Erika Amir-Lin is running for the position of Commissioner of the Acton Water District (AWD) in the 2021 Acton Town election. This post contains Ms. Amir-Lin’s answers to questions prepared by the Green Acton Water Committee to inform the voters about some current issues and opportunities facing the District, and the candidate’s thoughts on how to address them.
The Acton Water District is an independent government entity, separate from Acton town government. As such, it is led by a Board of Water Commissioners, analogous to the Board of Selectmen for the Town of Acton; both serve as the governing bodies for their respective entities. The three Water Commissioners are elected officials who serve three-year terms of office.
In the 2021 election, one candidate is on the ballot for one available Water Commissioner seat. Ms. Amir-Lin was first elected to the Board of Water Commissioners three years ago, and for the last year has chaired the Board. As we have done each recent year, the Green Acton Water Committee prepared a set of questions for the candidate, which she answered in writing. For comparison, here are links to the comparable questions and answers from 2020, 2019, and 2018.
Local election day in Acton is Tuesday, March 30. Vote-in-person polls will be open from 7am to 8pm at the RJ Grey Junior High School at 16 Charter Road. AWD Commissioner candidates appear on the same ballot as the candidates for Town of Acton positions. Anyone eligible to vote in Town of Acton elections can vote for AWD Commissioner; you do not need to be an AWD customer.
Questions from GA/Water to 2021 AWD Commissioner Candidate
Q1: What are the most important things you have learned in your three years as an Acton Water District Commissioner?
The most important part of my job is listening. In order to listen properly, I need to also be learning all the time so that I have greater context for what I hear. Listening and learning prepare me to make decisions and to set policy. Good decision making sometime requires long thought, and sometimes requires quick action. Understanding the full breadth of the issues and perspectives before the Board is essential to serving my constituents properly.
Q2: AWD is seeking to develop two new water sources: one or more bedrock wells in central Acton and the Assabet 3 well in South Acton. In your judgment, what are the advantages and the challenges in developing each of these sources?
Central Acton Bedrock Wells: This is a new source that is currently being pump-tested for potential permitting under the supervision of the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP). It’s on a large undeveloped parcel, and the water-bearing fractures are deep. This offers more protection from surficial contamination, though not from any contamination that has already reached the deep bedrock, such as the small amount of trichloroethylene (TCE) detected during initial pumping tests in 2019. This location is adjacent to the new Central Acton Water Treatment Plant (CAWTP), so very little new piping infrastructure is needed to treat and deliver the water from this source. The CAWTP is already equipped to treat for compounds such as TCE. A bedrock well here offers redundancy during the winter months so that the Conant I and II sand-and-gravel wells can be rested and cleaned. Acton does not currently have any bedrock wells, but we are prepared for the changes to our maintenance program that would result.
Assabet 3: This well was a previously permitted location that was not being used, so reactivation was cost effective. A fair amount of information already exists about the hydrology of the area around Assabet 3, giving the AWD guidance on how we might like to use this well in a sustainable manner. This well was retested under the supervision of MassDEP and has already received approval to pump. This site offers a supply in an area we know has abundant water available and is also already connected to pumping and distribution infrastructure. This well is in proximity to WR Grace, which is an area of known contamination, though we have no indications at the moment that this will be an issue. This well will be regularly monitored for contaminants of concern, such as 1,4-dioxance and PFAS.
Q3: Acton, along with many other Massachusetts towns, is dealing with an emerging contaminant: PFAS. What has the AWD done so far about PFAS, and what additional actions do you anticipate may be necessary over the next three years?
The AWD has had a proactive, comprehensive, and ongoing response to the detection of PFAS in Acton’s water supply. We completed system-wide PFAS sampling with the approval and assistance of MassDEP. AWD staff have stayed in regular communication with the MassDEP throughout 2020 and received financial and technical assistance from MassDEP to do this work.
