Adams Secondary Reservoir Officially Out of Service
ADAMS, Mass. — The town's backup reservoir has been officially shut down by the Department of Environmental Protection.
Board of Health member David Rhoads read a letter from DEP at Tuesday's meeting that stated the Bassett Brook Reservoir was officially nixed as the towns back up water supply. However, Rhoads noted that the reservoir probably wouldn't be much help in an actual emergency anyways.
"Due to lack of functionality," he said. "If we needed it I don't think we could actually get that water."
Board member Bruce Shepley said the only way the town could utilize the water in an emergency situation would be with a portable filtration system – often utilized when the state or federal Emergency Management Agency are involved.
"There are portable means to do it," he said.
Rhoads said the Bassett Brook Reservoir is actually in Cheshire as well as the wells in which Adams draws water from for its main supply.
He added that he was unsure if the town had to designate a new secondary water supply.
In other business, Rhoads said other departments have utilized its registry of abandoned properties and Assessor Donna MacDonald stopped in the office for a copy of the book.
"She was surprised to know there was a book and she came immediately," he said.
A few months ago, the Board of Health inquired about the registry and wanted it to be more available.
Rhoads said MacDonald asked if there was a digital archive that Shepley thought may be a good thing to have.
"I don't think there is any urgency, but it would be ideal to have," he said. "It would be a good tool in various departments."
Rhoads went further to say he wanted to talk to some of the banks that may own the properties and get them on the market.
The board also discussed the problem of tick-borne illnesses and urged the public to utilize tickreport.com, a University of Massachusetts at Amherst initiative to gather information about the various pathogens ticks may carry.
"This identifies the pathogens the tick is carrying plus it gives UMass the ability to see what is out there," Shepley said.
Earlier in the meeting, Code Enforcement Officer Thomas Romaniak went over a few reports of rat issues in town. He said they seem to be focused in the Howland Avenue and Commercial Street areas.
He said it didn't seem to be a garbage issue in most of these cases.
"I don't know where they are coming from, but a lot of different people have been complaining about them," he said. "I don't know the answer. It's not like people are throwing garbage out … I think they are coming out of the river but I am not a rat expert so there is really not much that we can do."
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