PEABODY — City and state officials gathered outside the Winona Street water treatment plant Tuesday afternoon for a ribbon cutting to unveil the myriad improvements made to the plant as part of the city’s Clean & Sustainable Water Infrastructure Plan, a four-phased, $36 million initiative.
Mayor Edward A. Bettencourt, Jr., state Reps. Tom Walsh (D-Peabody) and Sally Kerans (D-Danvers), and Ward 6 Councilor Mark O’Neill were on hand for the event, which also included a tour of the revamped facility. Rosa Alvarado, a representative from state Sen. Joan Lovely (D-Salem)’s office, was also on hand for the tour.
In brief remarks before the ribbon cutting, Bettencourt said the event represented a “milestone moment” for the city.
“This is a big moment, very proud moment for the city of Peabody,” he said. “This is kind of the culmination of a great deal of work that has taken place over the last few years. A few years ago we started the Peabody Clean Sustainable Water Infrastructure Project, which is pretty much a long fancy name for just replacing and upgrading and modernizing our whole water treatment system, our whole operation, and this is the ending of that.”
The project kicked off, Bettencourt said, after birds ate wiring at the Robert Walsh Water Treatment Plant (the former Coolidge Water Treatment Plant), sparking a fire.
“Since then we have done a great job over the last few years of bringing all of our systems up to date. We had to make a major decision a couple years back as to which direction we wanted to go. We had the opportunity to tie into the Massachusetts Water Resource Authority. … We as a community met, the city council, our state representatives, our DPW team, and we made a decision that we wanted to maintain control over our operations, control of our water rates, utilize our natural resources … and do the project ourselves,” Bettencourt said. “That was 100 percent the right decision. We’ve seen over the last few years with the work showed that it was the right decision, and we still have the lowest water rates around. That’s something to be very proud of.”
The city now has overhauled the Walsh plant, the Winona Street plant, and constructed a new water main connecting the two as well as a booster pumping system near Peabody High School.
Bettencourt, Director of Public Services Bob LaBossiere, and Water Quality Manager Davis Scribner then led the assembled on a tour of the new plant, which Bettencourt said will provide improved water quality and water pressure throughout the city.
The new plant is removing 30 percent more material, according to Scribner, and officials are backwashing 70 percent less than they used to thanks to the overhauled water treatment sequence and filtration systems.
During the tour, officials showcased the desludging process, where sediment collected at the top of the water during a part of the treatment process is removed and pushed into pipes connecting it to sewage. A thick brown layer of sludge could be seen being removed from the water, leaving behind a sort of milky water that then continues to make its way through the filtration process.
Scribner said the Winona Street plant is designed to process a maximum of three million gallons per day, but given the extremely low reservoir levels as a result of the statewide drought, officials are forced to process just one million gallons per day.
Bettencourt emphasized that the new plant offers the city greater redundancy in the event of a shutdown at either water treatment plant.
“The work we did to create backups, create redundancy to allow if something did go down or there’s some sort of issue we’re able to cover the city needs,” Bettencourt said.
Scribner said the new DAF and GAC water treatment processes have significantly reduced the number of PFAS in the water coming out of the plant.
“DAF and GAC are doing a fantastic job,” he said. Previously, water contained 10 to 12 parts per trillion, but thanks to the new systems that number is down 2.3 parts per trillion, per a recent test.
The new water treatment plant will go a long way to improving quality of life in the city, Bettencourt said.
“This is as important as any work we’re doing in the city. This is really touching the lives of really everybody in our community,” he said. “I’m very grateful to be a part of this.”
