Published in the September 5, 2018 edition
By DAN TOMASELLO
LYNNFIELD — Concerns about discolored water again boiled over during a contentious and heated discussion during the Lynnfield Center Water District Board of Water Commissioners meeting last week.
The LCWD has come under fire the last several months due to residents living in the Apple Hill Lane, Chestnut Street, Cortland Lane and Lowell Street portions of town having discolored water. The Water Commissioners’ meeting featured a standing-room only crowd of concerned residents.
The water district has attributed the discolored water to iron and manganese built up in pipe walls. In order to rectify the situation, the LCWD plans on installing greensand filters at a proposed new Glen Drive treatment plant in order to treat iron and manganese. LCWD Superintendent Ken Burnham said the district is working with engineering firm CDM Smith to finalize plans for the new treatment plant.
After the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection reviews the water treatment plans, Water Commissioners Chairwoman Constance Leccese said LCWD voters will be asked to approve the project. She said the project’s price tag is between $4 million and $5 million. She anticipates the project will take two years to complete.
In the meantime, Burnham said the LCWD has implemented a directional flushing program in order to treat the iron and manganese. He said the district will resume directional flushing once it has an ample supply of water. He said residents who have been watering their lawns are not been abiding by the district’s water restrictions, which in turn has made the problem worse.
Leccese said the district looked into supplementing the LCWD’s water supply by getting additional water from the MWRA via Peabody. However, Burnham said the city canceled the project recently.
“They cannot accommodate us,” Leccese added.
Burnham accused local officials of pushing the LCWD to form a partnership with the MWRA.
“Some people have had other agendas,” said Burnham. “Ours is to rectify this problem. If you are talking about MWRA water, you are looking at $20 million. We felt we should push forward with the treatment plant. That is the direction we are going in.”
As a short-term solution, Leccese said the district will be launching a rebate program for customers experiencing discolored water. She said customers will be able to purchase water filters for their homes, and residents will be reimbursed $100 for the filter they purchase. She said the district will reimburse customers an additional $100 to have the filter installed by a licensed plumber.
“We acknowledge there is a problem,” said Leccese. “Hopefully this will help some people. In the short-term, this is the best we can do until the treatment plant comes online.”
Burnham agreed.
“We have a problem and we are trying to rectify it,” said Burnham.
Residents blast response
The residents experiencing discolored water told LCWD officials they were frustrated by the district’s lack of progress with addressing the problem.
West Tapley Road resident Lisa Lopez brought a Mason jar full of brown water to the meeting. She said the water sample came from her bathroom sink.
In response to a question from Burnham, Lopez said the sample contained cold water.
“I could have taken the same water from my toilet,” said Lopez.
Burnham attributed the discolored water at Lopez’s home to a contractor opening a fire hydrant, and said the district did not receive any other complaints from West Tapley Road residents. He said Lopez never informed the LCWD about the discolored water issue, and said the district’s employees would have inspected the problem at Lopez’s house if she reported the incident.
“This is not all that unusual,” said Lopez, who has had discolored water for the past five years. “It is darker than usual. At this point, if I called I would be calling a lot. I can’t do laundry, I can’t cook and I can’t drink the water. All of my porcelain is stained. It’s expensive to solve all of those problems.”
A Main Street woman also said she has been experiencing discolored water.
Burnham said the iron and manganese problem is not impacting Main Street residents. He said the Main Street water problem was caused by a “change in direction coming from the Wing Road tank.” He said a water main break in the Glen Meadow area last month could have also caused discolored water in the Main Street area.
In response to a question from a woman, Burnham said residents who live in the LCWD will need to vote on the new treatment plant project.
Lowell Street resident Erin Denehy inquired if the entire district has high levels of iron and manganese. LCWD employee Nick Couris said only portions of Chestnut Street, Lowell Street and surrounding areas have the problem.
“None of the samples we have taken have actually broken the level of .3 parts per million, which means we have to treat it,” said Couris. “This is all stuff that we don’t have to treat per the state. It’s something we are doing as a program to ensure a better quality of water for everybody. At our four other sites, we have not had any iron and manganese in the water.”
Denehy said the LCWD has not sampled discolored water at her house.
“We don’t have control over individuals’ houses,” said Couris. “I can’t really speak of what is happening at your house. What I can say is the distribution sites that we sample every week are the only sites the state makes us test and beyond that, we don’t have control over it and it’s an issue that is just ongoing. We are monitoring it the best we can. It is not something we are happy about.”
Willis Lane resident Lisa Pasciuto asked if the LCWD has investigated how other communities have addressed similar problems.
Burnham said Topsfield encountered similar iron and manganese issues associated with that community’s rock wells.
“They brought it to the voters up there and because only a certain section had problems, it took them three years to build a treatment plant for $10 million,” said Burnham.
A number of residents were frustrated about the proposed water filter rebate program and the meeting descended into chaos as residents and LCWD officials kept talking over each other before order was restored.
Lopez said the LCWD has a “communication problem.”
“You have explained a very complicated and expensive problem that will ultimately affect this whole town down the road,” said Lopez. “But when people are calling to understand this problem, they are being told ‘it’s just five or six houses.’ That is the word on the street. That is not going to get us the $4.5 million plant.”
Leccese said the LCWD has undergone some changes over the past year.
“Hopefully our responses have improved and will continue improve,” said Leccese.
Lowell Street resident Peter Volpe urged the LCWD to “test the brown water.”
Burnham said the LCWD takes samples before water goes into homes. He said reputable samples need to follow “chain of custody” protocols, and said the samples people have taken to outside laboratories are unreliable. He repeatedly maintained that the water is “safe.”
Chestnut Street resident Maria Piazza said the LCWD needs to get the treatment plant project completed as quickly as possible.
“We need to fast track a solution because two years is not acceptable,” said Piazza. “You are not taking care of your customers. It’s not okay.”
