Water District celebrates completion of PFAS treatment upgrade of North Acton Treatment Facility

July 12, 2024
A light tan industrial-type building with a green roof. There are several small windows and two large bay doors.
North Acton Water Treatment Facility Photo: Acton TV

Officials from the Acton Water District celebrated the reopening of the North Acton Treatment Plant at a well-attended public ceremony held on 26 June. District Manager Matthew Mostoller announced the completion of the treatment plant retrofit for PFAS remediation, which was initiated shortly after the MassDEP announced its intention to impose a 20 parts-per-trillion (ppt) concentration limit on the total of six PFAS chemicals in 2020. At the time of that announcement measurements of PFAS levels at the North Acton facility were often exceeded 40 ppt, which is a level of contamination that is frequently found in groundwater sources throughout Massachusetts. The recently-completed retrofit is now producing water with undetectable levels of PFAS, which will put the North Acton Plant in compliance with the current Massachusetts regulation as well as the 4 ppt federal regulation that will be in effect in 2029. Mr. Mostoller emphasized the importance of this achievement, in view of the fact that the North Acton Treatment Plant represents 20% of the Water District’s total supply capacity. The celebration of this achievement was attended by several local officials, including members of the Town’s Select Board and a representative from the office of State Representative Simon Cataldo.

Technical summaries of the planning, construction, and funding of the new treatment equipment were given by Mr. Mostoller and Commissioner Barry Rosen. Their complete comments can be viewed on ActonTV. Manager Mostoller began his presentation by noting that the Acton Water District was one of the first public water providers in Massachusetts to recognize the magnitude of the PFAS remediation problem. He noted that in 2020 it became clear that the Water District was faced with a widespread problem that needed to be immediately addressed. Unfortunately, work was complicated by the onset of the COVID pandemic, which resulted in a delay of voter approval for project funding. Following voter approval, Water District staff and the Commissioners rapidly assembled a team of technical experts that included the general contractor D&C Construction, technology provider Veolia Water Technologies, and engineering consultants from Wright-Pierce. This team was tasked with the difficult job of implementing a complicated remediation retrofit without disrupting the normal operation of a treatment plant that was constructed in 2009. Mr. Mostoller thanked all of the team members for their outstanding performance, and also expressed his appreciation for voter support of the sizable expenditures required to bring the project to completion.

The chair of the Water Commissioners, Barry Rosen, spoke to some of the timeline and funding challenges encountered during this project. He noted that PFAS filtration at the part-per-trillion range is extremely difficult, and that cost-effective technologies are still at an early stage of development. To expedite an effective near-term solution and maintain the ability to implement future modifications, the Water District has chosen to install and evaluate leased filtration equipment. Critical to the timely completion of this project was the financial assistance provided by the Acton Select Board, which made a portion of the Town’s American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding available. Additional funds were obtained through the Mass Department of Environmental Protection and the Clean Water Trust, which provided a 0% interest rate loan and a 30% principal forgiveness on that loan. As a result of the efforts of the District’s technical team and favorable financing opportunities, the North Acton Treatment Plant has been operating at full capacity with non-detectable levels of PFAS since 1 July. Mr. Rosen further stated that over the next two years similar modifications will be made to the South Acton and Acton Center Treatment Plants, which will bring all of the Water District’s primary water sources into full compliance with the State and Federal PFAS standards. In his concluding remarks Rosen reminded the audience that a non-detectable level of PFAS represents an extraordinarily small concentration of this contaminant, which is roughly equivalent to one drop of material mixed with the volume of water contained in an Olympic-sized swimming pool.

Two pictures of men, both wearing blue shirts and speaking in front of a large piece of equipment.
District Manager Matthew Mostoller (left) and Water Commission chair Barry Rosen (right). Photo: Acton TV
A woman with her hair in a bun stands in front a large piece of equipment.
Select Board member Alissa Nicol. Photo: Acton TV

Following Mr. Rosen’s comments, Select Board member Alissa Nicol spoke to congratulate the Water District on its accomplishment and thanked District officials for their willingness to keep the Town and the public informed of the status of the PFAS treatment effort. She noted that these public outreach efforts included a panel discussion with the Green Acton organization and the League of Women Voters, as well as interactions with the Acton Fire Department to obtain information about its use of fire-suppression foams that contain PFAS. She reminded the attendees that the project involved nearly four years of engineering design work, performance testing, permitting, and investigations of funding opportunities, much of which took place while the staff was forced to deal with Covid-related work restrictions. Also mentioned were the District’s efforts to further diversify its supply network with the purchase of the 549 Main Street property and the development of new bedrock wells. Ms. Nicol closed by saying that she expects that this celebration will be the first of several events commemorating treatment plant upgrades, and once again thanked the elected and appointed officials, staff, and contractors for their contributions to this highly successful project.

At the conclusion of these remarks, Mr. Mostoller invited all attendees to toast the completion of the North Acton Treatment Plant retrofit with a glass of PFAS-free water from that facility.

Dr. Parenti is a member of the Town of Acton Water Resource Committee and the Acton Water District Finance Committee.

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