Water flows in the Contoocook River near the Jaffrey wastewater facility on Wednesday, Sept. 7. STAFF PHOTO BY BEN CONANT

Water flows in the Contoocook River near the Jaffrey wastewater facility on Wednesday, Sept. 7. STAFF PHOTO BY BEN CONANT—

Most people on municipal drinking water don’t need to worry very often about what contaminants it might contain, but it’s a different story for those with wells.

So just what is in the water, how does it get there and what’s being done to keep it clean?

Anthony Cavaliere, superintendent of utilities for the Town of Jaffrey, who oversees the town’s water and sewer departments, said municipal water supplies are thoroughly checked for contaminants according to requirements set by New Hampshire’s Department of Environmental Services (NHDES). Jaffrey’s Turnpike Road well exceeded the state’s standard 70 parts per trillion (ppt) standard for perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) in 2021 and is currently not being used. Perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (together known as PFAS) are also referred to as “forever chemicals” because they do not break down easily, can lower a woman’s chances of getting pregnant and increase cancer risks.

“We test for any contaminant that [NHDES] says may be found in that region of the state,” Cavalire said, adding that Jaffrey is constantly monitoring its water supplies and that if the well on Turnpike Road is needed, a new filtering treatment would be required. “If something like E. coli comes up that’s an immediate threat to the community, a boil order must be issued instantaneously. If it’s less of a threat to the community, like naturally occurring iron and manganese, [NHDES] may just tell us we need to start looking into treatment options and they work with us until it’s remedied.”

About half of Jaffrey’s 5,300 residents are on municipal water for their drinking water, which comes from wells on Turnpike Road when it is in operation, Woodbound Road near Contoocook Lake, and on Squantum Road. The other half have private wells, according to Cavaliere.

Effluent discharge can affect drinking water

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issues permits for wastewater treatment facilities like the one in Jaffrey, which discharges into the Contoocook River. Cavaliere says the water that is returned to the river after passing through the waste treatment facility is “essentially [a] drinking water standard.”

“It’s kind of funny, but with the drought this year and the river being so low, the river water looks brown,” he said. “But where [the treated water] discharges from the facility, it’s crystal clear.”

University of New Hampshire professor Robin Collins takes issue with Cavaliere’s assessment. While the water does look clear when it leaves a waste treatment facility – meeting state discharge permit standards which have been around since the Clean Water Act was passed in 1972 – water can still contain bacteria and other contaminants, including PFAS, he said.

“I agree that from a distance, if you will, the discharge can look clean, but it is loaded with bacteria and it likely contains PFAS,” he said. “And not everyone disinfects their wastewater discharge. It still can have coliform bacteria and viruses and so forth even after going through a modern waste-treatment facility.”

State and federal standards for waste water and drinking water

The EPA’s National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit process establishes discharge limits and conditions for discharges of treated waste water, or “effluent,” from municipal wastewater treatment facilities, as well as for a number of industrial processes, to waters all over the United States.

Modern wastewater treatment facilities like Jaffrey’s – what Collins calls secondary treatment – are different from tertiary treatment systems that use membrane-filtration systems such as the kind used at Lake Tahoe. There, water is cleaned to a standard “where it’s not going to age the lake because [people’s] livelihood is dependent upon how clean it is. But that’s unusual. Not many treatment facilities have that type of treatment.”

Caveliere said the EPA standards for effluent discharge from Jaffrey’s facility are strict.

“There are a whole lot of pages for these standards that say, ‘You have to meet these limits, or we’re going to fine you,’ ” Calvaliere says. “The things they’re looking for are nitrogen, ammonia, phosphorus and metal, as well as carbon sources and suspended solids.”

Wastewater that goes straight into the ground, as it does through septic systems, is regulated by the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services (NHDES). All public drinking water in New Hampshire is overseen by NHDES, as well. Jaffrey is issued two permits from NHDES for its drinking water supply. One is a groundwater withdrawal permit and the other is for water quality and treatment.

“They monitor how many gallons we take out from the ground because they don’t want us to take more than what can be recharged,” Cavaliere said. “That’s the quantity in terms of gallons and then there’s treatment.”

For drinking water treatment, the state provides each municipality with public water systems its own set of criteria called the master sampling sheet that outlines various chemicals and compounds that must be tested for.

Understanding PFAS and the limits of water supplies

NHDES has collected more than 7,200 PFAS samples from approximately 6,200 wells across the state and has identified several thousand locations that exceed one or more of the Ambient Groundwater Quality Standards (AGQS). PFAS that is equal to or exceeding 70 ppt have been found in Hancock, Dublin and Jaffrey wells, and other well sites throughout the Monadnock region have been found to contain lower levels, according to NHDES sampling data.

PFAS is not removed in wastewater and water-treatment plants, according to Collins, because they were never designed to do so. This is a problem, he said, exacerbated by climate change because drought can force municipalities to tap into sources that contain these chemicals.

“It’s really going to be dependent on the maximum contaminant level that the state sets,” he said, adding that it is not clear just how much PFAS a person can ingest before it becomes problematic. “Many water supplies in New Hampshire, especially around Manchester and in the Seacoast area, have had some high measurement of PFAS. It’s ubiquitous in the water supplies, surface water and anything that receives waste water has PFAS.”

Collins said groundwater supplies can also be contaminated with PFAS through septic systems and from rivers.

“[Leach fields] aren’t designed to remove PFAS, and they can work their way into the groundwater. And it can come from a river to the groundwater,” he said, explaining that many lakes and streams percolate and find their way to recharge supply areas associated with most groundwater sources. “That’s the reason aquifers can be problematic when you’re withdrawing more groundwater than what can be replenished through the aquifer intakes.”

While the ability to detect PFAS has grown, Collins said the question now comes down to just how much is hazardous, “and people don’t know.”

“I think we are getting to the point where [effluent discharges] will be regulated more and more,” he said, adding that as populations expand and climate change continues, water resources are being stressed. “There’s more demand for water in some cases and there are limitations to our water systems.”

What people with wells can do

For those with wells in the Monadnock region, the property owner is responsible for their own sampling of drinking water contaminants through a number of labs around the state. The main contaminants in the Monadnock region are iron, manganese, uranium and arsenic, Caveliere said.

“If you’re on your own well it’s up to you to sample it,” he said. “I don’t think most homeowners do that and they probably should.”

The New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services recommends that homeowners with private wells have their drinking water tested every three to five years.

A United States Geological Survey (USGS) study in 2003, “Arsenic Concentrations in Bedrock Wells in Southeastern New Hampshire,” found that from 20 percent to more than 30 percent of bedrock wells in Temple had arsenic concentrations above the standard of 0.010 milligrams per liter. NHDES created a maximum containment limit of five parts per billion for arsenic in drinking water in 2021. Private wells in New Hampshire have about a 25 percent probability of containing naturally occurring arsenic above 5 micrograms per liter or 5 parts per billion, according to the study.

For those concerned about PFAS in their wells, the Per and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) Removal Rebate Program for Private Wells provides a one-time rebate to private well-users of up to $5,000 for the installation of PFAS treatment (point-of-use or point-of-entry) or up to $10,000 for a service connection to a public water system.

For those seeking to test their well water, a list of accredited laboratories can be found at des.nh.gov, or a web search for “NHDES Private Wells.”

“One of the positive things about public water systems is that you don’t have to worry about [these things] because we do it all behind the scenes,” Cavaliere said.

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