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Housatonic Water Works saga continues on with scheduled meetings and a court hearing

In his additional comments, Richard Gullick, who has served as the water-quality consultant for HWW for over five years, criticized the Board of Health, MassDEP, and local media.

Great Barrington — The long-troubled Housatonic Water Works (HWW) will hold a virtual Zoom meeting on Wednesday, October 16, at 6 p.m.

In a letter to customers dated October 1, Treasurer James Mercer pleaded for residents to support the town’s purchase of the company. In the letter, Mercer references the Department of Public Utilities approving the company’s rate-increase request in late July. As proposed by the company, customer rates will be increased by over 90 percent over the next five years. According to the company, the rate increase will help cover various infrastructure improvements.

In the letter, however, Mercer writes that additional rate increases may be needed. “While HWW may be well-positioned to address its immediate and mid-term capital projects following the approval of the rate increase, if it remains independent, the rates required to meet its long-term capital needs will be substantial,” he writes. “These future projects will likely necessitate significant additional rate hikes, creating a heavy financial burden for many village residents.” Mercer does not specify what the additional rate hikes would be.

A few days later, on Thursday, October 3, the Board of Health held an executive session during its meeting to discuss pending litigation against the town and the board in the Berkshire Superior Court regarding the board’s Order to Correct against HWW.

The board issued its Order to Correct on August 22, after three public hearings on the matter. The order was 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.” The order forces HWW to conduct multiple actions, including taking actions toward water-quality compliance and water testing. It also forces HWW to provide its customers with “an alternative supply of safe, potable water.”

According to Board of Health Chair Michael Lanoue, however, enforcement of the order has been delayed due to the company filing a preliminary injunction against the town and board in Berkshire Superior Court. A hearing in the case is scheduled for Wednesday, October 16, in Pittsfield.

During the public comment portion of the October 3 meeting, several residents reported a person visiting HWW customers at their properties, handing out letters supporting the company and its water quality. The person in question was at the meeting and identified himself as Richard Gullick, owner of Water Compliance Solutions in Leominster.

During public comments, Gullick, who said that he has served as the water-quality consultant for HWW for over five years, told the board, “I speak for myself, not on behalf of Housatonic Water Works.” Despite this, the letter Gullick handed out to customers, “A Scientific Evaluation of the Occurrence of Haloacetic Acids and Manganese in the Housatonic Water Works Company’s Drinking Water,” can be found on the company’s website.

“Manganese is a color problem, not a health problem,” Gullick told the board. “It causes color concentrations well below any potential adverse health effects. Manganese is an essential human nutrient. We consume much more through food than water. One piece of wheat bread has more manganese than half a gallon of Housatonic Water Works’ water.”

The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection’s website, however, states, “At elevated levels, manganese could produce neurological effects with some variation in sensitivity between individuals.”

A July 2023 article from Boston University, “Massachusetts Drinking Water May Contain Unsafe Levels of Manganese,” quotes a study by School of Public Health author Alexa Friedman, stating, “Some level of manganese is needed for health, but growing evidence suggest that excess levels of manganese can harm children’s brains.”

In his additional comments, Gullick criticized the board, MassDEP, and local media. “In 2020, MassDEP issued an unfounded, defamatory, and obviously retaliatory inspection report to HWW,” Gullick said. “The untruths about the company and its water have snowballed since then, pumped up by the local press with their incomplete and unfair stories through unfiltered social media. The [board’s] consultants have followed [MassDEP’s] mistakes and seriously undervalued the company. I consider the [Order to Correct] to be irresponsible, devoid of academic and scientific integrity, and essentially to be political extortion that is disconnected from reality.”

A few days later, during the Selectboard’s regular meeting on Monday, October 7, Town Manager Mark Pruhenski announced that a financial study on the potential costs for the town’s acquisition and operation of HWW has been completed. Pruhenski said that the results of the study would be presented at a meeting on Monday, October 28, but that the time and location for the presentation had not yet been determined.

At the Selectboard meeting, Selectboard member Ben Elliott criticized HWW for its October 1 letter to customers. “[In the letter] the company proposed this concept as if it was a new idea,” Elliott said. “I found this very frustrating since the process [for the financial study] has been delayed by HWW by not providing the information that [the town] needed to move forward with the study. This coupled with their hiring of an expert last week, who in addition to rerailing the Board of Health meeting [on October 3], also paid visits to customers’ houses to try to tell them that their water was better than they thought it was. I think this goes to show how serious [the company] has been about this process. This is an example of how much help we need from our state and federal representatives. We are doing everything that we can [as a town], but we are locked in a process with [a company] that does not take this seriously.”

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