You don’t miss your water ’til your well runs … into trouble. That’s a situation that the town’s water commissioners and selectmen are hoping to avoid.
Two well heads (indicated by stars) sit within 100 feet of each other on Pond Road. (Photo by Lisa Aciukewicz)
At their Nov. 18 meeting, the Board of Selectmen voted to create and charge a new three-member Water System Study Committee to look for an alternative source of town center water, one that could be tapped if one or both of Harvard’s existing wells became contaminated or otherwise incapacitated by a catastrophic event. Water Commissioner Kyle Hedrick will serve as the commission’s representative to the group. The commission is actively seeking two additional volunteers, preferably with public water supply experience, to fill the two remaining seats.
Dealing with a vulnerability
In convening the new study group, the selectmen were responding to a presentation earlier in November by Water Commissioners Rick Maiore, Kyle Hedrick, and Cindy Russo, who warned that the proximity to each other of the town’s existing pair of wells left the schools, library, businesses, and homes of the town center vulnerable. The center’s public water supply is currently served by two wells off Pond Road that lie within 100 feet of each other. If a catastrophic event were to contaminate that site, both would likely have to be shut down, leaving no source of public water for the town center.
Commissioners Hedrick and Maiore explained that there are currently no identified alternative sites for wells and that the existing Pond Road wells can’t be redrilled because the site they occupy doesn’t meet current state standards. The commissioners said there are two options: drilling a new well, or connecting to the Devens water supply.
The option of connecting to Devens is possible because at the time the Devens Enterprise Zone was created and concessions were granted to Ayer, Shirley, and Harvard, the town negotiated unrestricted water rights. However, the cost of connecting to the water supply in Devens would be significant. But the first option, finding a new site for a well near town center, is also no easy task, and it’s something the town has struggled with for years.
The town center water supply has come from five different wells over the past 100 years or so. The first well was on the Hildreth property on Ayer Road, and it served the town until a drought in the early 1950s forced the town to drill a new well off Pond Road. As enrollment in the schools increased in the 1960s, the town began looking for another water source.
A never-ending search
In 1966, the Water Commission recommended appointing a committee to investigate in detail, with some professional help, “the areas most likely to produce a satisfactory water supply and to report to the town no later than Annual Town Meeting in 1968.” The search went on for years, during which the commissioners considered negotiating with the Army Corps of Engineers for permission to explore some locations on what was then Fort Devens. In 1972 it was estimated that 18,000 linear feet of pipe would be required to connect to water on Fort Devens.
During the 1970s, searches for new well sites continued as water pressure, particularly in the schools during peak hours, dropped lower and lower. When insurers threatened to raise the town’s fire insurance rates dramatically because of lack of water pressure, a new holding tank was built next to the Bolton Road reservoir, and emergency Well 3 was also drilled at that site. Levels of iron and manganese in the water from that well made it undesirable to use under normal circumstances. The water was treatable so it could be used in emergencies, but the cost of treatment was high. Contamination in the original Ayer Road well forced it to be shut down, leaving only the Pond Road well operational on a daily basis.
Then there were two
During the 1980s the search for another water supply went on, but once again came up dry. In 1997, water from a new well—Well 4—drilled behind Bromfield tested high for uranium and radium, and it was deemed unusable. In 1997, the emergency well on Bolton Road had to be operated for 24 days, prompting the town to find a new well location to alleviate use of the Bolton Road well and its costly water treatment. Finally, in 1999, a fifth well was drilled on Pond Road only 100 feet away from the existing well there. The Bolton Road well has since been declared a nonpotable source of water, and it may be used only in the event of a major failure of the primary wells.
As the only two sources of public drinking water in town, the Pond Road bedrock wells draw water from the same aquifer and are vulnerable to simultaneous contamination. In 2006, the state Rural Water Association developed a “Comprehensive Source Protection Plan” for the Pond Road and Bolton Road wells. That plan identifies three moderate-to-high threat levels in the vicinity of the Pond Road wells. One of these threats is from parking areas and roads, due to the possibility of motor fluid leaks or spills and deicing chemicals. Another is sanitary waste in the event of septic system failures on Pond Road. And a third is the possible storage of hazardous materials and waste in area facilities and businesses, such as Bromfield, Hildreth Elementary School, the library, and the nearby woodworking shop and dental offices.
Commissioners say now is the time
At the Nov. 4 BOS meeting, Russo explained that the commission is eager to start moving on the search to comply with the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (DEP)’s recommendation that towns have a second water source available. Selectman Leo Blair added that access to any of the suggested alternative water sources could take a long time because of the processes involved. For starters, the DEP requires towns to follow a 25-step public water source approval process. Blair said that Devens management has expressed willingness to allow its professional staff to assist Harvard with technical issues, and Russo agreed that their help would be welcomed.
The Water System Study Committee’s charge, approved unanimously by the selectmen, includes “identifying and investigating potential options for providing an alternate water source to supplement the current wells, including but not limited to development of an alternate public water supply and/or connection to the Devens system.” Evaluating the costs and benefits of each option is also part of the charge, and the committee is being asked to make an initial report to the BOS by the 2015 Annual Town Meeting.
