Great Barrington — In a letter to Housatonic Water Works Treasurer James Mercer, a representative of the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) wrote that the company must go forward with the installation of a manganese filtration system.
On January 24, the long-troubled company gave the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities (DPU) notice that it had delayed the project.
Installation of the filtration system was part of the rate-increase plan approved by the DPU in July.
In the January 24 filing, company attorneys squarely blamed the Great Barrington Board of Health’s Order to Correct, issued against the company on August 22, 2024, for the delay.
In MassDEP’s letter to Mercer sent on Thursday, February 13, organization representative Andrew Kelly writes that HWW “is required to commence construction of the filtration upgrades within 90 days of the permit approval.”
MassDEP approved the company’s permit for the filtration system on December 13, 2024.
“For MassDEP’s purposes, ‘commence construction’ means that physical construction begins and that vendors and supplies have been procured/allocated for the project in a manner that will allow the project to proceed without any unreasonable delay or interruption,” Kelly writes.
Kelly add in the letter a schedule for the construction and installation of the filtration system that was previously agreed on by both MassDEP and HWW:
According to the schedule, by Saturday, February 15, the company should have ordered filtration equipment in order to begin site work by March 13. “MassDEP requires that within 5-days of receipt of this letter, HWWC provide written confirmation that the filtration equipment was ordered by the February 15 date included within the plan and that the construction of the filtration equipment is on schedule in accordance with the Plan and MassDEP’s October 8 Unilateral Administrative Order,” Kelly writes. “Any deviation from the schedule that was included within the plan must be detailed in [the company’s] response.”
Click here for the full letter.
