience Task Force work towards what we can do now and in the future to ensure we keep Salem’s water supply high.
Aside from droughts, the river may be susceptible to all kinds of risks. Human-caused harms like pepticides or road salt can end up in the river in various ways as well as storm water. In good news however, Ipswich is deemed a relatively clean and safe river as there’s a lack of major industrial dumpers that could vastly harm the river.
Salem and Beverly residents get their water from the Salem Beverly Water Supply Board which pulls from the Ipswich basin. It’s important to note that Salem is not the only city that gets water from the Ipswich River. Below shows all the cities that either take water from the river or affect the river in some form or another. The darker the blue is, the more impactful a city can be to the river–both positively and negatively.
As part of their educating and advocating for the river watershed, IRWA encourages residents to save water so as to not surpass 40 gallons of water per person per day–their water use target.
If you’re curious about your own water consumption, you can visit and review your water bills online–with some even providing a real-time water tracker. Erin Casey recommends checking for any water leaks that not only inflate your water usage, but increase your water bill. To do this, you must ensure everything is turned off right before bed. In the morning, you’ll be able to check for any usage, in this case “leaks”, from overnight.
Janiela Quiñones is SAFE’s Communications Intern.