Housatonic Water Works monitoring violation
Great Barrington – The Berkshire Edge recently received the following statement from Housatonic Water Works about its recent violation of drinking water standards:
“Our water system recently violated a drinking water standard. Although this situation does not require that you take immediate action, as our customers you have a right to know what happened, what you should do, and what we are doing to correct this situation.
Because we use a surface water as our source of supply, we are required to provide both filtration and disinfection to remove and inactivate waterborne pathogens such as viruses, Giardia and Cryptosporidium. Adequate filtration and disinfection must occur every day. Our slow sand filters remove 99 percent of Cryptosporidium and Giardia cysts prior to chlorination. Chlorine is added to further disinfect this filtered water. Our water treatment plant uses chlorine as the disinfectant which is very effective at inactivation of pathogens provided that there is an adequate amount of chlorine (“chlorine residual”) in contact with the water for the proper amount of time (“contact time”). Chlorine is less effective in cold water and requires the chlorine residual to be increased and/or the contact time to be increased in order to provide adequate disinfection. During this time, we made adjustments to our operations without notice to or approval from the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP). Our actions resulted in inadequate disinfection on December 24 and 31, 2015. MassDEP required we verify the treatment plant operations and provide this public notice to you.
What should I do?
- You do not need to boil your water or take other corrective actions. However, if you have specific health concerns, consult your doctor.
- People with severely compromised immune systems, infants, and some elderly may be at increased risk. These people should seek advice about drinking water from their health care providers. General guidelines on ways to lessen the risk of infection by microbes are available from EPA’s Safe Drinking Water Hotline at (800) 426-4791.
What does this mean?
This situation does not require that you take immediate action. If it did, you would have been notified immediately. Independent tests taken during this same time period did not indicate the presence of bacteria in drinking water.
Inadequately treated water may contain disease-causing organisms. These organisms include bacteria, viruses, and parasites which can cause symptoms such as nausea, cramps, diarrhea, and associated headaches. These symptoms, however, are not caused only by organisms in drinking water, but also by other factors. If you experience any of these symptoms and they persist, you may want to seek medical advice.
What happened? What is being done?
We continued to maintain consistent chlorine residuals although water temperatures were lower, and we made alterations to the pump that reduced the contact time that impacted the chlorine’s ability to be effective. These adjustments, and our failure to properly calculate the required chlorine and contact time for that chlorine resulted in inadequate disinfection. We have conferred with MassDEP, tested the pump that is in use, and will more closely monitor the disinfection system and will adjust the amount of disinfectant added as necessary to maintain adequate levels. We will improve our oversight of the disinfection system, including using proper calculations on a daily basis to track and adjust operations, as necessary and will not alter facility operations without proper authorization. We submitted and MassDEP reviewed our January and February 2016 practices and disinfection calculations, which were accepted.
For more information, please contact James Mercer, Certified Water Operator for the Housatonic Water Works, at (413) 528-1780 or 80 Maple Avenue, Suite 1, Great Barrington, MA 01230.”
–E.E.
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Governor Baker signs comprehensive solar legislation into law
Boston — This week, Governor Charlie Baker and Lieutenant Governor Karyn Polito were joined by a bipartisan group of legislators to sign into law solar legislation that will continue the expansion of the Commonwealth’s solar industry and establish a long-term framework for sustainable solar development. The bill, An Act Relative to Solar Energy, passed both legislative chambers with overwhelming support.
The legislation provides immediate relief to the solar industry by raising the public and private net metering caps from 5 percent of utilities’ peak load to 8 percent and from 4 percent of utilities’ peak load to 7 percent respectively. Additionally, the bill allows the Department of Energy Resources (DOER) and the Department of Public Utilities to gradually transition the solar industry to a more self-sustaining model. This approach includes robust stakeholder outreach, and will establish the next-generation solar incentive program at a reduced cost.
In an effort to lower the cost of net metering for non-participant ratepayers, the bi-partisan legislation sets the new credit value for all solar projects – except residential, small commercial, municipal, and government-owned – to 60 percent of the full retail rate. To facilitate continued solar growth within communities around the Commonwealth, the bill preserves retail rate credits for municipal and government-owned projects and continues to exempt residential and small commercial projects from the net metering cap and any net metering credit reductions.
Recognizing that a long-term sustainable solution will take time to develop and that many projects are in advanced stages of development, the DOER recently filed an emergency regulation that will address market uncertainty and establish a smooth transition from SREC II to the next incentive program.
–E.E.
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Municipal light plant update
Alford – The elected municipal light plant (MLP) board has made progress to on moving toward its goal of installing a state-of-the-art last-mile broadband fiber optic network in Alford.
As reported in 2015, the town considered a number of options, including a technical and financially beneficial collaboration with the Massachusetts Broadband Institute (MBI). In March 2016, MBI unexpectedly announced that the Governor’s office had imposed a “pause” in MBI’s activities while its policies, practices, and priorities undergo review. After several candid discussions with MBI leadership, town officials concluded that they cannot count on MBI as a collaborator in the near term, though they still anticipate receiving financial support when the “pause” is lifted.
The board has settled on exploring a “Design/Build/Operate” option, in which the town would contract with one company to do all three functions and the Alford MLP would have total control over all aspects of construction and operation. The board has identified and will evaluate several qualified companies. It has applied for the required licenses from National Grid and Verizon to place its fiber on their utility poles, and has arranged for the insurance and surety bonds that the utilities require.
The town has arranged the first round of borrowing under the $1.6 million authorization approved by Alford voters last year. It intends to use the $200,000 borrowed last week primarily for the costs associated with the survey, evaluation, and “make-ready” work on the poles and to fund the modest initial operating costs of the MLP board.
–E.E.
