Community Corner
Mount Nebo Water Tank to be Lowered for Cleaning and Disinfecting
It has been about 15 years since the inside of the Mount Nebo water tank was lowered, cleaned and disinfected.
The town of Medfield is going to lower the Mount Nebo water tank to clean and disinfect the inside of the tank. Town officials say it has been about 15 years since this was done last.
“They are also going to be putting in a circulation device, a little fan, in the water tank to keep the water moving. The water can sit there and get a little stale and then we have a problem with too many minerals in the water,” said Town Administrator Michael Sullivan.
“By keeping the water moving, it doesn’t sink to the bottom of the tank and provide potential for contamination,” he said.
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The town has been struggling with the quality of its drinking water since this past June but Sullivan said that all wells have been disinfected and cleaned.
“All of the wells are clean now; there are no traces of contamination in any of the wells,” Sullivan said.
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The state’s Department of Capital Asset Management (DCAM) has been asked to test Well No. 6, near the former , for trace minerals and volatile organic chemicals.
Sullivan said that well tested positive for e-Coli but was likely an error because a second sample was clean.
“It was in a line that runs from the State Hospital over to the Department of Mental Retardation building on Hospital Road,” he said, noting the re-tested sample appeared to be fine. “It may have been a contaminated sample but [the town] flushed that line and chlorinated it as a precaution.”
Sullivan said some residents have complained about the chlorine smell and taste of the town water around Well No. 6. He said the state requires the town to chlorinate that well, but the amounts they use are minimal. The state calls for four parts per billion while Medfield uses 0.8 parts per billion.
“We’re going to follow testing and if we don’t get any more bad samples, we will ask for permission from the state to stop chlorinating,” Sullivan said, noting, however, that the state likes the chlorination process.
“They want us to chlorinate our entire water supply but we have been reluctant to do that; we don’t think it’s necessary,” he said.
