Groveland Conservation Commission Continues Water Treatment Plant Hearing to July

GROVELAND -- June 10, 2026, Groveland Conservation Commission continues water treatment plant hearing amid flood risk, generator placement questions. The commission voted unanimously at its June 10 meeting to continue to July 8 a joint Groveland and Mass DEP Notice of Intent for an 8,400-square-foot drinking water treatment plant at 183R Main Street, filed by the town's water and sewer department to address iron, manganese, and PFAS contamination in wells one, three, and four. Alston Potts, senior project manager with Apex Companies, told commissioners the facility's proposed finished floor elevation of 25 feet provides 6.3 feet of freeboard above the mapped 18.7-foot base flood elevation, more than double the federal three-foot minimum for critical facilities, but members pressed hard on generator pad placement within the 200-foot Merrimack River riverfront area, calling it "a pollution pathway risk into the river." The project carries a state revolving fund deadline of October 2, 2026, with construction bidding targeted for January or February 2027 and project completion set for April 2029; federal noncompliance fines for unresolved PFAS exceedances can reach $29,000 per day. The commission separately approved a unanimous negative determination for the town's annual street paving program covering King Street, Center Street, and Deer Run, and voted to continue a 42-foot-by-90-foot commercial addition application at 1 Federal Way to July 8 after finding the submitted wetland delineation did not account for an apparent unmapped culvert on the property.