Pepperell Conservation Commission Approves Bemis Road Water Treatment Plant to Proceed

PEPPERELL — June 11, 2019 — Pepperell Conservation Commission unanimously clears Bemis Road water treatment plant, targeting spring 2021 completion. The commission voted to issue a Negative Determination 3, finding the Water Division's proposed greensand filtration facility falls within a wetland buffer zone but will not alter a protected resource area, sparing the project from a full Notice of Intent filing under the Massachusetts Wetlands Protection Act. A representative from the Water Division explained that iron and manganese levels at Bemis Well — the town's only registered water withdrawal — are approaching state DEP secondary contaminant thresholds, prompting the proactive construction of a filtration plant designed by Weston Sampson rather than waiting for a state consent decree. The facility is projected to recover 96 to 97 percent of backwash water internally; a state-required external leaching basin is intended only as a catastrophic-overflow contingency. Filed sub-bids are scheduled for late June or early July, with general bids due in September and a construction start possible this fall, though the Water Division said it prefers to avoid a winter pour.