Ayer Water Quality Update

The Ayer DPW has been receiving some recent complaints about water quality problems including brownish / rusty color, chlorine taste and smell, white film on dishes and laundry, dish and fixture staining. This is a temporary issue that should be resolve in one or two weeks.

Ayer’s water is pumped from two different aquifers from a total of 5 wells. The water is treated for removal of iron and manganese (the reddish, brown and black staining), the pH is adjusted to prevent lead corrosion in pipes and the water is disinfected with chlorine. The treatment plant removes very high levels of the minerals 5 to 8 mg/l to below 0.1 mg/l. But the water needs to flow through some old pipes (installed in 1896), to reach your house. Minerals, sediment and rust have accumulated in the water mains over time and can cause brown or discolored water. This is increased when there are changes in water quality or high flows. In addition, Ayer has a lot of long dead end pipes (Groton School Rd, Fitchburg Rd, West Main St, Westford Rd, Willow Rd, upper Washington St) where water can stagnate in the pipes and are difficult to flush.

It should be noted that these water quality issues are a nuisance and/or unpleasing to drink but the water is still safe to drink, cook and bath with. We test our water for over 100 contaminants and we are below the allowed limits.

The recent issues are mostly related to a number of operational changes including:

• Optimizing our corrosion control chemical addition to reduce the possibility of lead in the schools
• Activation of a new well as the Spectacle Pond Wellfield
• Operational problems with our Grove Pond Water Treatment Plant

What are we doing about it? There is no “magic bullet” that will fix all of the problems all of the time. But we are working hard to improve the water.

• We recently had a water treatment filtration expert go over our operations, chemical dosages and filter media. He has made some significant recommendations that will improve the treated quality of the water.
• We flush the water system twice a year, in the spring and in the fall. This removes some of the sediments and stagnant water. We also spot flush problem areas and if requested.
• We are replacing the older water mains on an annual basis. We have completed projects on East Main, East, Pond, Pleasant, middle Washington  St. We are designing replacements for Pearl, Williams, Holmes, High, Winthrop, Oak, Prospect and West Main Streets.
• We completed a loop for Wright Road and are designing another from Pleasant St to Jonathan Drive to eliminate dead ends.

We recently sent out a notice to our customers regarding the discovery of an unregulated contaminant (PFAS) in one of our wells. The contaminant is not regulated under the Safe Drinking Water Act, but we took the well out of service as a precaution. This contaminant does not cause any of the quality issues mentioned above, but some of the operational changes that we made when we took the well out of service created some dirty water issues.

Finally – If you have water quality complaints, contact the DPW (978-772-8240). We will investigate, flush the main in your neighborhood and track the problem areas in Town.