In the News

The Springfield Water and Sewer Commission celebrated Wednesday the beginning of construction for its $298.2 million West Parish Water Treatment Plant, calling it the most significant public infrastructure project in the Pioneer Valley of the last 25 years.

The plant will replace 50-year-old filters and eliminate chemicals created as a byproduct of the current disinfection process in water piped to a quarter million customers in Springfield and surrounding communities. The water comes from Cobble Mountain Reservoir, which straddles the town lines of Blandford, Granville and Russell in the wooded hill towns, with the filters first built in 1909 on Granville Road in Westfield, 12 miles west from Springfield.

Construction of the new plant is slated to finish in four years.

“I wish everybody in the valley could actually see how the system works,” said U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal, D-Springfield. “It’s really amazing that people had the vision and foresight.”

He called a triumph of gravity, physics, engineering and foresight.

“Arguably, this is the best water system in America,” Neal said.

He was among the speakers — U.S. Sen. Edward J. Markey, D-Massachusetts, and Springfield Mayor Domenic J. Sarno — who linked public water from the 113-year-old system to public health.

One-hundred years ago, average life expectancy was 48 years old, Markey said.

“Then projects like providing clean water for greater Springfield were put in place. Now life expectancy is 79. Thirty-one bonus years and so much of it is related to the provision of clean water.”

But the newest filtration equipment in place now, built in 1974, cannot remove the current level of natural organic material found in the water in a way that avoids producing disinfection byproduct chemicals at levels that exceed regulations.

The Springfield Water and Sewer Commission has said that some individuals who consume an excess of these chemicals, such as haloacetic acids, over years may have a greater risk of developing cancer.

That’s why consumers get warnings in the mail about the chemicals, such as the one issued on Oct. 4.

The new plant will add an intermediary step that uses dissolved air to remove organic matter and cut down the byproducts.

The new filtration plant will be built in the place of underground slow sand filters that are 100 years old and currently used only in times of great demand. The 1974-built filters will be mothballed for future reuse when the new West Parish Water Treatment Plant is completed in 2028.

The project is financed with a $250 million low-interest loan from the highly competitive U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) Program, with matching funds from the Massachusetts Drinking Water State Revolving Fund and with a $4.6 million 2024 congressional earmark from Neal, Markey and U.S. Sen Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts.

Markey said the congressional delegation’s work to secure earmarks and pass legislation, like the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill, made the federal funding possible.

“But it’s all done. And now it’s in the hands of the great workers that are gathered here today,” Markey said. “So many of the great union workers who are going to do the work to create this new system.”

The subject of union membership and the 300- to 500-person workforce on the project ended up as an argument in commission meetings and in court.

Pioneer Valley Labor Council, a consortium of construction unions, lobbied for more than a year to secure a project labor agreement guaranteeing that hiring would happen only though union halls. A judge rejected that agreement, but it is expected that a majority of the workers constructing the plant will be union members.

The general contractor, The Walsh Group, is a union contractor, said Water and Sewer Commission Executive Director Joshua D. Schimmel. Union workers are also being hired by the dozen or so subcontractors.

Neal acknowledged lawsuit over the project labor agreement.

“I was pleased that even after the dust up that we had, that the contractors are still hiring union help,” Neal said. “So I think that that mission was accomplished.”

The contracts also guarantee that 20% of the jobs will be for apprentices and 25% of the jobs are reserved for local hiring.

Sarno said the commission hosted a successful apprenticeship fair in Springfield to spark interest among career-seekers.

On Wednesday, the Water and Sewer Commission hosted 16 students from the Springfield Renaissance School, many of them in its Environmental Pathways career program.

There was also an open house Wednesday afternoon.

Students toured the underground filters built in 1924, filters that will be removed to make way for the new plant.

Schimmel said to expect demolition in the next few months. Walsh is mobilizing people and equipment now.

The new plant will also have a fossil-fuel free heating and cooling system that uses water from Cobble Mountain Reservoir. There will be an on-site education center as well for staff development, student tours and public visits.