New state requirements and deferred maintenance mean that the Lincoln Water Department is asking to borrow just over $1 million.
Of the $1.01 million to be requested via bonding at the March 23 Annual Town Meeting, $817,000 is earmarked for regulatory compliance items required by the state Department of Environmental Protection’s 2018 Sanitary Survey of the Lincoln system. Another $128,000 will pay for for overdue maintenance and replacement of failed equipment (curb boxes, gate valves and hydrants), and $60,000 for a standby generator for the Tower Road well.
The department also plans to transfer another $155,000 from its retained earnings fund to pay for other overdue maintenance items including a truck, repairs to the pump station, office furniture, communications upgrades, and paving work after last year’s Bedford Road water main break, bringing the total planned capital investment to $1.165 million. (See page 46 of the Town Meeting Financial Section and Warrant for details.)
The bond will be repaid entirely from user fees and the Water Department’s retained revenue. The department operates as an enterprise fund, meaning that revenues are expected to meet or exceed expenditures on a year-to-year basis and its budget is separate from the rest of the town’s. In January, the Water Commissioners approved a rate hike (the first since 2015) and a three-tiered system of charges to encourage water conservation.
As required by the Safe Drinking Water Act, DEP surveys are done every three years to inspect surface water system’s facilities, operations, and record keeping. “This year they recorded a lot of violations,” said Water Commissioner Packy Lawler. “I can’t explain why in 2015 none of these things showed up… if [the items] had been demanded at that time, we would have known about it.”
Lawler said he couldn’t comment on whether previous Water Department Director Greg Woods was remiss in being unaware of the problems or failing to address them. Woods was succeeded by current director MaryBeth Wise in March 2018.
The two recent water main breaks (the Bedford Road incident in August 2018 and another along Route 2A between Hanscom Drive and Bedford Road last month) don’t mean that the system as a whole is about to fail, despite the age of its pipes, Lawler said. Officials hope in the future to proactively replace the mains a bit at a time, but a study done several years ago indicated that the cost would be prohibitive at $1 million per mile (Lincoln’s 55 miles of water mains).
Newer technology to reline pipes from the inside without digging up the roads is coming along, Lawler said. “I’m keeping my fingers crossed that that cost will come down to the point where we could begin to proactively repair the mains in place.”