Wellesley, Massachusetts is a small suburb located approximately 12 miles away from Boston that I live in. Currently, Wellesley is facing a PFAS crisis that threatens its water supply and is likely to raise taxes for its residents.
On Thursday, December 16, 2021, the Wellesley Department of Public Works (DPW) held a public forum presenting the current threat posed by PFAS pollution to town water utilities. The Morses Pond Water Treatment Plant (Morses Pond WTP), which according to information presented at the meeting provides 30-40% of Wellesley’s water, has been shut down since May because of severe PFAS contamination. The source of this contamination is at present unknown, with PFAS coming from seemingly everywhere.
This poses many problems, as increased strain on Wellesley’s system would increase reliance on the MWRA (Massachusetts Water Resources Authority), which provides water to many towns from the Wachusett and Quabbin Reservoirs in Western Massachusetts. Using the MWRA’s water to replenish the void left by the Morses Pond WTP is projected to cost upwards of $1M annually for Wellesley residents, which will inevitably increase tax rates.
To combat this, Wellesley has approved a $1.5M budget for the implementation of an interim treatment plant at Morses Pond. This system features granular activated carbon (GAC) filters and ion exchange (IX), which have been both shown to remove PFAS, and has the objective of lowering PFAS concentrations to undetectable levels (non-detect). It should be noted that so far, no screening method has been considered by Wellesley. The lifespan of this solution, while effective, is projected to last for only 16 months. Thus, long-term solutions are actively being sought out.
Wellesley’s choice follows the footsteps of many other towns, including Sharon, MA, which found out about PFAS pollution in one of its wells in April and implemented interim treatment. This month (December), they accomplished non-detect. Hopefully, Wellesley will achieve non-detect in Morses Pond as well and eventually, working with other towns, find a long-term solution to the PFAS problem.