Last year the Town Meeting voted to approve the connection of the town’s water system to the water system at Devens, and approved the debt exclusion of $4.85 million for the borrowing to fund the project. The connection has been designed and bids for construction have been received. Unfortunately, as is far too common in construction today, those bids are $2.31 million higher than the project budget. The project cannot proceed without Town Meeting approval of this additional cost. A Special Town Meeting to vote on that approval is scheduled for Tuesday, May 14, 7 p.m., upstairs at Town Hall.
Why connect to Devens? The reasons we supported the connection to Devens last year have not changed:
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Devens can provide us with good quality water that has been treated to remove PFAS. The new EPA regulations sharply reducing acceptable PFAS levels in drinking water have made treatment for PFAS even more urgent.
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The contract negotiated with Devens will give the town the option to extend the water system to serve other residents with PFAS-contaminated wells should the town decide to do so in the future.
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The Devens connection will give us additional water capacity for fire protection and extend our fire protection area down Depot Road.
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If we do not connect to Devens, the town will be required to construct its own treatment facility at significant cost. It would be difficult to site a treatment facility of the size required near our wells and, if we were to do so, we would still have to face our continuing need for a new well site as a backup to our current wells.
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Running a public water supply has become much more expensive and complex, making it very difficult to run a small system like Harvard’s. The Devens system is larger, giving it the benefit of economies of scale. It has professional management experienced at managing a treatment facility and able to adjust to evolving regulations.
Why now, given the higher costs?
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The town has been awarded a State Revolving Fund loan at 2% interest that would be lost if we did not proceed with the project.
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The bids, while higher than estimated, were competitive and accurately reflected the market. It is very unlikely that rebidding the project would result in lower bids. There were three public bidders for the pump house and six public bidders for the water line.
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The EPA regulations will require other communities and water systems to install PFAS treatment, making the market for construction of treatment and water lines even more competitive and costs likely to rise.
For all of these reasons, we urge you to support the additional funding and approve Article 1 at next week’s Special Town Meeting.
Rich Maiore is chair of the Harvard Select Board. Sharon McCarthy is chair of the Harvard Board of Health, and Cindy Russo is chair of the Harvard Water and Sewer Commission.
