Posted on December 2, 2024
ATTLEBORO – The city got 2.1 inches of rain last weekend, and more this week, but it’s not enough to immediately fill the reservoirs and replenish the water supply.
“Although recent rains have helped a little, we need a substantial amount of rain to replenish our water supply and get it back to where it needs to be,” Mayor Cathleen DeSimone said. “It is important for everyone in the Attleboro community to understand that, in the absence of heavy rainfall, it will take months to recover from this drought.”
The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection declared a water supply emergency for Attleboro on Nov. 19.
Depending upon the amount of precipitation received in upcoming weeks or months, the emergency declaration will be in effect until next spring longer.
While the emergency is in effect, the city is required to continue the mandatory ban on all nonessential outdoor water use such as lawn watering, power washing, car washing and pool filling.
The outdoor water use ban does not include water uses necessary for public health or safety, water use required by regulation, or uses needed to meet the core functions of a business or other organization
The mayor said efforts are underway to increase the city’s water supply, and explained that the water is dwindling in Attleboro and not in other communities mainly because the city’s water supply is a surface supply, not a well and aquifer supply.
Replenishment by rain is key to surface water supplies and the months-long drought and daily demand from water users has diminished the city’s supply.
“We are working on several fronts to increase our water supply and storage capacity,” DeSimone said. “Some of this work will happen in the short term and other projects are more long term.”
Connections with Mansfield and Pawtucket are expected to provide more than 1 million gallons a day and the Wading River Treatment Plant is expected to provide 2 million gallons a day until January when a PFAS (polyfluoroalkyls) filtering plant goes on line.
After the temporary filtering plant goes on line, the amount of water will be reduced to 1 million gallons per day.
The Mansfield connection was completed on Monday and is expected to provide 250,000 gallons per day, if not more. The hydrant-to-hydrant connection will run from Old Farm Road to West Street.
DeSimone said the cost of the water from Mansfield will be .0157 cents per gallon, a little more than a penny and a half per gallon.
The cost of water from Pawtucket will be $35,000 a week.
“In addition to the emergency water connections with Mansfield and Pawtucket, we will be re-establishing some groundwater wells that have not been used in many years and (we are) seeking to create new wells as a supplement to our surface water system,” she said.
Years ago, the city eliminated its ground well water system.
“Many years ago, the city used wells to access groundwater, but I understand those wells were decommissioned in the 1980s or 1990s,” DeSimone said.
“We are also seeking to add wells near our recreational fields so the irrigation systems don’t use water from our water supply, and we are looking for other ways to minimize water use in other departments,” she said.
Dredging
Longer term goals will be to increase capacity in the reservoirs by digging them out to add volume.
“A big part of our effort will be dredging our reservoirs to increase their water storage capacity,” DeSimone said. “I have no doubt that our water supply situation will improve, but it’s going to take longer than any of us wants it to. We must work together to conserve our water, now and in the future.”
There are two types of dredging, according to Water Superintendent Kourtney Allen, mechanical and hydraulic.
Mechanical dredging removes sediment from the water body using conventional equipment, such as excavators.
Mechanical dredging can either be considered “dry” or “wet.”
Costs for mechanical dredging typically range from $50 to $75 per cubic yard in Massachusetts with wet dredging typically being more expensive than dry dredging.
Allen said Hoppin Hill Reservoir in North Attleboro may be able to be done dry, but it won’t be possible for the others.
Hydraulic dredging is conducted from a vessel using a cutter head and pumping system to remove sediment and water in a slurry form.
A cutter head is the leading edge of a boring machine and is driven by an electric motor that makes it rotate. As the cutter head rotates, it excavates the soil in its vicinity. Cutter heads are circular in cross section and are used as such or in combination with other types of bits, cutters and picks. The cutter heads are selected depending on the kind of soil the boring machine will encounter, Allen said.
Hydraulic dredging allows dredging to be conducted in water bodies where draw down is either not feasible or not desirable.
Costs for hydraulic dredging can be around $70 per cubic yard in Massachusetts for smaller scale projects and around $50 per cubic yard for larger scale projects, although costs can vary with economic conditions, seasonal timing, project size, project location and disposal location.
Allen said historic water department statistics show that water usage during the summer is about 6.5 million gallons a day, but can be as high as 8 million gallons per day.
But with the drought and conservation efforts in effect, the city has successfully reduced that to about winter demand, or 3.5 million gallons per day.
Other local communities aren’t experiencing the same water shortages as the city, but are experiencing the same statewide drought.
Allen had some thoughts as to why the city is without an adequate water supply.
“There’s a few things here. We have been without Wading River (Treatment Plant in Mansfield) due to PFAS for most of the last two to three years,” she said. “When we aren’t using Wading River, we cannot use any water from one of our watersheds. Basically, it takes our seven-reservoir system and makes it into four.”
She agreed with DeSimone’s argument that most of the neighboring communities are supplied with ground water.
“The groundwater systems are still in better shape from the rain we saw last fall into this spring,” she said. “As a surface water system, we can only store what fits in the reservoirs and if we couldn’t store the water when it was still raining, it was lost downstream.”
Meanwhile, a number of projects are on the horizon to help the city regain its water supply.
“There are several projects we are looking into to be able to increase our storage and production capacity,” Allen said. “First, we are completing a dredging assessment of Hoppin Hill (North Attleboro), Orr’s Pond (Attleboro) and Blake’s Pond (Mansfield) in order to improve water quality and capacity at those reservoirs.”
And the bigger reservoirs could also be on tap for dredging.
“In addition, we are also looking into the possibility of dredging Manchester in Attleboro and Lake Mirimichi (in Plainville and Foxboro) which contains at least 350,000,000 gallons of water, which are the largest reservoirs in our systems,” she said. “Dredging projects are not quickly done, but can help us gain capacity for the future.”
And she repeated the mayor’s thoughts about reopening the abandoned wells.
“We are also looking into reopening abandoned well sites,” Allen said. “We have an emergency approval to use two old wells at the West Street Plant and we are also seeing if reopening the abandoned well site on Holden Street is feasible as well.”
