Bill S.1837

FILED ON: 7/29/2013

SENATE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No. 1837

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

_______________

In the Year Two Thousand Thirteen

_______________

An Act authorizing the Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance to grant an easement upon land of the Commonwealth located in the town of Ware to the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority.

Whereas, The deferred operation of this act would tend to defeat its purpose, which is to authorize forthwith the granting of an easement essential for further developing additional sources of water supply of the metropolitan water system, therefore, it is hereby declared to be an emergency law, necessary for the immediate preservation of the public convenience.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

SECTION 1. Notwithstanding sections 32 to 36, inclusive, of chapter 7C of the General Laws or any other general or special law to the contrary, the commissioner of capital asset management and maintenance, in consultation with the commissioner of conservation and recreation, may grant a permanent exclusive easement to the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority, for the right to enter, use, improve, operate, maintain and manage the easement area as a portion of the waterworks system, both existing and future, in accordance with chapter 372 of the acts of 1984 and as the easement area is more particularly defined in section 2. The parcel of land upon which the easement is to be granted was acquired by the commonwealth for the purpose of adding to, extending and further developing the additional sources of water supply of the metropolitan water system.

SECTION 2. The easement area authorized in section 1 shall be as follows:

An area containing 129,128+ square feet, or 2.96+ acres and shown as “Easement Parcel A” on a plan entitled, “Massachusetts Water Resources Authority; Easement Acquisition Plan, Ware Disinfection Facility, Ware, Massachusetts”, dated February 2, 2012, by Verde Survey Solutions, Inc., 100 Hallet Street, Boston, MA 02124”. The area is described as follows:

Beginning at point along the westerly line of Belchertown Road, marked by a concrete bound with a drill hole, said westerly line being a curved line having a radius of 1160.00 feet, thence running in a generally southwesterly direction along said curve for a length of 180.25 feet to a point at the end of the curved line, meaning and intending to be the westerly line of Belchertown Road (Route 9, Massachusetts State Highway Layout No. 2938), thence, turning and running S43 degrees 18’42”W for a distance of 302.22 feet along said westerly line of Belchertown Road to a corner, thence, running N46 degrees 41’18’W for a distance of 86.33 feet to a corner, thence turning and running N03 degrees 08’15”W for a distance of 341.42 feet to a corner, thence turning and running N63 degrees 21’36”E for a distance of 288.28 feet to a corner, thence turning and running N27 degrees 24’42”W for a distance of 23.00 feet to a corner, thence, turning and running N62 degrees 35’18”E for a distance of 50.00 feet to a corner, thence turning and running S27 degrees 24’42”E for a distance of 239.61 feet to the point of beginning.

SECTION 3. No easement instrument executed under section 1 shall be valid unless it provides that the easement conveyed shall be used solely for, as the case may be, entering, using, improving, operating, maintaining and managing the easement area as a portion of the waterworks system, both existing and future, in accordance with chapter 372 of the acts of 1984.

The easement granted under this act shall be granted upon property under the control of the department of conservation and recreation and the use of the easement by the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority shall not unreasonably interfere with the department’s use of the abutting land under its control, including use by the public. The grant of the easement shall include a reversionary clause that states that the easement shall revert to the commonwealth and be extinguished, upon such terms and conditions as the commissioner of capital asset management and maintenance may determine, if the easement ceases to be used for the purposes for which it was granted.

Notwithstanding any general or special law to the contrary, if the easement area ceases to be used, at any time, for the purposes of this act or is used for any purpose other than the public purposes stated in this act, the commissioner of capital asset management and maintenance shall give written notice to the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority of such non-use or unauthorized use. The Massachusetts Water Resources Authority, upon receipt of the notice, shall have 90 days to respond and a reasonable time to establish an authorized use of the easement area or to re-establish the former public use.

SECTION 4. The consideration for the easement authorized in this act, and as a condition precedent to the granting of the easement by the commonwealth, shall be the continued funding by the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority of the watershed protection activities of the department.

SECTION 5. The Massachusetts Water Resources Authority shall be responsible for all costs and expenses incurred or required to be incurred by it including, but not limited to, costs associated with any engineering or surveys or other necessary due diligence in connection with the authority’s use of the easement granted under this act.