Published August 19, 2020
By DAN TOMASELLO
LYNNFIELD — Lynnfield Center Water District (LCWD) officials are currently evaluating five proposals that seek to address the district’s water quality issues as well as supplement its supply.
Ratepayers approved a $250,000 study during a Special District Meeting in December 2018.
“The study looks to supplement our water sources and looks to improve water quality in the district, particularly in the Apple Hill area,” said LCWD Superintendent John Scenna. “There are currently five options on the table that the district is currently working on.”
Scenna said the options range from not undertaking any capital project to shutting down the LCWD’s infrastructure and joining the MWRA. While Scenna said ratepayers could decide to “do nothing” by approving Option 1, he said, “There are a lot of existing infrastructure issues that need to be addressed.”
“Even doing nothing costs money and I want to make sure our customers are aware of that,” said Scenna.
Scenna said Options 2A and 2B involve having the LCWD continue getting its water from its current sources, the Ipswich River Watershed and the North Coastal Watershed. Options 2A and 2B also entail constructing a new greensand filter treatment plant at the Glen Drive well field, which would address the higher levels of iron and manganese that has caused discolored water problems for residents living near the North Reading line.
“That would solve the discolored water issues that the Apple Hill neighborhood is facing,” said Scenna.
Former LCWD officials tabled a similar project that would have cost $5.25 million at the December 2018 Special District Meeting.
Scenna said Option 2B would also upgrade Station One at the Phillips Road well field.
“We are looking at bringing back Station One, which is in the North Coastal Watershed,” said Scenna. “Station One is on Phillips Road. We started using it for emergencies in 2017 and we are trying to figure out a way to get that operating year-round or as much of the year as possible because that supplements our water.”
Scenna said Option 3 entails constructing a new greensand filter water treatment plant at the Glen Drive well field, upgrading Station One at Phillips Road and receiving 25 percent of supplemental water from the MWRA via the Lynnfield Water District, which services South Lynnfield.
Option 4 involves retiring the Glen Drive well, and having the LCWD get 50 percent the Phillips Road and Main Street well fields and 50 percent from the LWD.
Scenna said Option 5A would have the LCWD retire its existing infrastructure and receive 100 percent of MWRA water from the LWD.
In order to either supplement or get all of the LCWD’s water from the Lynnfield Water District, Scenna said the district “would be able to do that at three locations: Walnut Street, Edgemere Road and Summer Street.”
Scenna said Option 5B involves closing down the LCWD’s existing infrastructure and getting 100 percent of its water directly from the MWRA, which would mostly likely come from Wakefield. He said new pipes would need to be installed as part of that project.
“We can directly connect to the MWRA and we have reviewed that with the MWRA,” said Scenna. “It’s very costly and a very complicated project.”
The LCWD is also exploring the possibility of getting water from Andover via North Reading, Scenna said. According to Andover’s Water Division, the town’s drinking water comes from Haggets Pond and the surrounding 1,422 acres of the watershed area. The pond is also supplemented with additional water from Fish Brook and the Merrimack River.
Scenna said the LCWD Board of Water Commissioners and its consultant, CDM Smith, are evaluating the different proposals on the table.
“We want to take the five options and narrow them down to a couple by the end of October,” said Scenna. “At some point in November or December, we want to go back to the district with a presentation about two or three options with more details about the cost, benefits and the potential impact on the rates. At that point, we will continue throughout the winter bringing those options forward. Our goal is to put a project to vote by next March or April.”
Scenna said it will be up to ratepayers to decide which project moves forward.
“This is the ratepayers’ decision and their investment,” said Scenna. “We operate the system and distribute the water, and we are coming up with plans that are going to set the district up from an infrastructure perspective for years to come. It’s up to the district and its ratepayers to decide what they want to invest in. We are trying to bring forward a project that brings solutions to various issues together.”
LCWD Board of Water Commissioners Chairman Joe
Maney agreed.
“Our customers will make the decision about where we go in the next half-century,” said Maney. “It’s an 80-year-old system that hasn’t had any upgrades since the mid-1980s. There has been a ton of growth in the town since then. Things are in such dire straights that I hope we can get the support to fix the quality and the quantity issues. We can evaluate the different water sources and the different projects, but it will be up to the ratepayers in the district to decide what direction we head in.”
Scenna said, “This past year has been really challenging and has brought forward a lot of these issues that we are trying to solve.”
“We are currently supplementing our water through Station One, and we put in an emergency order with the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection to do so because we couldn’t meet demand in June,” said Scenna. “The demand far exceeded our supply, and we had to go to Level 5 restrictions. In order to solve that in the short-term, we had to supplement our water. I think that is a sign we need to invest in our system moving forward in order to meet the demand. That is why we are putting these capital projects forward. We want to make sure when there are times we need extra water that we have it. The other thing that is equally important is improving consistency in the quality of water in the Apple Hill area. In order to do that, we need to make sure all of our water sources produce the same level of quality.”
Scenna recalled that the LCWD previously implemented Level 5 restrictions, which prohibits outdoor watering, a few years ago.
“This isn’t an anomaly,” said Scenna. “It will likely happen again unless we do something. That is what these options try to address.”