Westfield Mayor Brian P. Sullivan speaks during a press conference at City Hall July 22, 2019. To his right are members of the city’s water department and to his left are city councilors and city hall staff who showed their support for city efforts to clean contaminated water. (Photo by Hope E. Tremblay)
WESTFIELD – According to City Councilor Mary Ann Babinski, no one takes the city’s water situation more seriously than the Westfield Water Department staff.
Babinski made her sentiments known Monday during a press conference at City Hall called by Mayor Brian P. Sullivan to address inaccuracies and misinformation in the public surrounding the response to PFAS contamination in Wells 7 and 8, which he said will be back online with clean water by Labor Day.
Babinski agreed there was a lot of “misinformation” out in the public and she was “feeling good” about the state of the city’s water and how it was addressed.
Westfield’s Wells 7 and 8 on the north side of the city were taken offline in 2016 because of higher than acceptable levels of PFAS due to contamination from firefighting foam used at Barnes Air National Guard Base. The city took Well 2 offline ahead of PFAS detection in early 2018 because it, too, would fail testing after the Environmental Protection Agency added more compounds to tests. Well 2 was back online last fall.
Department of Public Works Director David Billips, at right, listens to a question during a press conference July 22, 2019 regarding the latest information on city water. (Photo by Hope E. Tremblay)
Sullivan noted that he has been working diligently with U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal, U.S. Rep James McGovern, U.S. Sen. Edward Markey and U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren for more than two years. He also thanked state Sen. Donald F. Humason Jr. and state Rep. John Velis for their efforts.
One area of misconception Sullivan addressed is the effectiveness of granular activated carbon filtration (GAC). This was the chosen method for new filtration vessels after advice from the city’s experts, including Department of Public Works Director David Billips and Systems Engineer Heather Stayton, who holds a drinking water distribution license in Massachusetts. The city also partnered with experts in three firms and received written approval from the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection to use GAC filtration.
Billips cited the credentials of the city water staff and consultants when discussing the expert advice that led to installing the GAC system. “The people who worked on this have centuries of experience,” he said.
Stayton said Well 2, which received temporary GAC filtration, is continuously being tested and passing with flying colors.
“We’ve treated more than 69 million gallons of water and all our testing shows PFAS are non-detect,” she said.
Water was tested by a third-party lab and samples taken at the mid-point of filtration have shown no detectable PFAS or other compounds.
Babinski said there are people in the city who claim GAC doesn’t work.
City Systems Engineer Heather Stayton speaks during a press conference at City Hall July 22. (Photo by Hope E. Tremblay)
“Every community is different and has different things in their water,” she said. “It’s working in Westfield.”
Babinski’s entire ward is on the city’s north side and she said her constituents largely support the filtration method, which was part of a $13 million bond that Sullivan hopes will be reimbursed through several lawsuits the city is pursuing.
The city filed a Tort Claim against the Department of Defense and is among several communities nationwide that have a claim against three makers of the firefighting foam.
Sullivan said “we’re going to hold the polluters responsible, but the process is a long one.”
Babinski said she wants the public to know that the city has been doing its due diligence from day one and other communities are looking to Westfield for guidance.
“Dave Billips is being applauded in other communities,” she said. “The worst thing about this was it was politicized and the misinformation doesn’t help – it does a great disservice to residents who just want clean water.”
