PEABODY — Mayor Ted Bettencourt announced the city’s purchase of 164 acres of land from Rousselot and his plans to present the agreement at a city council hearing on Jan. 23 during his speech at Monday’s mid-term inauguration.
The first step in the process of approving this $25 million acquisition was completed yesterday, with the council receiving the mayor’s request at the first city council meeting of 2025.
Bettencourt said to the Daily Item yesterday that the acquisition was “too good of an opportunity to pass on” as the 164 acres encompass millions of gallons of fresh water that could be used for the city’s drinking water stockpile. The parcels do not include the actual factory site of the company.
“The purchase will further lessen our city’s reliance on expensive MWRA water and may provide the city a new source of revenue going forward,” Bettencourt said Monday.
This deal follows two previous acquisitions from Rousselot’s campus, which ceased operations at the end of 2023. The move brings the total amount of land from the former materials processing manufacturing business, including 135 acres of land for The Meadow Golf Course in 2024, which gave the city complete ownership of the course area.
“We’ve been in discussions with Rousselot since they notified us they were going to be closing operations,” Bettencourt said. “At the time, Rousselot was the largest landowner in the city of Peabody. They owned different parcels in the city that totaled over 400 acres.”
Most of the land consists of wetlands that attracted factories decades ago because of the area’s considerable volume of clean water resources. Now, that water will start to serve public needs.
Bettencourt emphasized the impact that this could have on the city when considering the two major droughts that have hit the area in recent years.
“The demands for water are always increasing because the city’s growing a little bit,” he said. “This is something that sets up our community for many generations to come to provide water. It’s as important a function of city government as anything.”
Engineers already conducted an assessment of the well sources and water quality, which was showed to be in pristine condition. Other environmental tests are currently being conducted before the land purchase becomes official.
In addition, existing infrastructure will be looked at to see what sort of condition they are in. Still, the city would have to fund the construction of further structures to transport the water to Peabody residents.
Another benefit Bettencourt outlined is the ability to handle large storms more easily, since much of the flooding that has disturbed the downtown area in the past has come from this land.
“Now, having ownership of this area, knowing there’s large storms coming, we’re able to direct water to other places that will further help our water flood mitigation efforts for our downtown areas,” Bettencourt said.
If the city council approves the acquisition at the Jan. 23 meeting, Bettencourt expects an April closing date for the deal. That will allow work to begin on giving Peabody residents access to a new cache of clean water.
