CHELMSFORD — Officials broke ground Wednesday on a major project to build the Crooked Spring PFAS Treatment Facility for the Chelmsford Water District.
The Crooked Spring facility is Phase 1 of the water district’s larger PFAS remediation project, which also includes a new PFAS treatment facility at the Riverneck Treatment Plant, and a new water main line to connect the Smith Street Treatment Plant. The $43 million project was approved by voters in the water district in the spring of 2024, and the Massachusetts Clean Water Trust Board of Trustees approved a 0% interest loan for the entire project cost. It is being funded through the Massachusetts State Revolving Fund along with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and is estimated to take about two years to completion.
Officials at the groundbreaking included state Reps. Rodney Elliott and Jim Arciero, a representative from state Sen. Michael Barrett’s office, Chelmsford Select Board member Pat Wojtas, members of the Board of Water Commissioners and officials from AECOM Engineering and Design, Waterline Construction and ResilientCE, the owner’s project manager.
The treatment for PFAS, which is shorthand for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, will consist of three process trains of pressurized vessels 12 feet in diameter filled with granular activated carbon, which will remove PFAS chemicals to meet state and federal water quality standards. In 2022, PFAS levels of more than 20 parts-per-trillion were detected in the district’s water.
The project will also include upgrades to the Crooked Springs Water Treatment Plant’s main building and the building of a two-celled spent wash tank with a floating decanting system and recycling pumps.
The Chelmsford Board of Water Commissioners retained legal counsel in May 2021 to prosecute legal claims related to negligence resulting in PFAS contamination in the town’s water supplies. The water district would eventually join a larger, multi-district litigation over PFAS contamination discovered across the country.
PFAS chemicals, sometimes called “forever chemicals,” are manmade substances that do not easily break down in nature, and can build up over time in the environment and in our bodies, causing a wide range of possible health complications. The lawsuits the water district joined allege that corporations like 3M, DuPont, Tyco and BASF knew about the dangers of these chemicals, but concealed them anyway.
In April 2024, 3M settled for $12.5 billion in their case, and a $1.185 billion settlement was preliminarily approved for DuPont earlier that year. In November, a $750 million settlement was approved for Tyco, as was a $316.5 million settlement for BASF.
The Chelmsford Water District received its first payment of $401,951.24 from its gross $4.2 million award in the 3M settlement in June, while the district’s awards from the other settlements are yet to be disbursed. The district separately filed a $44.5 million special needs claim against 3M and DuPont for the expenses related to this PFAS treatment project, as well as an $83,622 special needs lawsuit against Tyco and BASF.
Originally Published:
Peter Currier
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