WESTFIELD—The city’s planning board is expected to hold a public hearing related to the construction of the new water treatment facility during their upcoming meeting on Sept. 5.
The water treatment facility is tentatively slated to be put on Owen District Road, which is located in airport and water resource districts within Westfield, and will be used to help filter out perfluorinated compounds (PFCs). According to Westfield city planner Jay Vinskey, the hearing is for a special permit and stormwater management permit, which are due to ground disturbances expected from possible construction and alteration of more than 40,000 square feet of land within the aforementioned districts.
A cup is filled with water at a sink (file photo)
“Whether you’re building a water treatment facility or a shopping center this triggers the special permit thresholds,” Vinskey said of the project. “I don’t expect this to be anything controversial but it does technically require planning board review.”
According to Vinskey, the public hearing is related to the land use aspect of the project and not for the water filtration system itself.
“It’s not so much an information session for the project,” he said.
The project, if eventually approved, is expected to be built near wells seven and eight near the East Mountain Country Club. The facility will utilize granular-activated carbon (GAC) to filter drinking water of PFCs that were found in the city’s groundwater at wells seven and eight previously. According to a cover letter from CDM Smith attached to the pending application for the project on the city’s planning department website, the project could potentially “alter approximately 58,000 square feet of land area.”
The two wells were taken offline in January 2016 due to the levels of PFCs found in the water being greater than the Environmental Protection Agency’s lifetime health advisory limit of 70 parts per trillion.
According to Heather Miller, water systems engineer for the city, the planning board hearing is another step in the process for the water treatment facility to be constructed.
Miller said previous actions, among others for the project, have included special permit and site plan approval with Barnes Aquifer Protection Advisory Committee (BAPAC), a public hearing with the Westfield Conservation Commission and received a letter not anticipating an impact on endangered species in the area due to the project from the Massachusetts National Heritage and Endangered Species Program.
Miller said that there are steps still needed to be gone through after the hearing, including the “bidding and procurement” processes before construction can begin, as well as Federal Aviation Administration requirements.
A previous timetable of the project beginning construction was originally for the end of this construction season.
