WESTFIELD—the Westfield Department of Public Works Water Division has released their annual consumer confidence report for residents using public water.
The report provides residents with a look at what is in their water, as well as how the overall quality of the product is. The report showed no violations requiring public notification from the city in 2016, in spite of the concerns of contamination from perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) that occurred for at least half of last year.
“This year, the report shows that we didn’t have any violations of any of the standards that would require public notification or could be a danger or potential danger to the system in general,” Heather Miller, water systems engineer for the city, said.
The Granville Reservoir on May 17. Water is up to the shores, which is in stark contrast to last year
“The testing results have confirmed that the water quality in the city of Westfield is safe and of high quality and meets regulatory requirements,” she added.
The testing occurred from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31 in 2016. According to the report, 59 percent of the city’s drinking water during that time had come from the Granville Reservoir, which for a period of time was offline toward the end of the year. In addition, two of the city’s eight wells were offline following findings of PFC levels higher than a lifetime advisory limit of 70 parts per trillion (ppt) set by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) last year.
“We’ve taken any sources that have tested above that lifetime level offline and we are closely monitoring the levels of our sources to make sure they are well below that level,” Miller said. “As we test those levels that we are seeing we will report them.”
Also in the report, source water protection was analyzed by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection. It was found that Westfield’s groundwater system was highly vulnerable to contamination.
“Essentially, because we have a great, large aquifer—Barnes Aquifer—in the city, that has a very large footprint, there’s a lot of potential for contamination because there are no hydrogeologic barriers,” Miller said.
Miller said that due to this, the city is continuing to be proactive, including participation in the Barnes Aquifer Protective Advisory Committee.
“It’s a very large area under the ground that supplies not only Westfield, but Southampton, Easthampton and Holyoke,” she said. “One activity has a chance to impact everyone on the aquifer.”
To access the consumer confidence report for this year or years past online, visit cityofwestfield.org and click on “Water Quality Reports” under the Public Works’ “Water” tab.
