WESTFIELD – The Westfield City Council last night approved 9-3 the first reading of a $13 million bond request that addresses the city’s contaminated wells, improvements to the East Mountain water tank and a connection to the Springfield Water Works.
Councilors Matt Emmershy, Dave Flaherty and Andrew K. Surprise voted against the measure.
The council also approved a motion to extend the second reading to May 3 rather than the next meeting in April.
Figy suggested delaying the second reading as a compromise to allow more time for councilors to get answers to questions.
Flaherty said city experts, U.S.
Three of the four wells in that part of the city are offline due to contamination.
"They have worked with the city for months and their recommendation is to get Wells 7 and 8 up and running as fast as you can."
But Surprise said there hasn’t been a good flow of information from those experts.
Paul said the council needed to pass the bond measure and trust those "accountable and responsible" for the city’s daily operations.
Burns, who spent many years on the Westfield Water Commission, said, "You can’t just start drilling wells around Westfield" and agreed councilors must trust the plan presented.

Published at 11:00am
While the nation focused its attention on Hela, Southern Highlands and the areas at the epicenter of the February 26 monster quake, areas in Western Province within the quake radius experienced a different kind of disaster.
Speaking to villagers in Nomad, Lake Murray and later the Western provincial disaster coordination team in Kiunga, it was obvious that something must be done to combat and if possible reverse the I’ll effects of water pollution directly caused by the landslips that are still visible.
“Thousands of tons of debris and mountainous terrain were emptied into the rivers causing a flood that destroyed gardens, killed fish, diverted river systems and rendered the water undrinkable.
“As we stand, a total of 18,258 have been confirmed to have been affected in one of the afore mentioned ways.
” That’s exactly 116 villages that are in serious need of relief,” said Western disaster coordinator Philip Garuat.
It was mentioned during the meet that about 400 water tanks would be supplied, with water purification tablets.
Furthermore, about 60 tons of food was said to be planned for Western Province alongside a restart kit – which will contain buckets, spades and other implements to get small scale reconstruction going.
He said that logistics was a nightmare in the province but that it was the people that were important and that the supplies would still be brought through.
“The responsibility once the supplies arrive will be on you, the provincial government and disaster coordination team,” said Dr Hamblin.

Residents living near the Ohakea Air Force Base have cause to be unsatisfied, too.
And the public and media are entitled to wonder why it took more than 2½ years for worrying test results to trigger public warnings about water contamination relating to the use of firefighting foam.
It looks a lot like the Defence Force got in the way of Horizons doing its job.
We are told there were no relevant New Zealand standards in 2015 and the Defence Force sought expertise.
Then in April 2017 the Australian Department of Health issued guidance levels.
Horizons wasn’t notified until December 2017.
Horizons is unimpressed.
More importantly, people drank contaminated water while the Defence Force dithered.
It’s easy to be wise in hindsight, of course, and it seems the Defence Force didn’t initially comprehend the possible ramifications of what it knew.
At the very least, officials were not entitled to keep the regional council in the dark.

The Latest on drinking water contamination in a Montana county (all times local): 2:40 p.m. A Montana county has agreed to upgrade a small community drinking water system after securing $588,000 in grants.
The proposed agreement between Beaverhead County and the U.S. Department of Justice was filed Wednesday with a lawsuit that accused the Jackson drinking water system of multiple violations.
Federal environmental officials found that the groundwater system exceeded acceptable levels of arsenic and radioactive contaminants, and that the water and sewer district failed to monitor for contamination and file required disclosures.
Under the deal, the county agrees to regularly monitor and report as soon as the deal takes effect.
HELENA, Mont.
(AP) – The U.S. government is seeking a court order to force Beaverhead County to comply with drinking water standards, monitoring and reporting requirements for a small community water system in Jackson.
Beaverhead County attorney Jed Fitch did not immediately return a call for comment Friday.
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According to Gina Burton of Millsboro, her family’s land is a major reason why Mountaire was able to build and operate a chicken processing facility across a cornfield from where she lives.
Now, Burton and other residents of the area are threatening court action, contending that the company has not adequately addressed longstanding water contamination problems.
"I don’t know the reason why my family has suffered so many health problems.
But living with this every day, all these years, makes me wonder why," Burton said.
Public Justice and Food and Water Watch are preparing the case.
"They wanted to make certain that the injuries they have suffered – and they’re quite significant – would not happen again," Crumplar said.
The plaintiffs say the plant is located over the region’s drinking water aquifer, and that liquid waste material is sprayed onto disposal fields.
"For a long time, people in this area have been waiting and pleading for Mountaire to make a true effort to make the groundwater safe," Public Justice staff attorney Jessica Culpepper said.
"Notice to file a lawsuit under RCRA is not only now appropriate, it’s absolutely essential to the health of this community."
Mountaire had not returned an e-mail or a call seeking comment as of Wednesday evening.

