By Michelle Marshall
ROWLEY — There is a pressing need for the town to build a water treatment plant and transmission main to ensure the continuation of safe drinking water for the residents in town, Scott Martin, chairman of Board of Water Commissioners, told selectmen at their meeting on Monday.
Martin and other Water Department employees, along with representatives from town-hired engineers from Weston & Sampson of Peabody, outlined the three-year plan, with the first stage currently underway.
"The town water is absolutely safe to drink," Martin said, "and while we are not in a critical situation right now with our water supply, getting this treatment plant online will ensure we never will be and that the town will have pure, clean water for the long term."
The project is expected to take more than three years and cost upward of $7 million.
Rowley has three water stations — Well 2 near the Agawam Diner, which was built in 1960; Well 3 that is off Boxford Road and was built in 1981; and Well 5 on Pingree Farm Road, which was built in 2004. While there have been no problems with the water supply from Well 2, which supplies two-thirds of the town's water, both Well 3 and Well 5 have had water safety issues, evidenced by the presence of coliform sporadically since 2005.
Because of these issues, on two occasions the town was given notices of noncompliance from the Department of Environmental Protection — once in 2006 and again in September. Water samples taken from the town test sites, which are gathered twice a month and tested by DEP-certified labs, indicated levels of coliform that were too high. The DEP has required plans from the town to outline how it will handle future events of coliform incidents, and the building of a water treatment plant satisfies this request.
Despite diligent maintenance, cleaning and precautions, in addition to resolving issues of unacceptable items, such as junk cars and manure piles found in the watershed protection district, the problems at Wells 3 and 5 have not been permanently resolved.
"There are two issues," said Jason Masse, foreman of the crew and primary operator for the Water Department. "The first is the presence of coliform, which in and of itself is harmless, but it may indicate other bacteria in the water. The second issue is manganese, which is a naturally occurring substance found in the wells, but its amount has been steadily increasing over the years. The problem arises in that when we add chlorine to the water to clear away the coliform issues, manganese attaches to the chlorine, neutralizing its effectiveness. We have to add more and more chlorine without any effect."
"We feel this (the adding of more and more chlorine) is getting to a breaking point, and just increasing the level of chlorine is not going to fix the issue anymore," said John Rezza, Water Department superintendent. "Since the treatment plant solution is at least three years out, we need to get the pilot program underway now."
A water treatment plant will allow any and all impurities, such as manganese and coliform, to be taken out of the water. With the current system in town, the water can only be cleaned by adding something to it, and saturation levels can be met, such as those for adding chlorine.
"In order to continue to provide safe drinking water to the town of Rowley, we need this treatment plant and transmission main," Masse said. "Our wells are maintained and cleaned regularly, and we have tried all other options, but we just cannot battle manganese levels that are now more than six times above normal and ever-increasing, without eventually using unacceptable levels of chlorine."
The first phases of the project include preparing and submitting a pilot work plan to the DEP and a request for applicability to the Conservation Commission, with costs around $10,000. This cost will be paid for under the operating budget of the Water Department. Subsequent stages, which require town funding, include pilot testing, securing DEP approval and designing the treatment plant plans and going out to bid, which is estimated at more than $800,000. Construction of the plant, tentatively planned for June 2011 through December 2012, is estimated to cost $7.5 million.
"Obviously we need to move ahead on this project, sooner rather than later," said Dave Petersen, chairman of the Board of Selectmen. "As soon as we hear just how severe the next round of budget cuts from the state will be, which will allow us to know our monetary needs to get the water treatment plant project underway, we will go ahead with planning a Special Town Meeting to present the funding issues to residents for their consideration."
That meeting is expected to be held in December or January.
