Select Board calls for special town meeting to address water issues - Cape Cod Times

CHATHAM — With the town's drinking water system showing signs of stress from seasonal demand and a continuing drought, Chatham is also struggling with relatively high levels of PFAS in two wells, making it harder to handle demand.

At their meeting Tuesday night, Chatham Select Board members voted to open a new well (Well No. 4), pending approval from the state Department of Environmental Protection. The public water system's contracted operator Weston & Sampson has been installing equipment and doing tests to prepare it for pumping.

The board also unanimously approved holding a special town meeting at 9:30 a.m. Oct. 23 to ask for $4.5 million to open two new wells (No. 10 and 11) and money to design PFAS treatment facility for two wells (No. 5 and 8). The $4.5 million will include design work to incorporate PFAS and iron and manganese treatment if required in the future.

Both articles are funded from water system money and will not require a separate ballot vote for a Proposition 2 debt exclusion because they don't impact property taxes.

The select board voted unanimously to endorse both articles.

Thoseactions came tempered with caution that the Lower Cape, and particularly Chatham, need a rainy/snowy winter to rebuild their water supply.

Chatham Natural Resources Director Robert Duncanson said monitoring wells along the Chatham/Brewster line continue to show a downward trend in water levels despite a recent soaking rain that was still less than half what other parts...

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