The contaminated water that affected the residents of 17 buildings in Changangkha and Motithang area is now safe to consume, according to Thimphu Thromde officials.
“After receiving a complaint from a house owner the next day, we visited the site and took water sample for testing,” the official said.
“We also asked the Thromde’s Motithang Tshogpa to inform the building owners.” The thromde official said that he also informed the owners of the affected building the next day.
It was not possible to inform every tenant, so I informed the house owners and asked them to tell their tenants not to consume water for a few days,” Dorji Dema said.
“Some house owners did not open the door.” “The exact affected area was not known then and it was not possible to go to every building as it was late and was also raining,” she said.
While the thromde officials claimed that they disinfected the reservoirs with chlorine after flushing the tanks and the main water lines, a house owner did not agree.
“I learned that some of my tenants did not use the water from the tap to cook also.” The thromde official said he also informed the affected buildings that the thromde will flush and disinfect the tanks and pipelines.
We knew only when we received the complaint.” The contractor, Tshewang, said the contamination happened when his workers were trying to divert the sewerage leakage towards the drain.
“I think there was a leakage in a joint of the main water pipe and the sewerage water might have got in through it.” A thromde official said that when it comes to water supply, the thromde’s compliance is until the water meter point, after which, it is the responsibility of the house owners.
“Even after that, we visited the buildings again and disinfected the tanks and flushed the pipeline,” the thromde official said.

How far, how fast and in which direction does polluted water from the Tijuana River travel when it hits the coastline?
“It depends on the waves, it depends on the winds, it depends also on the tides,” says Falk Feddersen, a scientist at the University of California Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
In 2015, Feddersen and his colleague Sarah Giddings led a binational team in a project that involved injecting an environmentally safe pink dye into the ocean at several points near the U.S.-Mexico border, tracking the plumes as they spread.
Under certain conditions, they found contamination can potentially travel for miles up the coast to Imperial Beach and beyond.
This typically occurs when the waves are coming from the south, a condition known as south swells.
Especially in late summer, when there are south swells and the winds are lighter, “oftentimes these plumes can be trapped very close to the coast,” Feddersen said.
This condition is more typical in winter months.
On average, the plume tends to travel more to the south than to the north, Feddersen’s model shows: “Long-term, would you rather be surfing in Playas de Tijuana or Imperial Beach?
You’d rather be surfing in Imperial Beach.” But also on average, “you definitely don’t want to be south of that plume in winter,” if contaminated water hits the coastline, he said.
But if spills occur in summer months, Feddersen said, “probably you don’t want to be north of that plume in summer on average, because on average the waves come from the south and the winds are lighter.”

TESTS are being carried out on the water supply of Scotland’s biggest hospital over fears of a bacterial contamination.
If follows the announcement last week that NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde were taking infection control measures at the Royal Hospital for Children.
Yesterday the board said they were now taking measures in four wards at the neighbouring Queen Elizabeth University Hospital.
The board also confirmed that four children were now being treated for an infection which could be linked to the water supply.
A spokesman for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said: “We are continuing to investigate the presence of bacteria in the water supply to some wards in the Royal Hospital for Children (RHC) with experts from Health Protection Scotland, Health Facilities Scotland and Scottish Water.
We have now extended this testing and infection control measures to four wards treating the most immunity compromised patients in the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (QEUH) to ensure that we take every precaution.
“Three children continue to receive treatments for infections that may be linked to bacteria found in the water supply.
A fourth patient has shown symptoms and has been readmitted to the RHC.
There are no reports of any patients being infected by bacteria from water in the adult wards.
“A series of infection control measures were introduced to the affected RHC wards at the weekend and water filters are set to be installed.

New Hampshire has reached what officials call a “monumental agreement” on water contamination with the Saint Gobain plastics company.
It comes more than two years after the state first learned of the contamination near Manchester, and will require the manufacturer to run clean water to all affected homes.
Now, Saint Gobain has signed a consent decree with the state, promising to do the same for about 300 other properties.
“This is an agreement that hopefully will be welcomed by a lot of the residents that have been waiting for good news to be announced,” says state Department of Environmental Services spokesman Jim Martin.
“They can finally know that they’re no longer in limbo and that they will be connected sooner rather than later.” He says the state wants many upgrades done this year, or by November 2019 at the latest.
It hasn’t been made public in full, and Pokedoff says it still must be finalized in court.
The agreement also requires further environmental monitoring, testing and potentially clean-up in the area.
All of that could stretch for years, adding up to what Martin calls the largest groundwater investigation in state history.
DES will answer residents’ questions at a public meeting Wednesday night in Litchfield, at 6:30 p.m. at Campbell High School.
For those who can’t attend, the meeting will stream online, and DES will hold office hours in Bedford and Merrimack on Thursday.

Guntur: Principal Secretary (Medical and Health) Department Poonam Malakondaiah said that the State government would take all precautionary measures and ensure that problems relating to water contamination does not recur.
She paid a visit to the medical camp conducted at the One-Town area on Sunday and interacted with patients suffering from diarrhoea.
Later, she went to another medical camp setup at third line at Anandapeta.
She inquired about the health conditions of patients undergoing treatment in the medical camp and instructed the officials concerned to provide the best possible treatment for the speedy recovery of patients.
Later, she inspected the drinking water pipeline works at Anandapeta and interacted with the locals.
They complained that there was no proper drainage system and they were unable to drink the water supplied by the Guntur Municipal Corporation.
She further said that the government would take all the steps to supply drinking water to the residents.
They would take all necessary steps to check outbreak of diarrhoea.
She urged the people to go to the hospital immediately when they suffer from diarrhoea.
District Collector and GMC Special officer Kona Sasidhar, GMC Commissioner S Balaji Rao and several district officials were present on the occasion.