WATER is precious to every community, and our clean water may be taken from us in the towns of Ayer and Littleton [and the towns dowstream, including Westford and Chelmsford]. Contimination of our water should have everyone in an uproar, but politicians have ignored this issue, courts have ruled against this little town protecting its water, the companies involved [all based out of Massachusetts] have shown little regard for protecting this precious commodity, and the water is being set up for contamination!
Over a decade ago, what is now Pan Am Railroad purchased the property adjoining the Ayer wells, right across the pond from the Littleton town wells. Their plan has been to put an auto unloading facility, in fact, a "bulk unloading facility", on top of the Zone 2 water aquifer for these wells!!
Today, digging with giant earthmovers has been done right above our aquifer [and in fact, since we're only 12-15 feet down, we believe the earthmovers were actually sitting IN our aquifer!! They were certainly in our groundwater as they prepared the earth for paving]. They are finished. Soon the paving will start.
When a company has heard for over 10 years that their plans will affect the water supply of a town, you'd think they'd work with the town to help find an alternate location, or even sell the land back to the town and find another town. Well, in fact, they own another auto unloading facility that could be used that is less than a mile from their currently-planned facility on the aquifer.
What does that mean for the towns? Trains, trucks, and loads of new cars will be sitting ON THE AQUIFER as soon as the paving is complete. We know that even new cars have leaks, and leaks of antifreeze, of transmission fluid, of gas, of oil, all of these simple leaks contaminate the water and can affect the clean water of our town. Most of these things aren't simple clean-ups. Another Massachusetts town had a spill of a small amount of petroleum in its water supply over 20 years ago and $30 MILLION and 20 years later they are still monitoring the plumes from that petroleum that are in their water that they can't get out.
If there is never a spill, but just the wear and tear of trains and trucks going in and out, with cars being loaded and unloaded, we are in grave danger of contamination.
The railroad involved is a known polluter, with a record of spills that has been identified by our Attorney General Martha Coakley and with their record noone would want them near their water supply.
There is no recourse for citizens of Ayer and Littleton. The courts have declared that the railroad has the right to build this project, even though environmental groups have stated the reasons that this is not a good idea. No environmental group has authority over the railroad plans. Next door, elaborate restrictions have been put on a residence being built much farther from the aquifer, and the conservation commission of the town has been careful in monitoring every stage of that house's development, but NO monitoring will be done on the property except by the railroad.
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” - Margaret Mead
