2020 Election for Acton Water District Commissioner

The Acton Water District (AWD) 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 legislative bodies for their respective entities. The three Water Commissioners are elected officials, who serve three-year terms of office. In the 2020 election, one candidate will be on the ballot for one available Water Commissioner seat: Stephen Stuntz. 

Although this year’s election is uncontested, it still offers an opportunity for residents to learn more about the priorities and knowledge base of the potential Commissioner. With this in mind, the Green Acton Water Committee posed a set of six questions to the candidate. GA/Water’s questions and Mr. Stuntz’s answers are shown below. For comparison, here are the answers of previous years’ candidates to some of the same questions:

• 2019
• 2018

Local election day in Acton is Tuesday, March 31; polls are open from 7am to 8pm. 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. To find your polling place and see other election information, look here.

Questions from GA/Water to 2020 AWD Commissioner candidate

GA Q#1: Please tell us about yourself and why you are a good choice to be an Acton Water District Commissioner.

We moved to Acton in 1969 and raised our 5 children. All of the children went to the Acton Public Schools. We are now collecting grandchildren. I have been an AWD Commissioner since 1979. That may seem to be a long enough service but at this time historical perspective for a Commissioner adds value to the functioning of the AWD.

There is nothing short term about water supply, treatment, and distribution. The planning cycle for approvals to add significantly to sources takes years of planning, testing, and waiting for the State to act. With the turnover of the other two Commissioners in the last two election cycles, it is important that the decisions made in the past can be explained in the context of the times the decisions were made. Knowing why certain decisions have been made often helps build better decision-making, especially if the discussion is about changing a course of action.

GA Q#2: The population of Acton is continuing to grow and there is an effort to attract new businesses. What steps should the AWD take to ensure that it can continue to meet the water needs of more people and new businesses looking out 20 years into the future?

There are two approaches to ensuring adequate water resources for the future — adding new sources and using present resources wisely. The AWD should continue to buy land that might be appropriate as sources or to protect its present resources. They should also look beyond existing groundwater sources to other types of wells, such as bedrock wells.

To promote wise use, the AWD has run conservation education for years and has succeeded in lowering average use per person to about 53 Residential-Gallons-per-Capita-Day (RGPCD), below the State mandated 65 RGPCD. Education programs are not short-term fixes, but long-term requirements if you want to change water use. They also must continue because human nature quickly forgets.

The other ongoing piece in ensuring adequate supply is maintaining a good relationship with our regulating body, the DEP (MA Department of Environmental Protection).

GA Q#3: Please offer concrete suggestions for how to achieve better collaboration and coordination between the Acton Water District and the Town of Acton government. Around what issues is coordination or collaboration needed, and how can it be achieved? 

This question assumes that there is not good coordination now. There has been talk about better coordination, but the AWD believes that the best coordination is at the working level between the highway department, police department and the AWD personnel. This coordination is very good and has been for a number of years. The AWD has also had regular communication, with the Selectmen and Board of Health, that has increased in frequency when there has been a need. Obviously, this coordination is important and must be monitored to ensure in continuation.

GA Q#4: A probable human carcinogen, 1,4-Dioxane, is entering Acton’s water wells from the Starmet/NMI Superfund site and the WR Grace Superfund site. What actions do you think the AWD should take in response? Consider possible actions on a one-to-ten-year timescale, and please explain your answer.

This is only one of the potential contaminants that the AWD monitors. All actions taken are directed by the State or Feds. The AWD has always volunteered to be first in taking action and to help write the rules that ensure that healthy water is delivered to our customers.

The AWD is going out to bid on its third treatment plant this March. All the plants have been designed around the ability to expand the treatments that will be necessary to remove the contaminants as they are found in the wells. Further, AWD has closely monitored treatment technologies for 1,4-Dioxane, specifically, performance in related scenarios of very low concentrations [<.3 parts per billion (ppb)] with high flow rates [approximately 1,300 gallons per minute (gpm)]. Recent samples for 1,4-Dioxane have shown a reduction in the concentrations of the five south Acton sources. AWD monitors the supply of the South Acton Water Treatment Plant (SAWTP) quarterly for 1,4-Dioxane, which is evaluated based on a running annual average (RAA) of the contaminant’s concentration in this supply.

In regard to what is coming from the Nuclear Metals site, the AWD monitors the cleanup process and tests the wells for any deterioration. The AWD has explored the options for treating the water to remove the 1,4-Dioxane if the levels rise in our wells. Management of the sources of supply to minimize impacts from 1,4-Dioxane is an important piece of managing 1,4-Dioxane. Testing is an ongoing important piece of operations, has been occurring since 2006 as it relates to 1,4-Dioxane, and is why the AWD has an environmental manager on staff.

The AWD’s biggest concerns are that the Federal levels and State levels differ, and how to monitor the situation so as to ensure the best possible and most reasonable level based on current science.

GA Q#5: Discuss the pros AND cons of continuing to get all of our water from groundwater within the boundaries of Acton versus other potential sources. 

All water that enters the Acton system is regulated by the State. Before the last treatment plant was built, the AWD considered the option of joining the MWRA. What the AWD found was that the connection fee plus the cost for the piping to connect was more than the treatment plant and that ongoing costs for water were at a higher rate than were being charged (by the AWD). Then, when a hookup was done, the AWD would have to manage water quality that it had little control over, including the use of chloramine by the MWRA to provide residual disinfection.

GA Q#6: The MAGIC climate resilience report predicts that under the influence of global climate change our area will experience more precipitation, but concentrated into more-severe storms and with an increased ratio of rain to snow. In addition, we are likely to experience more-frequent droughts and less groundwater recharge. What actions should the AWD take to prepare for this future?

The AWD has been taking a number of actions that will mitigate the more-erratic nature of groundwater recharge. They are:

• Look for sources that are less dependent on short-term groundwater recharge, such as bedrock wells.
• Educate users in the wise use of water.
• Set up systems that allow the AWD to decrease the need during particularly difficult periods. (During the last drought [2016] the AWD asked for a dramatic decrease in usage and got very good results.)
• Build more storage — particularly important for firefighting.
• Keep a good relationship with our customers so that in a time of need they will help by cutting back.
• Reduce our carbon footprint by installing more solar power for AWD use and Town-wide usage.