Williamstown Census Mailed to Residents

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WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Williamstown 2025 Annual Census has been mailed to all Williamstown residents. 
 
The census (Annual Street Listing) is a requirement per Massachusetts General Law, and it is important that all residents return them to the Town Clerk's office promptly. Failure to respond to the census will result in removal from the active voting list and may result in removal from the voter registration rolls.
 
Residents should not use the census form for the purpose of voter registration. Any resident who is not registered to vote may register by going to the Secretary of State's website: https://www.sec.state.ma.us/OVR/ or by mailing or dropping off a voter registration form to the Town Clerk's Office (31 North St.). 
 
You can also register to vote in person at The Town Clerk's Office. Voter registration forms can be found on the Secretary of State's website as well: https://www.sec.state.ma.us/divisions/elections/voter-resources/registering-to-vote.htm.
 
Parents of college students or members of the military who are registered voters in Williamstown should be aware that deleting those children from their census form will remove them from the active voters list. Also, households that have dependent children in them but are not listed on your census form should add their children to the form and complete the information that pertains to each child. Information regarding the children is not a public record and is used only by the schools for enrollment purposes.
 
All forms should either be mailed back in the enclosed return envelope or dropped off at Town Hall. You can use the Town's drop box, located outside the front door of Town Hall or come into the office. Anyone who does not receive their census form in the mail within the next three weeks or anyone who has questions pertaining to the form should call Town Clerk, Nicole E. Beverly at 458-3500 Ext. 101.

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Letter: Williamstown Should Adopt Ban on Sewage Sludge Land Application

Letter to the Editor

To the editor:

This year, Williamstown Town Meeting will be considering whether to adopt a new bylaw that would prohibit the land application of sewage sludge or sewage sludge-derived products (biosolids). The ban would apply to land application of sludge and biosolids to farmland as a soil amendment or to home gardens where store bought compost may contain biosolids. The intent of this bylaw is to protect farmland, water sources, food crops and ultimately animals and people from PFAS contaminants.

PFAS are per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, a group of "forever chemicals," and are linked to health issues like cancer, liver damage and immune system dysfunction. They enter wastewater systems through residential, commercial and industrial sources. Conventional treatment processes are largely ineffective at removing them. As a result, PFAS pass through treatment systems into surface waters or accumulate in sewage sludge/biosolids.

Most states and the federal law have been slow to regulate this activity. The EPA's January 2025 Draft Sewage Sludge Risk Assessment identified human health risks associated with land-applied biosolids containing as little as 1 part per billion of PFAS and yet federal law does not yet impose limits on PFAS in biosolids.

A growing number of states are adopting a range of regulatory and monitoring strategies. Maine is the only state so far to impose an outright ban on land application of biosolids from wastewater treatment plants, while Connecticut has banned the sale of biosolids containing PFAS for land application. In New York State, at least two communities, Thurston and Cameron, have banned the land application of biosolids.

At this time, we don't know of any farms in Williamstown that currently use biosolids. But we also don't know the future of the farms in our community. Biosolids can also be found in some commercially bagged compost. While this bylaw would not ban the sale of these products, we hope it will raise awareness and encourage our residents and local vendors to find biosolid-free products for use.

Let's keep our lands safe for our children and future generations. Williamstown's Select Board, Agricultural Commission, and the Board of Health recommend adoption of this article. We hope you will support this article on May 19, 7 p.m. at the town meeting at Williamstown Elementary School.

Stephanie Boyd
Sharon Wyrrick

Williamstown, Mass. 

 

 

 

 

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