• Charlton seals $30M water deal with ExxonMobil

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  By Craig S. Semon
  Telegram & Gazette Staff
  

  
  Posted Apr. 12, 2016 at 10:17 PM
  Updated at 11:15 PM
  
  
  

  CHARLTON - “We got water,” Selectman Chair Rick C. Swensen declared Tuesday, as the town celebrated a major victory: a $30 million agreement with ExxonMobil that will bring clean water to properties contaminated by the former gasoline additive MTBE.

  Town Administrator Robin L. Craver said the town reached an agreement with the international oil and gas company to bring clean water to contaminated sites, including Charlton Middle School, Charlton Heritage Elementary School and Bay Path Regional Vocational Technical High School.

  In addition, the Masonic Home will also be hooked up to the new water line, she said.

  After Ms. Craver's announcement, and a reading of the five-page summary of the settlement, Mr. Swensen said he couldn't overstate the importance of the agreement to the town or the role the town administrator played in securing it.

  "ExxonMobil was sending people that do this kind of stuff for a living from all over the country for multiple meetings," Mr. Swensen said. "Robin (Craver) went toe-to-toe with them every step of the way and did not back down one bit in doing what was in Charlton’s best interest.”

  According to the agreement, ExxonMobil will install, at its expense, a multimillion-dollar extension that calls for 6 miles of water line from Main Street, over Old Worcester Road, across Morton Station Road, along Old Muggett Hill Road to Main Street, where it would form a loop, as well as Hammerrock Road and Dodge Lane and anything required by state Department of Environmental Protection, supplying clean water to MTBE-tainted homes along the route.

  ExxonMobil will also activate a line on Route 20, from North Main to where Old Worcester Road/Prenier Lane intersects with Route 20.

  The agreement also includes a $7,750,000 cash settlement from Exxon Mobil to the town. Ms. Craver said the board of selectmen and water-sewer commission voted to use this to pay off its water debt, cancel all assessed water betterments and credit those who have already paid. The remaining funds will support the water department as appropriated by town meeting, she said.

  Charlton will not charge betterments, regardless of whether the home connects to the water line, along the route installed by ExxonMobil.
  
  

  ExxonMobil will offer a “12-month connection period” and will fund and construct connections for the three schools and the Masonic Home and provide water line connection stubs for lots that could be developed.

  The state Department of Environmental Protection named ExxonMobil responsible for release of a large, but unknown, amount of gasoline from an underground storage tank in the 1980s at the former LaMountain’s Exxon station at Route 20 and North Main Street.

  The accidental spill sent MTBE, a gasoline additive and probable human carcinogen, into the water table. The DEP says MTBE from the site is traveling southeast from Route 20 via underground waterways.

  Ms. Craver said releases of gasoline at the Massachusetts Turnpike Rest Areas 5E and 6W and the Honey Farms on Worcester Road, and a release of petroleum products from the Charlton Highway Department on North Main Street, have also contributed to groundwater contamination.

  ExxonMobil has been testing about 80 wells in the vicinity. Of them, about 30 contain MTBE, with six exceeding the state safe drinking water standard of 70 parts per billion.

  Most homes are along Old Worcester Road and all are receiving bottled water or water filtration systems from ExxonMobil.

  MTBE has been detected at low, fluctuating levels in the well at Bay Path on Old Muggett Hill Road since 2003. Small concentrations were previously found at nearby Charlton Middle and Heritage schools.

  Ms. Craver thanked more than 40 groups and individuals, including famed environmental activist Erin Brokovich, for their contributions to reaching the agreement.

  Selectmen John P. McGrath also thanked the media and social media for publicizing the issue.