Published May 5, 2021
When Lynnfield Center Water District ratepayers gather at Lynnfield High School’s front entrance for the Annual District Meeting on Monday, May 10, we urge them to vote in favor of the $9.8 million capital improvement project.
LCWD officials have been working on trying to find a resolution to the district’s water quality and water quantity problems for over two years. In order to address the crisis, Superintendent John Scenna and the Board of Water Commissioners have recommended a plan that entails constructing a greensand filter treatment plant at the Glen Drive station as well as receiving supplemental water from the Massachusetts Water Resource Authority (MWRA) via Wakefield.
Article 18 will ask ratepayers to approve constructing a $6.3 million greensand filter water treatment plant at the Glen Drive station. The new plant will be used to treat iron and manganese, which LCWD officials have attributed to the discolored water problems that have impacted residents living near the North Reading line. The new plant will be similar to an existing one at the Phillips Road station that was built in the 1990s.
In addition to the greensand filter treatment plant project, Article 19 will ask ratepayers to authorize the LCWD to enter into a 20-year agreement with the town of Wakefield for the purpose of receiving supplemental water from the MWRA. The supplemental water project involves connecting the Wakefield and LCWD systems at the Main Street and Bay State Road intersection.
We know that ratepayers have different opinions about both projects. There are some people who want the LCWD to get all of its water from the MWRA while there are others who want the district to get all of its water from its existing sources: The Ipswich River basin and the North Coastal basin.
CDM Smith project engineer Mike Nelson recently recalled that LCWD officials and CDM Smith engineers examined supplemental water alternatives such as building more wells and getting supplemental from other communities such as Andover, Peabody and the Lynnfield Water District. He said the Wakefield proposal is the most cost effective option.
“It makes sense from an economic standpoint because it would be the least impactful to the overall rates,” said Nelson.
The supplemental water project will also improve fire suppression. When the associate editor was a senior in high school in a different community, a childhood friend’s home went up in flames and could not be saved due to insufficient water pressure. We would hate to see that happen here.
Nelson also noted that the LCWD will not be able to get all of its water from the MWRA via Wakefield because “the hydraulics don’t work.” Scenna recently informed the Villager that if the LCWD shut down its existing infrastructure and joined the MWRA, the initiation fees would cost between $5-$6 million. He also said there will be expensive infrastructure costs the district will need to pay for in order to join the MWRA.
There are other municipalities such as Wakefield and Woburn that blend MWRA water with additional water sources. If other communities can do that safely, so can the LCWD.
In regards to the treatment plant project, the ratepayers living near the North Reading line have repeatedly dealt with headaches and quality of life issues due to having discolored water for a number of years. Voting in favor of the treatment plant is the right thing to do for those community members.
“The Apple Hill neighborhood is taking the brunt of the iron and manganese that is coming out of the ground,” said Nelson. “That is a huge quality of life issue. We have a problem there.”
Current LCWD officials have spent the last two years trying to clean up a mess, and this is an opportunity for ratepayers to finally fix it. Approving the $9.8 million capital improvement project is the right course of action to solve the crisis.
