$6.5M sought to treat Hyannis water contaminants.
A vote will be taken at the Barnstable Town Council meeting Thursday on whether to appropriate $6.5 million to purchase, design and construct a carbon treatment system at the Maher wellfield on Old Yarmouth Road.
When testing to find a solution effective for treating 1,4-dioxane is complete, another appropriation to construct that treatment system will be brought before the council.
"We really don’t have a choice.
Unfortunately we’re at a place where we have a lot of issues because the area has become highly developed."
The water contamination at the Maher wells is not part of the town’s lawsuit against Barnstable County, in which it contends the chemicals entered some of the wells servicing Hyannis after firefighting foams were used at the Barnstable County Fire and Rescue Training Academy.
Water typically provided to Hyannis residents from the Maher wells is being blended with water provided through an interconnect with the Yarmouth water system at a cost of nearly $1.25 million per year.
"There is a cost savings associated with constructing the carbon treatment unit," Santos said.
The permanent interconnect with Yarmouth will stay active in the event that either town needs to access the other’s water supply, according to Santos.
A health advisory warning pregnant women, nursing mothers and infants not to drink the water in Hyannis was in effect from late May until early July 2016, after the EPA lowered its advisory threshold for perfluorinated compounds.