Town Manager Tim Polky came to class to tell us about a home oil fuel leak that led to the Tenants Harbor Water District.
In 1997, a home heating oil company employee doing some maintenance on a home owner’s furnace at 6 Watts Avenue accidentally stepped on the copper tubing of the oil tank in the basement. Oil leaked out into the cellar. A sump pump emptied the oil and water that had collected and pumped it right next to the homeowner’s well, contaminating the well water.
The state helped assess how many people’s wells may have been affected. Testing of wells and groundwater began. They found petroleum in people’s wells and had to keep testing wells to find some that were not contaminated, to know how big an area was affected. They found oil products in some wells that didn’t come from the Watts Avenue leak. Unfortunately, it was common practice for garages and even homeowners to dispose of oil by pouring it down into the ground. Most people had a dump in their yards. There was a garage that used to be where Harbor Builders have their offices now. Another garage was where the parking lot of the Marsh is now. Back then, waste oil could also be used on driveways to control dust. With all the testing, the officials knew there were multiple sources of oil pollution in people’s wells. People needed a clean water supply.
Land was bought on the Wallston Road with state and federal money. The funding also helped pay for the well equipment and to help operate the wells for the first ten years. Now there are two town wells near the Transfer Station that are around 600 feet deep and have enough flow to serve 600 people. Today, those two town wells are connected to about 350 people’s houses and our school, to provide clean water. Until the water district wells were up and running, people
had filters on their home wells to clean the water before it was used. Any residents on town water have to pay a monthly bill for the water they use.
The boundary of the water district was formed using the topography of the land (the natural ridges). The water district stretches from the north end of Watts Avenue, east to Spruce Lane on Barter’s Point Rd, south to the Sea Store and west as far as the Transfer Station. Groundwater from around the Transfer Station gets tested from time to time to make sure that the old dump is not a source of pollution today.
A big thanks to Mr. Polky for taking the time to visit our class and talk to us about this town history. We never knew about this oil spill until he taught us about it. We should be careful with oils, gasoline and other products, like paints and chemicals that could get into our water so nothing like this happens in the future and we continue to have clean water to drink.