Companies battle over Northbridge water rights
PHOTO/ZACHARY COMEAU
Whitinsville Water Co. has served Northbridge for 60 years and proposed a 25-percent rate increase.
The Riverdale Water Co., a privately owned supplier of water, is again angling to sell water to the Town of Northbridge after the town's supplier, Whitinsville Water Co., proposed a 25-percent rate increase.
RWC, a subsidiary of wire manufacturer Riverdale Mills Corp., originally proposed to supply water to the town in 2012, but WWC in 2013 filed a case with the state Department of Public Utilities requesting DPU confirm the exclusivity of the company's rights to serve water in Northbridge.
The case has been pending since then with no real action taken.
The time is now
Currently, WWC serves the western half of the town – including Whitinsville – directly and then sells water to the town at a discounted price to be distributed to the eastern half of town.
RWC, according to Vice President Andrew Knott, is permitted to withdraw 700,000 gallons a day from a well off of Quaker Street. The company has been angling to replace WWC as the supplier of water to the western half of town.
“The time is good to bring it up again,” Knott said.
The water, said Knott, is purer than WWC's water and doesn't require any treatment, therefore the water can be sold at a cheaper rate.
Knott claims no records or contracts give WWC the exclusive right to sell water to the town. He called on the DPU to act on the case.
“If they're acting in the public interest, they should act on this,” he said.
Water-quality concerns
WWC, however, has a very different opinion on the quality of Riverdale's water, said WWC manager Randy Swigor.
RWC's well is about 50 feet away from the Blackstone River, which Swigor said is contaminated with wastewater from a nearby treatment plant.
“There are a whole slew of concerns from a water-quality standpoint,” he said.
Swigor said WWC – which has been servicing the town for 60 years – hired its own consultant to review the well and found the well, if operated on a regular basis, would pull too much water from the contaminated river.
Water tests revealed the presence of various pharmaceuticals in the water, Swigor said.
“We do not believe that it's viable without some type of treatment,” he said.
RWC, however, disputed that claim, instead saying the water comes from a deep aquifer protected from surface water by 100 feet of thick earth.
Due to the ongoing case and ambiguous legal ground, the town has taken no action on RWC's proposal.
Northbridge Town Manager Adam Gaudette said RWC is not yet a viable option until the DPU case is resolved.
“We're kind of just letting that course play out,” Gaudette said.
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