Barnstable Town Manager Mark Ells
HYANNIS – Barnstable Town Councilors have approved $6.5 million for the construction of a carbon treatment system at the Maher wellfield.
Last May, there was a new advisory level for perfluorinated compounds in drinking water that was significantly lower than the provisional level.
As a result, the use of three wells at the Maher wellfield has been significantly curtailed and the town has entered into an agreement with the Town of Yarmouth to provide water from their system through an emergency interconnection.
“We want to put in place the same sort of filtration systems so that we don’t have any concerns moving forward at that location,” said Town Manager Mark Ells.
The cost to purchase Yarmouth’s water is $1.25 million annually.
“We hope to be able to move off of utilizing their water and back to utilizing our water,” said Ells.
The new carbon treatment system will be housed in a structure, allowing for year-round use and the town plans to build an additional treatment system next year.
The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is overseeing investigations at Barnstable Airport and the Barnstable County Fire Training Academy to identify the source and responsible parties of the contamination.
By JUSTIN SAUNDERS, CapeCod.com Newscenter
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