Public Works

The emailed information below was forwarded by Town Administrator Kristine Trierweiler this afternoon. When I went following the links to find out what the declaration of drought meant, I found this map, which seems to indicate that the two days of watering per week we are now allowed is on target.

DROUGHT

After a review of hydrologic conditions in Massachusetts, the Drought Management Task Force (DMTF) has recommended a Level 2 drought designation for all regions except the Southeast and the Cape & Islands. View the details and presentations from USGS, DCR, DEP, DER, MWRA, and NWS here.

For further information on water conservation and what residents can do, visit the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs’ drought page, the Department of Conservation and Recreation’s drought management page, and the MassDEP Water Conservation page.

The Drought Management Task Force, chaired by the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs and the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency, consists of officials from state and federal agencies and professional organizations with responsibility for areas likely to be affected by drought conditions. For more information, visit their website.

More details on the water ban

Dear Selectmen,

Just a quick note that pursuant to our water withdrawal permits and the measured low stream level on the Charles River, we hit a threshold that a triggered the Town of Medfield to go to our Tier 2 of our water conservation measures:

“Nonessential water use allowed every other day. Even numbered addresses will be allowed to lawn water on even numbered calendar days. Odd numbered addresses will be allowed to lawn water on odd numbered calendar days.”

 “Lawn watering allowed outside the hours of 9am to 5pm on designated day.

Maurice and his team will be putting up the appropriate signs on the street level, and this is also listed on the town website.

Stay cool,

Bill Harvey

Chairman

Medfield Board of Water and Sewerage

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.