'Our water is healthy again': Swansea Water District finally gets a drop of good news
SWANSEA – For the first time in around four years, the Water District got a letter from the state Department of Environmental Protection saying its trihalomethane levels are now at acceptable levels, according to district officials.
Water District Superintendent Jeffrey Sutherland said that since mid-2020, the district has invested in a system that has reduced the THMS by 90 percent. However, the state DEP determines compliance through an annual average. The town had to compile consecutive low quarters of low THMS to return to compliance.
SWD Commissioner Lisa Martelly, said each quarter the district would receive “a scary sounding report” from the state DEP. But this time around, the January letter bore some good news.
“Our water is healthy again,” Martelly said.
THMS are a known carcinogen linked to cancer and other health issues, if consumed in large quantities over a long period of time, according to web reports.
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Sutherland said that in 2018, the water district hired an engineer to study the issues, and traced the issues to a source, determining that the standpipe – or small water storage unit – off Sharps Lot Road needed some work. Sutherland said that a mixing system was installed and came online in summer 2020.
Decrease in trihalomethane
Sutherland said the results were immediate.
“It was a super successful project. I didn’t believe it until the data came out,” Sutherland said of the new technology being used.
He stressed that the district needed four consecutive low readings to reduce its average below the threshold.
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“Within days we were at compliance but the way they look at it with the state – it’s a local running annual average. So they have you take a sample each quarter and have a running average,” Sutherland said.
Sutherland also stressed that THMs are not an “acute health risk” and are only a major problem if consumed over a long period of time.
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Other local communities, including Freetown and Westport, have had issues with THMs.
Martelly said that this news is one of many positive trends for the SWD, which now has all new members on its board.
Martelly said with the new membership has come some new ideas, including a new accounting system and some more possibilities for future water sources.
This article originally appeared on The Herald News: Swansea's water meets acceptable trihalomethane levels
