In an effort to keep you updated on everything happening with the Chester Water Department, we wanted to provide this brief update today.
Water Commissioners Jim Zimmerman and Frank Pero attended the Board of Selectmen meeting on Monday night. Jim presented our situation and what we were working on to get the Department of Environmental Protection to rescind their Boil Water Order. He answered questions and tried to lay out our strategy to resolve the issues we’ve had this summer.
Basically, we need to show DEP two acceptable tests of Chester water sampled over several days from several prescribed locations in the water system.
DEP will not allow Chester to submit our water sample tests, which have shown that there doesn’t appear to be bad bacteria in the water, until the turbidity level (the organic cloudiness of the water) gets below a certain level. Our weather lately has made that harder than usual.
We have plans to clean the clear wells at the Water Treatment Plant on Reservoir Road. They hold thousands of gallons of water. In essence, we intend to purge the old, high turbidity water and put the new, low turbidity water in its place. Then the turbidity level should be well below where DEP requires it to be.
We also continue to have a diver working at Horn Pond on the water intake pipes. He was there again today. He is working to make sure the pipes stay below the surface and don’t contain too much air that reduces water pressure in our water system.
We also wanted to announce a small change in the water distribution hours at the Fire Station. The hours have changed on Tuesdays and Thursdays to 10AM–6PM. The Saturday 9AM–1PM time remains unchanged.
We ask that if you are ever in Big Y you go up to the customer service desk and say thank you to those folks. Big Y has been fantastic in providing drinking water for the town to offer to you. And please thank the volunteers who have been staffing the water distribution tent and the Highway Department staff as well. None of this would be possible without their help.
We thank you, as always, for your patience and understanding.