Great Barrington — On August 22, the town’s Board of Health approved an Order to Correct for Housatonic Water Works.
The order has been issued through Massachusetts General Law Chapter 111 Public Health, under Section 122 “Regulations relative to nuisances; examinations” and Section 123 “Abatement of nuisance by the owner; penalty.”
While The Berkshire Edge requested a copy of the order during the August 22 meeting, Health Agent Rebecca Jurczyk wrote in an email on August 23 that she would not be able to make the order public until The Berkshire County Sheriff’s Office served the order to the company.
In an email on August 29, Jurczyk wrote that the company had been served with the Order to Correct, and she sent a copy of the order to The Berkshire Edge.
As per the order, HWW is required to:
- Regularly test its water supply for contaminants, including bacteria, chemicals, and other harmful substances. HWW must also ensure that the water it supplies meets or exceeds standards set by the Environmental Protection Agency and the state’s Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP). (At the Board of Health public hearing on August 15, HWW Treasurer James Mercer and company attorney Robert Cox argued that the company already conducts regular testing and it follows EPA and MassDEP regulations.)
- The company must provide customers within Great Barrington with “an alternative supply of safe, potable water, through the distribution and supply of bottled water in containers larger than ‘single-use containers'” daily at the company’s expense. The water supply must be “equal to or no greater than 1.5 gallons per day, per inhabitant in each such household.” The Board of Health “deems a violation as to any one household on any day to be a separate violation, subject to a separate penalty for each such household.”
As per the Order to Correct, representatives from HWW are required to appear at the next regularly scheduled Board of Health meeting, which is set for Thursday, September 5.
However, the order states that HWW has a right to appeal within seven days of the issuance of the order.
A copy of the Order to Correct can be found here.
