To Eradicate Bacteria, Water Main Cleaning & Lining Project Expanded

By Kim Siebert MacPhail

Director of Public Works Roy Sorenson and Town Engineer Adrienne St. John received the Selectmen’s approval on September 16 for a $187,952.17 contract with W. Walsh Co., Inc. to add another phase to the town’s water main cleaning and lining project. The areas to be addressed in the next round of work include a 1,100 foot stretch of pipe from Great Road to #20 Brooksbie Road and 1,300 feet of pipe from Fletcher Road to Wilson Park along Great Road.

W. Walsh is the contractor performing the current cleaning and lining work along Great Road. St. John surmised that Walsh’s bid was the lowest –beating the highest of five bidders by close to $200,000—because the company was already in place and familiar with the scope of the job.

“We are working our way through town,” St. John said of the overall water main project. “Last summer we cleaned the water main that went from Great Road, up Fletcher, through the woods to the standpipe [Pine Hill water tank]. All this summer we’ve been working on the water main cleaning and lining from Shawsheen Road to Fletcher Road.

“Unfortunately, in spite of our efforts last year and this year, we’re still experiencing total coliform hits in the outreaches of town,” St. John continued. “The rest of this pipe from Fletcher Road to Wilson Park is still the original water main [from 1908]. Through favorable bidding earlier this year, we have [enough remaining] funds to continue this work from Fletcher Road to Wilson Park.

Total coliform bacteria— by itself benign— is indicative that more dangerous bacteria could develop. It is to eradicate the problem that Public Works plans to continue the project, focusing on the older water mains.

“Next summer we anticipate getting additional [zero interest] MWRA funds and we’ll go up Shawsheen Road and onto Page Road, cleaning the first sections of the distribution system [that comes into Bedford from Lexington] so that the water’s chlorine residuals [will not be diminished],” St. John said.

“This is in response to the fact that the current work didn’t completely solve the [bacteria] problem?” asked Selectman Mike Rosenberg.

“Unfortunately, yes,” responded St. John. “Last summer we started with the [total coliform bacteria] hits a lot earlier in the summer—in early July. The work that we’ve done this year— between the chlorine [adjustments], putting the mixers in the water tanks, and the cleaning and lining that was done— extends the clean system. Last year we had over 200 [total coliform] hits; we haven’t had nearly that much this year. It is better.”

Asked to explain why the bacteria problem has persisted, St John said, “The water in the distribution system over the last couple of years—in general—has been getting warmer. That could be from the temperature of the water coming out of Quabbin Reservoir.  Water mains are buried five feet down and ground temperature doesn’t change very much. If you’re going to get a change in the heat from the water, it’s going to be from the source.

“It also doesn’t help that this summer we’ve had 2000 feet of water main sitting above the ground [on Great Road during the cleaning and lining project]. That worsened it. But, the increase in the water temperature is coming from the source,” St. John added.

Director Sorenson and St. John said that while other communities have experienced some of the same bacteria problems, Bedford is unusual because of its location within the overall MWRA system. “We’re at the end of the line,” Sorenson said.

“Are we less likely to have the problem once we’re done with the project? Will we have a better year next year?” asked Acting Chair Margot Fleischman.

“It should be more favorable, from all the work that was done last year and this year,” replied Sorenson. “A year and a month from now, we’ll have a better idea of where we stand. The infrastructure in general needs to be improved and we’ll continue to do that.”

“At what point will we have gotten the majority of the problematic water mains [addressed]?” asked Fleischman.

“A year from now,” St. John said. “Of the three connections coming in from Lexington—all the main down Page Road to the Shawsheen River bridge is new; Great Road will be new, all the way to Wilson Park;  Wiggins Avenue already has lined pipe—it was built in an era when they had lined pipe. So, next year—if we do Shawsheen Road near the Lexington line, the lower part of Page Road from Shawsheen Road to the four-way stop— all of our distribution systems, with the exception of a couple of pieces on Springs Road, will be either new pipe or cleaned and lined.

“I hate to be a pessimist,” St. John added, “but I’m going to imagine that we will also experience