Water Water Everywhere, But For Some, Not Safe Enough to Drink

Tonight the selectmen are scheduled to discuss the proposed water towers that would be situated on the 128 cloverleaf. The towers are to aid the distribution of MWRA water to the towns in the area. I am sure that many of you may have thoughts on the proposal, so I just wanted to way in.

For those of you who didn't know, last year Reading changed the water supply of the town from our wells placed around the Ipswich watershed to MWRA which takes it water from the Quabbin and Wachusett Reservoirs. The decision to change to MWRA, in my view, was one of the best the town has ever made. Not only did the Ipswich not provide enough water for our town use, it had a negative impact upon the river ecosystem and in my opinion, it was only a matter of time before the water in our neck of the woods would suffer from the same fate as our neighbors in Woburn and Wilmington....well water contamination. Toxic plumes in underground aquifers do not adhere to town boundary lines.

Briefly, Woburn closed two of its wells in 1979 when it was found to be contaminated with a myriad of toxic chemicals. The damage was severe to the citizens of Woburn. I know that most of you have heard of the book and the movie, "A Civil Action", but perhaps you don't know the details of the incidents that took place. So here is a recap so eloquently detailed by in a speech by Gretchen Latowsky in 1998. She was a key participant in organizing citizens of Woburn to get some answers to why people were getting sick, very sick.

"What is the legacy of this industrial development, this progress that creates jobs and fuels the economy? Woburn has two federally designated Superfund hazardous wastes sites of approximately 350 acres each. It has over 100 smaller state designated Superfund hazardous waste sites. And, for 15 years people of Woburn received drinking water from a supply contaminated with volatile organic chemicals from improper and illegal hazardous waste disposal throughout the Aberjona River Watershed. The people of Woburn have suffered from significant and diverse health problems. The most notable was a cluster of cases of childhood leukemia that the US Centers for Disease Control deemed the most persistent cluster of childhood leukemia in the country. From 1964-1986 there were 28 cases of childhood leukemia, 16 children died, a rate four times the expected rate for a community of its size. In contrast to Woburn, the six communities that are its immediate neighbors had a rate ½ the expected rate. This tragedy, in one way or another, touched the lives of almost every family in the community. Studies have also shown that Woburn residents have suffered from increased rates of kidney and liver cancer, birth defects, and heart system, immune system, and nervous system disorders."

Yes, you did read that correctly 16 children died. For further reading in heartbreaking "real time" I highly recommend Charles Ryan's early investigative pieces from the Daily Times Chronicle. This should hit all of us like a ton a bricks and bring these events of the past directly into our present.

Currently, Woburn only receives a portion of their water from MWRA and operates wells around Horn Pond. The superfund sites are still not contained and now are in phase 2 of cleanup operations. You may recognize part of the location of the Industri-plex Site. It is where Target is located on Commerce Way.

These are and were our neighbors.

Now onto Wilmington and another contamination that impacts a municipal water supply. According to the January 30, 2008 Wilmington Advocate, "The Olin Chemical property was added to EPAs Superfund National Priorities List in April 2006. Contaminants found in the groundwater at the site include ammonia, chloride, sodium, sulfate, chromium, and N-nitrosodimethylamine. These chemicals were also present in several of Wilmington’s municipal drinking water wells at Maple Meadow Brook. In 2003, these wells were taken out of service."

Wilmington is now scrambling to provide their citizens with clean water from other towns as they were not able to quickly change to MWRA as Reading did. It is my understanding that Wilmington needed to add to its infrastructure in order to tap into the MWRA, which is why they have been digging up 129. As for the health impacts, their risks are not zero.

These too are our neighbors.

While the proposed towers may not have a direct impact upon Reading other than as a back-up, I think that aiding our neighbors in their quest for a simple human right, clean safe water, is our moral imperative. There may come a time when Wilmington and Woburn need to go fully on MWRA and that should always be possible for them to do. While having ...OK I'll admit...GIANT towers in Reading may be in inconvenience, how could we not lend a hand? It could be a matter of life and death.