Steven Kurtz Appointed To Water Supply Protection Committee

Town Manager Paul Bockelman filled a long-standing vacancy on the Water Supply Protection Committee on January 9, 2023, nominating Steven Kurtz of Morgan Circle to a three-year term expiring on June 30, 2024. The nomination was endorsed unanimously by the Town Services and Outreach Committee at their meeting on January 12, 2023. Their recommendation was sent on to the full Town Council which will likely vote on it at their next meeting on January 23.

The Town Manager provided the following biographical profile of Kurtz.

Kurtz is a self-described generalist who would bring a critical mind and expects to ask questions for his self-education to the committee. He has served on the conservation commission in another community for several years. He has an open mind and says he has a high regard for the current scientific consensus and realizes that these views must be informed by new data. If data changes, we should be flexible in our policies to reflect that.

The Water Supply Protection Committee works with town staff, appropriate consulting and engineering firms, and other town boards and committees to ensure the protection of the Town of Amherst’s water supply. It does this by:

1. monitoring the current and projected water supply needs of the town, and the infrastructure needed to provide that volume of drinking water;
2. monitoring the presence or possible introduction of hazardous and/or toxic materials into the Town’s drinking water; and
3. analyzing the significance of trends in data monitored in the Atkins and Pelham watersheds, and Lawrence Swamp aquifer in respect to drought.
   

The committee makes its recommendations to the town council  and the town manager.