Burlington DPW Head: 'We Want To Fix It As Soon As Possible'

BURLINGTON, MA — With one water crisis behind it, the town is now back to looking for solutions to another.

Local leaders met at a special Board of Health meeting Tuesday night to discuss the PFAS situation.

The bad news it's going to take quite some time to address the issue at the Mill Pond treatment plant. The plan was to have it all set in 2022, but there's a 20-month lead time on filters with so many communities in violation of PFAS standards making a run on them.

"So somehow we're going to try to accelerate that on our end," DPW Director John Sanchez said, adding the hope is Mill Pond is addressed by the end of 2022.

The good news is the town had already been working on connecting to the Massachusetts Water Resource Authority, which does not have PFAS. The two projects are moving at the same time.

"We went into high speed to get this resolved as quickly as physically possible," Sanchez said.

PFAS, or polyfluoroalkyl substances, are "forever chemicals" linked to certain health risks. While the town's level is roughly twice the state standard of 20 parts per trillion, officials have stressed there is no immediate health threat.

Dozens of communities found themselves over the state standard when the Department of Environmental Protection state lowered its standard for the acceptable amount of PFAS in the water. The Boston Globe in May reported some 50 water sources exceeded PFAS standards, with many more results to be made public and sources to be tested.

Still, Burlington is making it a top priority. The town said last week it is taking 1 million gallons of water per day from a Massachusetts Water Resource Authority connection through Lexington. It's also running the Mill Pond Facility as its primary plant and limiting drinking water production from the VineBrook Facility.

"We want to fix it," Sanchez said. "We want to fix it as soon as possible."

There was also a plea for residents to get their information from official sources and not spread rumors on social media.

"if the residents want to spread the word all I ask is they spread factual information," Burlington Select Board Chairman James Tigges said. "There's a lot of innuendos and misinformation that's going out on social media."

Mike Carraggi can be reached at mike.carraggi@patch.com. Follow him on Twitter @PatchCarraggi. Subscribe to Burlington Patch for free local news and alerts and like us on Facebook.