Residents press town on water taste, meters and pipe replacements at CDBG hearing

Several residents told councilors they are concerned about water taste, billing and aging pipes and urged the town to consider meter replacements and pipeline assessments as candidate projects for CDBG or SSP funding.

Frances Mock said her tap water 'is bad' and that even her dog ‘‘doesn’t even drink the water,’’ prompting Town Manager Suzanne Harvey to respond that the town conducts required monthly testing and reports results to the state. Harvey said she understood taste complaints but stressed that the town’s consumer confidence reports show the water meets testing requirements.

Councilmember Cynthia Butterworth suggested replacing water meters with devices that read by hundreds of gallons (smart meters) to give residents more granular billing data; SEAGO’s William Osborne said meter replacement combined with targeted mains replacement is a plausible project and that SSP funding could support initial assessment and engineering work to make a later implementation application competitive.

Provenance: topicintro SEG 027; topfinish SEG 033