Category Archives: Water & Sewer

From Bill Harvey, Chair of Water & Sewer –

Medfield Water and Sewerage

Rate Setting Public Hearing

28 May 2019

Information Brief

Rates for water and sewerage services are set once a year.  The Board of Water and Sewerage, along with the DPW Director and the Water and Sewerage Enterprise Fund Committees have recommended the following increases:

Water +10% across all Tiers

Sewerage +4% across all Tiers

These rates will be effective April 1, 2019.

Background

1. Water

It has been in the Master Plan to address elevated levels of natural-occurring manganese in two of our five wells.

The US EPA has not published a Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL), which are health-based limits, for manganese. The USEPA and the MA DEP do have a Secondary MCL (SMCL) concentration limits of 0.05 mg/l, which is for:

Aesthetic effects — undesirable tastes or odors;

Cosmetic effects — effects which do not damage the body but are still undesirable

Technical effects — damage to water equipment or reduced effectiveness of treatment for other contaminants

In the last few years, a consultant has completed a study on a treatment plant and alternatives.

One of the alternatives was to investigate all Medfield land parcels for an aquifer source of sufficient quantity and quality to avoid a treatment plant.  This investigation was conducted in 2017 and 2018.  Unfortunately, no other significant water sources were found. Also in 2018, we conducted a treatment pilot which compared different treatment options and designs, and this information will be used for designing a full-scale plant.

The Town is proceeding with detailed design and development of procurement documents for the treatment plant, which will include a re-development of one of its wells to increase the instantaneous pumping capacity.  This should relieve some of the pumping burden on our largest well, Well #6.

The capital investment for this project is currently estimated at $8 million.  We expect this project to be brought to the Annual Town Meeting in May 2021, and construction to begin in July 2021.

The 10% rate increase for this fiscal period will be followed by another rate increase the following year, projected to be another 10% to pay for the bond and additional operating costs.

1. Sewerage

There are some increases in operating costs to operate our sewerage system.  The primary driver for this year’s increase is the addition of another full-time employee, which was mandated as per a Consent Order with the DEP for Medfield to increase of staff at the wastewater treatment plant.

Alert emailed from town website –

The Massachusetts DEP historically wanted us to use 60 gallons per person per day or less, and we are above that when we water grass in the summer.

It is instructive to see how water usage varies by states, with California and Texas being really high.  If it was just irrigation in hot climates, I would have expected Florida to be equally as high, but it is not.  Perhaps it is related to agricultural uses.

Posted on: December 14, 2018

Water Main Break

ALERT from Town of Medfield this afternoon –

Maurice Goulet, Director of Public Works, clarified the water ban issues:

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In this particular case, DEP had notified us that they were implementing an Advisory Drought status. According to our Water Management Act Permit, the Town is required to implement water restrictions. In the Advisory status the Town has an Odd/Even water restriction with no watering between the hours of 9:00 am to 5:00 pm. The Odd/Even restriction simply means, odd numbered houses can water on odd numbered calendar days and the same for even numbered houses on even calendar days. As far as the one day a week sign that was posted, it was done in error. It will be just an alternating odd/even restriction for the time being. If the Drought Status becomes more severe, we will have to become more stringent in our restrictions.

Thanks, hope this clears things up a little

The following is from the town website, explaining the water ban the town imposed this week.  The town is obligated to do such water bans, based on instructions from the state DEP.  The state bases its water ban orders on the flow levels it monitors in the Charles River.

There are different levels of water bans.  This one prohibits watering 9-5, and permits watering only on the odd/even days that match your odd/even street address.

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TOWN OF MEDFIELD

WATER USAGE RESTRICTION

The Town of Medfield has received notice from the Massachusetts Dept. of Environmental Protection to increase the level of outdoor watering restrictions due to decreasing streamflow from the Charles River. Therefore, the Town of Medfield is declaring a mandatory odd/even outdoor watering program. Also, no outside watering should take place between the hours of 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.

Thank you for your understanding in this matter. If you have further questions, please contact the Medfield Water Dept. at 508-906-3004.