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The Madbury Water District existed here from 1953 through Feb. 4, 2003, when dissolution was voted. Its original mandate under NHRSA 52:1 was "for the purpose of supplying water for domestic and fire protection
purposes", which was amended in 1981, by adding "including the protection of water resources."
The MWD was a result of the development of the Pease Air Force Base, authorized by Congress in
1951. In 1952, the Madbury Town Meeting voted “against having the air base at Newington.” The entire seacoast reacted when it became known that the largest aquifer in the area was to be covered with
asphalt to accommodate a runway for the air base.
The government needed to find a like water supply for Portsmouth, most of whose water came from the springs over that aquifer. Wells were sunk in the Johnson Creek
area of Madbury, off Freshet Road and in the gravel areas off Pudding Hill Road, but the flow was insufficient to replace Portsmouth’s needs. In the 1960s, the Bellamy Reservoir was created.
The
municipalities in the region formed a Seacoast Water Commission, authorized by legislative act, and tried in vain through 1964 to form a metropolitan water district which would be under state control.
In Madbury, John
Elliott who had the largest rose greenhouses east of the Mississippi, engineered the formation of the MWD, which he served as chairman for many years; during the later years, the MWD was nearly forgotten.
In 1967,
Richard Hebbard obtained permission from the PUC to use Bellamy water for the Bunker Lane Mobile Home Park. Portsmouth’s 24-inch water line runs from the treatment plant on Freshet Road, down Jenkins Road to the
Emery Farm, across Route 4 at Wagon Hill Farm, under Little Bay to Newington, and hence to Portsmouth.
The MWD came alive and has been acting as a steward of our water resources. Water-testing has been done; studies
were made relative to potential aquifers; cooperation with the Planning Board has been on-going.
However, following a water budget developed for the Oyster River and Bellamy River watersheds, it became obvious that
the regional approach sought fifty years ago would be needed to protect and to share in a reasonable way our water resources. Hence the move to dissolution in order that the full authority of the town might be heard in the
coming regional discussions of both surface and ground water.
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