Hampden board discusses hooking nearby properties to water district amid PFAS concerns

The Town of Hampden Select Board and water-district commissioners on Feb. 3 discussed a plan to connect three nearby properties — the parsonage, Academy Hall storage location and an adjacent house — to the district main line, reducing reliance on a small local well and associated winter heating and maintenance costs.

Speaker 1, describing remediation work after a 2012–2014 DEP concern about salt leaching from a highway-department pile into groundwater, outlined past fixes including new surfacing, a salt shed and a drain pipe that routes runoff to the river. "We drilled a couple of wells ... and finally got to where it was causing a problem with neighborhood wells," Speaker 1 said, reviewing the town's history with the contamination and subsequent mitigation.

Commissioners at the meeting (identified in the transcript as "Paul, John, Dale") said the district has no meters on the local service and therefore limited historical usage data, but that recent pump and storage upgrades should provide "ample amount of storage" and meet expected demand. Speaker 2 said, "The new pumping condition ... is going to have ample amount of storage," and Speaker 4 noted pumps have arrived and internal plumbing connections are near completion.

Board members and commissioners discussed costs and technical approaches. The transcript includes an engineer/board estimate for hookup costs of about $10,000 to $15,000 to cross Main Street, with options such as directional drilling, putting meter pits at pipe tee locations and installing individual meters or curb stops. "There's an outlay 10 to 15000 dollars to hook it up," Speaker 1 said. The group also stressed the need to expand the district map to show every address served by the well if properties are added.

PFAS testing and uncertainty were central to the discussion. Speakers noted that more systematic testing only began a few years ago and that PFAS can appear unpredictably: "PFAS is one of those few fugitive items that show up," Speaker 2 said. The board discussed that while some contamination trends have improved in other areas, there is no guarantee contaminants will not appear elsewhere.

Operational and safety steps for a service cutover were discussed, including sterilization and flushing of lines and proper neutralization and removal of chlorinated flush water rather than dumping it directly. The commissioners said testing and final plumbing checks would follow installation; the group targeted a spring timeline (April–June) for activation and a possible April target for initial tests.

No formal vote on the hookup was recorded; the board asked commissioners to return with budget details for the district's inclusion in the town advisory process and to explore formal mapping, meter installation and security measures for pump stations.

The board also discussed related budget issues (National Grid billing credits, shared-services assessments) and agreed to continue exploring options for metering, security cameras and the timetable for the pump-station work. Next procedural steps include additional technical details from the district commissioners and a follow-up appearance before the board to present cost estimates and a formal hookup plan.