Groton Board of Health Adopts Well Protocols for Chickpea Road PFAS Water Main

PEPPERELL -- June 15, 2026, Groton Board of Health votes to streamline well rules for PFAS water main project and escalates two property enforcement cases. The board unanimously adopted a one-page protocol governing well decommissioning along the Chickpea Road water main extension, waiving permit fees and relaxing impractical casing-removal requirements, to give contractors clear parameters as the town addresses PFAS contamination linked to the Groton-Dunstable Regional School District. On 65 West Main Street, property owner Bittencourt appeared before the board and acknowledged violations of the Wood Waste Bylaw, including buried stumps and unstable excavated slopes, while neighbors Ann Brady of 75 Westland Street and Gail Riston testified they had directly observed stumps being buried; the matter was continued to July 20. The board voted twice on 112 Schoolhouse Road, once to send a warning letter and once to contact Town Counsel about legal action against the bank-owned, non-responsive property. Attorney Caroline Kipata of McGregor Law Group urged the board on behalf of abutter Alan Han to impose firm cleanup deadlines at Zero Hill Road, a junk-strewn floodplain property with an enforcement history stretching to the 1980s; the health agent noted she spoke with the owner's son the day of the meeting and is seeking site access before July 20.