Section 4: Withdrawal volume threshold
Section 4. The withdrawal volume threshold to be applied pursuant to sections five and seven shall be one hundred thousand gallons per day. The department may, by regulation, raise or lower the threshold volume established in this section upon a finding that such different threshold is necessary and adequate to protect the public health, safety and welfare. The department shall not require any approval, other than that provided for in section thirty-nine C of chapter forty, for withdrawals less than such threshold volume.
The department may, by regulation, establish, for any particular water source, a lower threshold volume than that generally applicable in the commonwealth upon findings that such water source is in need of special protection because of the nature or volume of demands made upon it, and that the reduced threshold is therefore necessary and adequate to protect the public health, safety and welfare.
The department shall, no later than January first, nineteen hundred and ninety-one, and no less than every five years thereafter, initiate rulemaking procedures in accordance with chapter thirty A, to review and reassess the necessity and adequacy of the volume threshold in effect.
For the purposes of determining whether a withdrawal is in excess of the threshold volume, any withdrawal of water for a nonconsumptive use, as defined by regulation adopted by the department, shall not be counted in the volume of water withdrawn; provided, however, that any person withdrawing or proposing to withdraw water for a nonconsumptive use shall file, in accordance with regulations adopted by the department, a notification stating the amount being or to be withdrawn and demonstrating that the use is or will be nonconsumptive.