The town of Harvard has supported and benefited from a municipal water system for decades. We believe that the connection of this system to Devens is the best course of action for the future of the system and the town.
Until recently, we have been able to provide good quality, untreated drinking water to our schools, our municipal buildings, and our town center residents and businesses. This is known as a raw water system. Over the years, we started to see issues with water quality and intermittent bacteria levels causing well closures and subsequent spot treatment. The most recent incident, just over two years ago, caused the state’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to shut down one of our two wells and to require the town to put a treatment system in place.
Discussions with DEP made it clear that we were having to head down a path of treated water. With the EPA about to enact new limits on per-fluorinated and poly-fluorinated substances (PFAS) levels, we water commissioners approached the Select Board with the idea of connecting to Devens instead of building our own treatment facility. Devens was, and is, better equipped to deal with changing water-quality regulations. Looking at a town-operated system, having to expand and follow reams of regulations, and the added cost to provide for current chlorine treatment and future treatments (PFAS), the smart decision was to pursue a water connection to Devens.
A connection to Devens does not happen overnight and requires Town Meeting approval, town funding, planning, development, and construction. We sought and received funding from the State Revolving Fund (a 2% loan) for the project. The town was asked to support Article 3 back on Feb. 13 at the Special Town Meeting and did so (179 in favor to 44 not in favor). We are now at the funding-approval stage and this is why residents are being asked to vote on Question 1 on May 9. With a positive outcome we will be able to continue with the planning, development, and construction of the new connection.
This is needed now more than ever as the EPA has proposed lowering the legal limit for PFAS in drinking water from 70 parts per trillion (ppt) to just 4 ppt. The state of Massachusetts is at a DEP-set level of 20 ppt for PFAS. Our two wells include one that is below 4 ppt and one that is over 9 ppt. The new regulations would restrict us, once again, to one well, which is not a place we want to be, especially if something happened to that one well.
We have discussed and looked for other well sites over the years, but none has been identified that meet DEP regulations, and the cost of permitting and laying the pipe for a new site and integrating it with our current system is considerable. Building our own fully integrated treatment facility (chlorine and PFAS) is expensive to both build and operate. Our own treatment plant would have to allow space for other future treatments that may be mandated, but we have limited space at the existing well site for a larger facility.
We have discussed and explored the town’s options in dealing with our current and future water treatment issues. We truly believe that the proposed connection is the town’s best move. The water connection to Devens will provide an important source of water that is already treated, and that will meet state and federal standards now and in the future. With the ongoing support of the Select Board and DEP (through its water loan program) we are sure that this project will be the best solution to problems that have plagued the system for years.
Members of the Harvard Water and Sewer Commissions are Cindy Russo, Richard “Rick” Maiore, and Kyle Hedrick.
