BURRILLVILLE – The money is just a proverbial drop in the bucket when compared to the total cost, but the town has secured a $1 million grant to fund a portion of the Nasonville Water System project.
The funding will come through the Environmental Protection Agency’s Emerging Contaminants in Small or Disadvantaged Communities Grant Program, administered by the Rhode Island Infrastructure Bank.
“If we’re going to get Nasonville – that redevelopment district started – this is the first step,” said Town Council President Don Fox.
The grants fall under the federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and aim specifically to help address per and polyfluoroalkyl substances in communities in need of assistance with efforts to provide safe drinking water.
“The Nasonville Village area of Burrillville has demonstrated multiple small public water systems plagued with PFAS contamination,” notes a narrative on the project. “Mitigation of emerging contaminants, particularly with development of new, PFAS-free water sources is critical to Nasonville Village and the public water system serving central Burrillville.”
Town Manager Michael Wood said the funding, which will allow the town to proceed with detailed engineering design, will be a “big help.”
Wood expressed some frustration in comparing the effort to address water contamination with the resident-led legal battle against installation of a synthetic turf field at Burrilliville High School. The suit is based on concerns that PFAS in the turf material could leach into the water supply. Testing ordered by the town has shown only trace amounts of the chemicals and concluded the field would pose no threat to human health, but opponents of the project have contended it was not adequate.
“As I’ve said in the past, this is where the issues are in our community – Nasonville and other places,” said Wood. “Our money is best spent in areas like this and in other areas with the water – dealing with those issues, not an artificial field that has no PFAS in it.”
An exhibit on the project notes that a municipal water storage and distribution system for the village of Nasonville will include a new water source or sources, and a 500,000-gallon elevated water storage tank.
According to the narrative, the project aims to consolidate multiple existing community public water systems that are suffering PFAS contamination, as well as “potentially hundreds” of private residential wells that are PFAS contaminated or under the threat of PFAS contamination.
“Additionally, this project will include connection and consolidation with another small community public water system to expand utilization of their existing high quality water source, to serve the consolidated system,” it notes.
The effort to bring water to the village is just one element of a long term plan by the Burrillville Redevelopment Agency to revitalize the area, and such infrastructure improvements are considered key to economic development.
Preliminary estimates of the cost to develop the well and water distribution system put the total at around $25 million.
“We’ll see what that number is years from now when we can finally get that project off the ground,” said Fox.
Are they going to test the water in private residential homes? is this going to be an added cost to the homeowner? how does a homeowner know if their water is contaminated? This is the first time I’ve heard their may be a water issue. Where did the contamination come from? Are they being held responsible?