The highest PFAS concentrations were detected in the sources at the North Acton Water Treatment Plant (NAWTP). In response to this finding, the NAWTP was immediately taken offline, and other district sources were prioritized for use.
Concurrent to this, PFAS treatment options and alternative water sources have been pursued. The AWD applied for and received $200,000 in state grant funding for PFAS treatment costs. Currently, the pilot testing of PFAS treatment solutions at the NAWTP is concluding and we will have a preliminary treatment plan in the next few months, to be implemented as soon as possible. We have also been experimenting with taking various wells offline and pumping only certain wells in North Acton to see if PFAS concentrations could be reduced through selective pumping.
Starting in 2021 and continuing forward, we are sampling all our sources for PFAS on a monthly basis. We also sample at our treatment plants that have activated carbon treatment, which effectively removes PFAS, to ensure that removal is occurring properly. Currently, all water entering the AWD system for distribution to customers is below the MassDEP limit of 20 ppt.
In the medium-to-long term, AWD will continue to pursue additional funding sources to support our PFAS treatment efforts. At some point we plan to begin an investigation into possible PFAS sources in our watershed, but this will be expensive and we will need collaborative partners. We have also entered into a class action lawsuit against PFAS manufacturers.
Q4: The bill paid by AWD customers includes a debt service fee which is the same for each household, and a water-use fee that scales with amount of water used. At their December 17, 2020 meeting, the AWD Finance Committee voted to recommend that the debt fee should be variable, charged according to use, so as to decrease the impact on low-volume water users. What are the advantages and disadvantages of the existing and proposed billing strategies?
The structure of the bill is an area of ongoing discussion. With our current debt fee structure, the fee is constant over the course of the year, which provides stability on the bill as well as transparency. Our water rates are block structured, and low-volume water users tend to use a similar amount of water each month, so with a constant debt fee, their bill is very stable over all four quarters of the year. This is an advantage for budgeting and financial planning for those who are on limited or fixed incomes. It also simplifies the accounting for their bill. If they see an unusually high bill and call to inquire about it, they know that it’s entirely because of a change in usage, rather than usage and debt fee both increasing in the same quarter.
A variable debt fee would have to be carefully structured in order not to overburden any one group of users, and having both the water rate and debt fee change could cause financial uncertainty and stress for both low- and medium-volume users. It may not feel as transparent to users as their current bill. It is possible that having both the water rate and the debt fee tied to usage could encourage conservation, especially among medium-volume users. However, low-volume users are generally already using water conservatively.
Q5: The population of Acton has continued to grow as shown on the graph below. What steps could the AWD consider to meet the town’s water needs if this growth rate continues? [Graph by Green Acton: Data source 1850–2010; data source 2019]
Any steps that the AWD would take to meet the town’s water needs will need to be in conjunction with a robust and future-minded planning response from the Town of Acton, as the AWD is not a land use or planning agency. That being said, as water is a limited resource in all areas of Massachusetts, reducing the amount of water used by new and existing development is an important part of accommodating growth. Currently Acton charges developers a mitigation fee that varies based on how much water their development proposes to use. This fee can be reduced if the developer amends their plans to be more conservative. AWD will to continue to charge this fee and offer developers the chance to meet with AWD staff to find out how they can implement water saving devices and landscaping. I would be supportive of Town-wide regulations on fixtures and landscaping design that minimize indoor and outdoor water use wherever possible.
Additionally, as the climate of the Northeast continues to change, drought becomes common instead of rare, and rainfall events larger but less frequent, summer outdoor water use restrictions can be expected to tighten. While this directive may come from the MassDEP, AWD can and will be looking to protect our sources from depletion by implementing stricter and longer-lasting outdoor water use restrictions.
In other regions of the country, municipalities have chosen to share water resources and financial burden by regionalizing their water supplies into a combined public district. This can result in cost savings, rate control, and more resilient water supplies. Regionalization takes advantage of existing infrastructure where municipalities are already interconnected for emergency purposes. I would like to see Towns in MetroWest consider this possibility in the future.