Water Project Moving Forward
By Meaghan Glassett - Xpress

The water purification project is coming along swimmingly, says DPW Director John Haines.

The town was made aware of the issue in 2006 and they agreed to wait to proceed with this project. The town felt they needed a report to be completed, said Haines.

The Coler and Colantonio firm did a comprehensive study of the East Bridgewater’s water-related infrastructure before the 2007 Town Meeting. The firm showed a colorful map with all the water mains in town – over 100 miles and when they had been installed.

The oldest mains were shown in red and the town was advised to “get the red out.” The deposits of iron and manganese in the old pipes sometimes cut the carrying capacity of the pipe in half, Haines explained at the 2007 Town Meeting.

The 14 million dollar project includes building two filtration plants (one on East Street and one on Crescent Street) and replacing water mains. Funding for the town’s water clean-up project was appropriated at the Town Meeting in 2007.

The project involved a low-interest loan (two percent) from the State Revolving Fund, with the only catch being that the state needed a commitment from the taxpayers. The town voted down an override at that time and residents water rates went up 123 percent due to the project.

After about two years of designing filtration plants East Bridgewater’s brown water clean-up is coming along well. “Any disruption to the system can cause the water to brown,” said Haines. A disruption could be a house fire or a car hitting the hydrant. The color of the water also depends on whether a significant amount of water has been pumped.

The project began in October and has been broken up into multiple contracts, he said. The project is “on schedule and on budget,” said Haines. “It’s a long process and it’s had almost two years of designing filtration plants,” he said.

The filtration plants will be 60 by 80 foot buildings, said Haines. The plants will work by using the greensand filtration process. The way the greensand filtration process works is water pumps through sand that filters out the iron and manganese in the water and the water is then pumped back into system after it is treated, said Haines. The filtration plants are expected to be completed and online in January of next year, said Haines. “The water main project will be ongoing throughout the town,” said Haines. “We’re currently working on Crescent Street.”

The other piece of the project is replacing six miles of water mains located on Crescent Street, Bridge Street, Chestnut Street, Belmont Street, Pleasant Street, Bedford Street, Summer Street and Matfield Street.

Some residents expressed at the Town Meeting that they wanted to see the main replacements done before the plants.

The water mains are anticipated by this time of next year