“WESTFIELD — Several Westfield City Councilors continue to seek answers regarding water contamination ahead of a May 3 meeting where a vote on a $13 million bond to pay for remediation is scheduled.
Councilors Dave Flaherty, Matt Emmershy, Andrew K. Surprise and Daniel Allie all voted against the initial reading of the bond request in March. The bond was reintroduced and passed the first reading earlier this month with the stipulation that the second reading would be scheduled four weeks later to allow time to gather more information.
The bond, requested by Mayor Brian P. Sullivan, includes permanent filtration vessels for Wells 7 and 8, which were taken offline in late 2015 due to contamination from PFOS and PFOAs. It also includes filtration at Wells 1 and 2, only one of which is running now, a connection to the Springfield Water Works and repairs to the East Mountain Road water tank.
Temporary filtration work is underway now on Well 2 and it should be online with clean water by the end of the summer, officials said.
Initially the three members of the Finance Committee, Allie, Emmershy and Surprise, plus Flaherty, voted against the bond because of a lack of information. The councilors said when the bond was presented to the committee it was with one page with five lines of information and they did not receive adequate answers to their questions.