NORTHFIELD — New information from the East Northfield Water Company may lead the state Department of Environmental Protection to reconsider its requirement for the company to either install a filtration system or change its water supply.
At the company’s request, there will be a public hearing with the DEP tonight at 6 in Town Hall, where the company will have an opportunity to provide relevant information to the DEP.
That will include estimates for the company’s cost of either installing a filter or changing its water source, said East Northfield Water Company President John Alden. As of Wednesday afternoon, the company was still waiting on an estimate.
The DEP’s requirement came in October, after a problematic report on water quality in the Grandin Reservoir, which is the company’s water source. Previously, the Grandin Reservoir was considered to be of such high quality that the DEP had waived the normal requirement for a water filter.
The waiver had been in place since 1991 but was revoked after the most recent water quality report. In the six-month period from April 2018 to September, the water exceeded the acceptable limit of bacteria in eight of the 52 biweekly tests, or 15 percent of the time. The DEP requires that a source for drinking water be below the acceptable limit for bacteria in at least 90 percent of tests in a six-month testing period.
The water was never unsafe to drink, Alden said at the time, because the company chlorinates the water and treats it with ultraviolet light after it is drawn from the reservoir. The purified water, as it is sent to customers, still meets DEP standards, Alden said.
If the DEP’s decision is not changed, the East Northfield Water Company has 18 months from when the decision was made in October to either install a filtration system or change its water source. The meeting tonight is only a hearing and not a formal appeal.
The East Northfield Water Company serves about 300 customers, mostly in the area of the Thomas Aquinas College campus, Alden said. The company was originally set up to serve the campus when it was the Northfield campus of the Northfield Mount Hermon School, and is still owned by the prep school, which is now located solely in Gill.
Contact Max Marcus at mmarcus@recorder.com or 413-772-0261 ex 261.