IPSWICH — The select board voted unanimously to endorse a new water treatment plant for the town.
Construction of the new facility is estimated to cost $22 million and has a projected completion date of September 2026. Bonds would be issued by the town, but repayment costs would fall on the water department’s 4,500 customers.
Those customers can expect annual 10% increases over the coming years to pay for this and other projects.
Although the select board approved the project in principle at its meeting Monday, July 25, the final decisions rests with voters at town meeting and a follow-up ballot.
The decision was made in light of AECOM’s assessment of the existing water treatment plant in 2019. According to water and wastewater director Vicki Halmen, the plant is in need of significant upgrades.
“The current plant is ill-equipped to address our evolving regulatory requirements, meet our future water demands with adequate redundancy, and to treat potential future sources,” Halmen said.
Constructed in 1988, the existing facility is not nearly large enough to treat all the water that Ipswich requires, especially as the town’s population continues to grow. It can currently treat 1.25 MGD (million gallons per day) with one unit process out of service, but it will need to treat 2.5 MGD with one unit process out of service in 2040 to meet the town’s needs. Additionally, the plant lacks the space needed to treat emerging contaminants in the future.
There are high levels of manganese in Brown’s Well, for instance, and PFAS (or “forever chemicals”) were found in Brown’s and other wells. PFAS levels are still below the state cut-off threshold.
“We’re recommending now that [the plant] be designed to treat up to the 2040 expected water demands,” said Steve Defrancesco, an engineer with AECOM.
The facility is also experiencing significant disrepair. The raw water pump station is deteriorating, exterior conduits are rusting or damaged, chemical control panels are corroded, interior and exterior lighting and fire alarm systems are outdated, there is no standby power supply, and both the roof and the HVAC need to be replaced entirely.
“The [current] plant is over 30 years old, past its useful life … and the plant supplies over 60% of the town’s water. Actually, that’s an increasing number,” Halmen said.
Select board member Tammy Jones said as a former biochemist, she understands the severity of the current situation.
“I would never want to work in the conditions I’m seeing in those pictures,” she said. “I mean, I can smell it in my mind’s eye as I’m looking at this. I know what that feels like, and those are really horrible conditions right now.”
As a result of these conditions, AECOM determined that the water treatment plant needed to be significantly upgraded, which was estimated to cost about $23 million, or replaced entirely.
“I would like to point out that ‘do nothing’ is not an option that was considered,” Halmen said. “This plant is past its useful life and cannot function into the future at its current state.”
The upgrade would allow for the use of existing infrastructure and is projected to be completed sooner — by December 2025. However, there is a high risk that undiscovered issues that could drive up both cost and completion time, and the construction would significantly disrupt ongoing operations.
“It’s almost like if somebody’s in your house and they’re trying to renovate it while you’re living there … so it becomes very disruptive,” Defrancesco said.
Replacing the facility, however, will leave space for expansion and the flexibility to treat more water sources and contaminants in the future. Its construction will also be independent of the existing plant, allowing operations to run without interruption.
After reviewing the presentation, which was also given to the water subcommittee in June, the select board unanimously voted to support the construction of a new water treatment plant.