SHUTESBURY — An earmark to cover Shutesbury’s ongoing costs of dealing with forever chemicals in drinking water is being pledged by State Sen. Jo Comerford, who says she is also focused on revising the funding formula for public schools across Massachusetts and ensuring communities in the Quabbin Reservoir watershed are fairly compensated.
In a presentation at the Nov. 25 Select Board meeting, the Northampton Democrat outlined the work she is doing on behalf of the town, including offering feedback related to the environmental impacts from tree-cutting plans unveiled by both Eversource and National Grid.
For a town that has already spent around $700,000 on addressing PFAS contamination in private wells, Comerford said that, beyond the earmark, she would like to establish a fund for communities that are doing the right thing on behalf of homeowners.
The town had previously tried to tap the Clean Water Trust, accessing a $300,000 no-interest loan, but was unsuccessful.
Select Board member Rita Farrell said the problem Shutesbury encountered is that the trust’s money is only available for public water supplies, not for testing private wells. Otherwise there is no state support in sight.
Farrell said PFAS is an ongoing expense, with the town spending over $400,000 in PFAS litigation funds. and a little over $100,000 in testing per year for 80 homes.
“It’s a tremendous unfunded liability for us going out so many years,” Farrell said.
“We send all our good water to Boston,” said board member Eric Stocker, referring to the Quabbin.
Farrell said the cutting plans by the utilities are among the growing worries for people in town.
“We’re feeling very overwhelmed,” Farrell said. “Not enough state funding for our schools and not enough state funding for our state-owned land.”
The Quabbin bill Comerford and Rep. Aaron Saunders, D-Ludlow, filed has momentum, Comerford said, and a resolution is being considered for communities to bring to town meetings in the spring. The idea is that Quabbin communities should be considered stewards, not hosts, of the water that heads east to Boston.
The bill calls for a community trust fund, better payment in lieu of taxes and more of a voice on the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority board and advisors.
The education funding formula known as Chapter 70 is broken for low and declining enrollment schools and rural schools, but a local contribution funding study is moving forward.
A foundation budget review commission will help to fund rural schools at a much elevated amount, she said.
“Any kind of advocacy Shutesbury wants to do would be worth doing in the education space,” Comerford said.
Comerford was blunt in her assessment of why the formula is outdated. “It’s an abomination and we have to change it,” Comerford said.
She elaborated that a broken system exists, because the rich big towns get capped and yet “they could maybe pay 30 times what the state says they can and should, whereas we struggle to get to the 100%,” Comerford said.
“They are so wealthy they should not get the kind of aid they do, and if they didn’t, it would free up some money for communities that are rural or declining enrollment,” Comerford said. “This is just the truth of it.”
Other topics Comerford is working on is EMT training and expanded partnerships between emergency responders to ensure residents of smaller communities have access to fire and medical services.
