ATHOL – This year, the town was recognized for providing safe, quality drinking water to its residents following a detailed analysis of water systems statewide.

The letter sent by the state to Public Works Director Dick Kilhart read, “The Massachusetts Dept. of Environmental Protection’s Drinking Water Program is pleased to send congratulations to the Athol DPW water division for it’s outstanding performance in 2022. Your system has achieved one of the top scores for medium and large community systems in the 2023 public water systems awards program.”

A public presentation will be done at the State House on May 11.

Kilhart said the town is scored against any community with a population of 10,000 or more.

The DEP could look back as far as three years for any given city or town to see if there has been a history of problems, and through this, the various communities are pared down to the top-rated water supplies. In addition to any violations or difficulties communities may or may not have experienced, the state also takes staffing into consideration, he added.

“They look at the staffing level – is it fully staffed?” he said. “Are your staff licensed?”

Another factor that may have contributed to Athol winning the award was that the town receives the fluoridation award from the Massachusetts Dept. of Public Health annually.

“Not every community fluoridates its public water supply,” said Kilhart. “It’s controversial, but in Athol, we’ve fluoridated for a very, very long time. But that’s another added treatment component to the system our folks really have to take care of, to make sure those levels are met and are within both state and federal EPA-regulated guidelines.”

Kilhart was proud of his department for receiving the award.

“It’s really quite an accomplishment when you think about the fact that there are probably 1,400 municipal-type public water supplies in Massachusetts,” he said. “There’s almost 2,000 water systems statewide, but some of those systems are very small systems. Royalston, for example, is a very small community system.”

Kilhart said the town’s water system dates back to the 1880s, noting that the lines soon to be replaced in the neighborhood of Green and Kennebunk streets were installed in 1888. He said the first water supply was run by the Athol Aqueduct Company, which began operations around 1876. That system was taken over by the Town of Athol shortly after 1900.

Kilhart said there are six employees in the town’s water division, along with the administrative staff that assists the environmental compliance person, Jennifer Shaw. The water division’s budget is just slightly over $1 million. That includes everything from water samples to excavations to chemical costs to heating and cooling the building.

The water that is fed to homes and businesses throughout Athol goes through a treatment process before it comes out of anyone’s tap. Most water for the town comes from the Tully well field, along with the older South Street well.

“We have a very dedicated staff that goes that extra mile,” Kilhart said. “I’m just happy to be associated with such a great group of professionals because they really do a great job.”

Greg Vine can be reached at gvineadn@gmail.com.

]]>