Committee hears Mass D update on PFAS and DBPs, approves one‑year extension of temporary placement while Millville continues remediation

A representative from the Massachusetts drinking‑water program told the Blackstone‑Millville Regional School District committee that the district’s water remains above state standards for two disinfection byproducts when evaluated as a running annual average, and that the district must wait for first‑quarter (Q1) samples to complete the compliance calculation.

Mary Jude, the Mass D representative who addressed the committee, said the district’s most recent running averages “were again higher than our standards for two of the different disinfection byproducts,” and explained how compliance is computed by averaging four quarters of sampling rather than a single month. She also reviewed the state and federal approaches to PFAS: Massachusetts currently aggregates six PFAS into a 20 parts‑per‑trillion metric while the U.S. EPA’s forthcoming approach will set PFOA/PFOS at four parts per trillion and treat other PFAS through a hazard‑index calculation.

The committee’s water discussion focused on two immediate questions: what uses require bottled water and when the district can reliably resume full in‑building operations for young students. Committee members and the Mass D representative clarified that, under current guidance, bottled water is being used for drinking and for cooking foods that absorb water (for example, pasta or rice). Hand washing was not identified by the state’s exposure guidance as a required restriction. Mass D emphasized that the drinking‑water standards are conservative and calibrated to lifetime exposure.

The Mass D official described potential long‑term solutions: federal infrastructure funds administered by EPA create grant opportunities for treatment projects; in the district’s region, an intermunicipal plan with Oxbridge could fund a PFAS treatment plant and extend a water main so the school could be supplied from a neighboring system. Those projects, she said, can take months to years to implement, and the state is prioritizing consolidation projects for small systems.

Faced with open questions about reliably consistent compliance, the school committee debated whether to postpone a decision about where students and staff should be housed for 2024–25 until Q1 test results are available in March and funding decisions from EPA are announced. A motion to table the action until April failed. Shortly thereafter a motion to extend the temporary placement of Mees staff and students at the Kennedy/Maloney complex for the FY25 school year passed on a 6–2 vote. The motion preserves district administration use of the Mees building and keeps the school in the district while Millville continues remediation and monthly public reporting of test results.

In procedural follow‑ups, the committee confirmed it will continue to require bottled water for consumption and for cooking absorbent foods while monitoring sampling results. Mass D said the district will know whether the running annual averages meet regulatory limits once March Q1 sampling is complete; if exceedances remain, Mass D indicated another public notice would be issued.

What’s next: the committee expects Q1 sampling results by the end of March and will monitor federal grant announcements. The district’s joint meeting with town finance committees (Feb. 27) and the March 7 public hearing on grade reconfiguration will proceed as scheduled.

Sources: Committee meeting transcript and direct remarks by Mary Jude (Mass D representative) and multiple school committee members. The committee’s motion to extend the temporary placement passed 6–2; the prior motion to table failed. The committee recorded specific DBP sample values in its public packet (for example, a reported haloacetic acid value of 28 and trihalomethanes at 44 in January sample numbers included in discussion).