A few volunteers have stepped up to fill vacant roles on the Epsom Village Water District, which has been in danger of dissolution. But even with renewed participation after a meeting on Monday, the future of the public water system still remains unsettled.
The district currently services around 320 connections and 800 people in Epsom, including many key municipal buildings. To fill official water roles, people must live within the district.
A decline in volunteerism, in conjunction with multiple resignations and empty positions, has left Donna Dudley as the sole commissioner twice this year. Without at least another commissioner — if not two — plus a clerk and a treasurer, the district will not be able to function.
The prospect of dissolving the district and having it subsumed by the town looms on the horizon.
“The only way in which we’re going to avoid having some form of litigation involving this water district is for folks to step up, volunteer and operate the system as it should be and as the town originally put it together back in the 50s,” said Richard Head, an attorney with the Department of Environmental Services, at a meeting on Monday night.
More than 150 residents showed up to the meeting.
“That very well may mean that once it’s up and running, there’s conversations with the town to have it taken over by a town and have it run by the town instead of as the village district. But you can’t do that overnight. It’s a process,” Head said.
The town, for its part, does not want to assume responsibility for the district, but the selectmen said they remain committed to working with Dudley and any new volunteers to remedy the problem.
“This issue not only affects the residents of the Water Village District, but it also affects the town fire hydrant system, our buildings, which includes this building — the school — the fire department, the town hall, our library, the meeting house and the old library,” said Selectman Virginia Drew.
If the town were to take over the district, residents would need to approve the change at town meeting by a two-thirds majority.
By the end of the Monday meeting, several people had put forward their names to help staff the district, but Dudley still needs to go through Merrimack County Superior Court to get a second commissioner appointed before voting on a third. Even then, the demands of a commissioner far exceed those of a normal volunteer role, Dudley said, and the learning curve is steep.
She has to take district calls during the workday and has even needed to take time off to manage water-related emergencies. One commissioner is expected to sit on the town’s Budget Committee, but there have been discussions around splitting that responsibility.
“Without another commissioner, I can’t call meetings. We can’t vote on anything as a district,” she said. That includes approving design plans for the PFAS remediation project the district is working on with the state. The project aims to treat the water supply, which has been contaminated with “forever chemicals.” An investigation by the Department of Environmental Services did not yield any answers as to the source of the contamination.
Head said that legally, there has to be an owner of the water system — meaning either the district owns it or the town does.
“It can’t simply disappear because there are people that are depending on this water system and are depending on the water system being a good operation,” he said.
DES has been supporting Dudley and the selectmen both in navigating the district’s challenges and in the PFAS project.
Recently, the town of Fitzwilliam found itself in similar circumstances, said Head. The village district lacked volunteers and was on the brink of dissolution. It sought permission from residents for the town to take over, but voters rejected the proposal. Only then, he said, did volunteers rise to the occasion.
In Epsom, the PFAS remediation project is a source of concern. Already, the projected cost has risen by $2 million in the past couple of years. The town has multiple loans and grants that have made the project more affordable.
“It’s possible that you lose that money if you don’t move forward,” said DES engineer Randal Suozzo at the meeting.
He said the water currently is contaminated with a PFAS compound at a concentration of 12 parts per trillion. The Environmental Protection Agency recently lowered the maximum limit of this compound to less than 4 parts per trillion.
“Once it’s in the ground, it spreads so much and you’re pulling water from all different directions that it can’t really be removed, so you have to treat it,” he said.
With a list of several volunteers who stepped up to assist Dudley, the next step is getting a second commissioner appointed by Merrimack Superior Court, then voting the third one in, as well as treasurer and clerk. If these volunteers leave their roles, the district will find itself back in the same position. It has already navigated this once before in the spring and was able to find a second commissioner, who ultimately resigned on August 15.
Without volunteers, the town will be in “a bad situation,” Head said.
People who do not live in the water district cannot hold the official positions. They can, however, help in other ways, Dudley said.
Resident Steve Warner, among others, encouraged those in the room to step up.
“This town is full of smart, creative, skilled people,” he said. “This town is a very special place to live, and I’m saying this to anyone who is a new resident in town in this meeting. We have a lot to offer.”
As Dudley moves forward with the new volunteers, a lot of questions remain unanswered. For now, though, the goal is to get the district back up and running and move ahead with the PFAS project. Longer term, whether the district will move to dissolve with a takeover from the town remains unknown.
With a staffed board of commissioners, “you’re back in control of having the conversations within the village district and with the town as to what the next steps are,” said Head. “Today, you can’t even have those conversations because you can’t even make decisions.”
