What if Housatonic Water Works’ Proposed Multimillion-Dollar Fix is Not Really a Fix?

Letter to the editor by Andrew Berens, Housatonic, published in the Berkshire Eagle on Nov. 15, 2023.

Housatonic Water Works (HWW) has proposed a multimillion-dollar fix at the village’s expense for one aspect of the village’s water woes: turbid colored water. 

A HWW-commissioned study by Cornwell Engineering Group implicates elevated manganese levels as the genesis of this problem, and the company has a rate increase petition to pass these costs onto the citizens. ("Housatonic residents say they should not have to pay to fix the water. They asked regulators to scour company finances," Eagle, Sept. 27.) While the village is desperate for improvements in the water quality, I believe there are a number of discrepancies in the methodologies and conclusions of this report linking manganese levels and water color problems that warrant, at the very least, an objective, independently commissioned review by a third party. Understanding the true cause of the water woes might require a repeat study, especially given some of the concerns about data collection integrity and consistency, before implementing the proposed solutions to lower manganese levels at the village’s expense.

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An attorney representing HWW at the recent Department of Public Utilities hearing referred to the citizens’ concerns as “sensationalism” and urged the agency to weigh them with a “Gibraltar-size grain of salt,” in contrast to the rigorous scientific methods and data collection employed by HWW. Unfortunately, I do not think the analysis in this report linking manganese with the water woes was “rigorous,” “meticulous” or “scientific.”

One critical flaw is that the report relies on six water samples from the village to link elevated manganese levels with the water issues. Importantly, half of these water specimens did not even have elevated manganese yet were discolored. Further, one of the colored water specimens was eyeballed, meaning that the evidence linking elevated manganese levels to water from the village is limited to only two specimens. Therefore, more colored water specimens had low manganese than high manganese levels, suggesting something else is contributing to the problem. Two specimens in the report also had high manganese levels yet were not discolored, further undermining the correlation.

It would be a travesty and an embarrassment for everyone involved, including the DPU, the attorney general and the three town boards if this multimillion-dollar fix were implemented and the water quality does not improve. Further, crawling down this potential rabbit hole could only delay the implementation of a real cure for this very serious problem that continues to plague the village. Buyer beware.
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Andrew Berens, Housatoni