State health department mandate adds pressure to EL water project

Water and Sewer Commission seeks nearly $1 million to help finance plan

East Lyme — Town officials hoping to receive nearly $1 million in additional funding for a planned well filtration project after bids came in higher than expected are facing additional pressure after the state set new mandates on manganese levels in drinking water.

The Water and Sewer Commission on Tuesday unanimously voted to seek an additional $950,000 from the town to help finance what will be a more than $5 million well filtration project for two wells near East Lyme Middle School.

The request comes after the town earlier this year approved up to $4.6 million in state bonding to finance the project based on cost estimates from the contracted engineers, Tighe & Bond.

Town officials at a Water and Sewer Commission meeting Tuesday clarified that the project is to be paid by ratepayers, not all taxpayers, and that the additional $950,000 should not affect the annual 2 percent increases ratepayers already are expected to pay over the next 20 years.

The project will be financed through a state bonding program through the Department of Public Health’s Drinking Water State Revolving Fund at a 2 percent interest rate over 20 years.

The selectmen and finance boards would need to approve the additional allocation before it is sent to a town meeting for final say by voters. The boards’ approvals are contingent on a presentation from

Public Works Director Joe Bragaw outlining that the additional bonded money will not adversely affect ratepayers.

The project, which is looking to solve a water filtration issue at one of the town’s seven wells, known as Well 1A, entails connecting and sending water more than 1,000 feet through a 12-inch water pipe from Well 1A to the nearby well known as Well 6. The water from Well 1A will then be filtered to remove contaminants such as manganese and iron, before being distributed into the town’s water system for consumption.

Water pumped at Well 6 already is filtered for those contaminants through an on-site filtration plant — which also is set to receive various upgrades as part of the project to adequately process the higher amounts of water it will receive —

while water at Well 1A never has been filtered to remove iron and manganese, town Utility Engineer Brad Kargl told The Day on Tuesday.

Both wells 1A and 6 are located near East Lyme Middle School, about a 1,400-foot distance from each other and are fed by the Pattagansett Aquifer, which largely underlies Route 161.

East Lyme public water customers receive their water from seven separate wells throughout town and, in summer months, water is additionally sent in from the Lake Konomoc reservoir in Waterford, which is controlled by the city of New London. All seven wells either draw from the Pattagansett or Bride Brook aquifers, while water from five of the wells is filtered to remove manganese and iron and then is treated before mixing with unfiltered water from Well 1A and Well 2A, as well as water from the reservoir, in the town’s water system.

For many years, town officials have known of higher-than-typical manganese levels in Well 1A, causing water discoloration for nearby households. Manganese, because it is a naturally occurring mineral, is largely considered safe to drink at certain levels, Kargl said, even at those high enough to discolor water.

And because most of the water from Well 1A is diluted with filtered water as it moves through the town’s water system, town officials have not considered it to be much of a problem, aside from the discoloration.

Kargl said in 2015, he and his department started pursuing the project to address the discoloration issue.

New recommendations

But this past spring, the state’s Department of Public Health set new recommendations dictating that towns should monitor and ensure manganese levels in drinking water do not exceed a 0.3 mg per liter, or mg/L, action level.

Previously, the level was set at 0.5 mg/L, according to the DPH. Manganese levels in filtered water typically fall under 0.05 mg/L, Kargl said.

Kargl said that water coming from Well 1A has slightly exceeded the 0.3 mg/L levels in recent months, measuring as high as 0.33 mg/L in June and up to 0.34 mg/L in October in certain locations close to the well, prompting the water and sewer department to send about 100 notices to households and businesses affected by the issue. The notices warned that pregnant women and children under age 1 should not drink the water.

The new action level is “set well below any health effect level” and therefore provides a margin of safety, the DPH says on its website. Manganese is a common trace element in human diets and typically is safe to drink in low amounts.

The DPH “adopted this in the spring. So it makes (this project) more important because Well 1A has seen levels above the state’s action level,” Kargl said, explaining that his department is monitoring water contamination levels and will soon test other areas around Flanders Road to see if other households are receiving water with higher manganese levels.

He said the issue is not affecting the whole town, but only households and businesses on Industrial Park Road and within the Deerfield Village housing area, both of which are located near Well 1A, and that the manganese levels typically fluctuate throughout the year.

The DPH did not immediately respond to Day requests clarifying what an action level means specifically or what a town is required to do if it detects drinking water with higher levels of manganese. Kargl said the town is not required to report such findings to the DPH, but is required to mail out notices to customers explaining the issue.

“When we find an area above a 0.3, we send a letter explaining the issue and the project,” Kargl said. “And I suspect we will be sending out more because we are stepping up additional sampling and trying to make adjustments in the system to help control that.”

Kargl said that the well filtration project should be completed at some point early next year.

“It’s good that we started on it when we did,” he said. “Now we are poised to move forward on construction.”