• Casella looking at options for water line to Charlton homes

• Comment
• 
  

   Zoom
• 
  

  By Brian Lee
  Telegram & Gazette Staff
  

  
  Posted Feb. 27, 2016 at 6:00 AM
  Updated Feb 27, 2016 at 10:01 PM
  
  
  

  CHARLTON - Consultants for Southbridge landfill operator Casella Waste Systems are working on a proposal to provide public water to a neighborhood of homes whose private wells are contaminated, the Telegram & Gazette has learned.

  According to a recent email from Charlton’s water-sewer administrator Steve Wandland to water-sewer commissioners, a call was placed recently by Walsh Engineering, working with Wright-Pierce Engineering, to the water-sewer office. The engineer said the two companies were retained by Casella relative to contamination from the landfill, according to the email.

  The source of the contamination has not been determined, and to that end, Casella is aiming to identify the direction of groundwater in the nearby neighborhood of contaminated private wells by putting data-logging pressure transducers in select wells.

  In an interview Friday, landfill development director Tom Cue and landfill site manager Tracy Markham talked about the communication from Casella to Charlton concerning public water.

  "For us to even consider something like a water line, we need to know cause, logistics, operational issues and environmental issues," Mr. Cue said. "That’s what we’re examining right now. We are right now dipping our toe in the water to see what options there are, and that is one of them."
  

  Ms. Markham said: "We’re really putting it together, enough information, so that we’re knowledgeable to talk about a water line, if and when the project is there."

  Mr. Cue said there was nothing subversive or covert about the outreach to Charlton.

  "That said, this is step one in a process of checking options and seeing what kind of direction we want to take down the road," he said, adding, "I would like to make it clear we are not promising to put any kind of water line in - because if we build up hopes like that it could backfire terribly."

  Reached for comment, Charlton Town Administrator Robin L. Craver said, "The solution is public water; everyone knows that. There is no question the landfill is there to stay, and it has an unlined cell, and it is Casella's responsibility to make sure that this doesn’t continue to happen, or worse, in the future."

  The toxin 1,4-dioxane was detected in 21 private wells in Charlton, eight at levels greater than safe drinking water guidelines, the town learned in October. One of the eight exceeding water safety standards is also contaminated with trichloroethylene, or TCE, and Casella has installed a whole-house water filtration system there. The company provides bottled water to those homes on H Foote Road.

  In addition, Casella has agreed to supply bottled water for 120 days to 17 residents with clean wells who live within an area where the 1,4-dioxane is prevalent beginning Feb. 1. But the delivery of bottled water to this group will be discontinued, Casella said, if the next round of well sampling in April finds "no reportable" concentrations in a particular well.

  According to Ms. Markham, informational packets were recently sent to eight residents via certified mail asking for their voluntary participation in the transducer initiative.

  A pressure transducer is a device that is placed below the water level in a well to measure and record the water level over time.The transducers will be deployed for a minimum of four weeks, with data downloaded every one to two weeks. The select wells with transducers installed will ultimately be surveyed by a land surveyor to obtain spatial location and elevation of the well, literature from Casella said.