If you have an emergency outside of office hours, please call the Police Department at 978-692-2161 and the dispatcher will page our on-call personnel for fast response.
Westford Water Department Storm Update:
The Water Department would like to provide information regarding its operations during the Ice Storm and the resulting power outages.
On Thursday, December 11, 2008 at 9:50 PM, the Forge Village Water Treatment Facility and two wells lost power. By 3:30 AM Friday, both Water Treatment Facilities (WTFs) and a total of 4 out of 8 wells and 3 out of 5 storage tanks were without power. At that time the generators at both WTFs went online.
Despite having a generator, the Nutting Road WTF could not be used because Cote Well was the only well out of 3 that supply this facility that had power. The perchlorate treatment system on the Cote Well can only be operated at 200 gallons per minute. At that slow a rate, and with the extreme change in water quality caused by using only one well, it was not feasible or efficient to operate the Nutting Road WTF.
Therefore, by 7:30 AM Friday, only the Forge Village WTF was running with three wells still operating. Water Department Staff worked Friday to manually start a natural gas engine at one of the wells and to hook up temporary power to one of the tanks through which all radio communications from wells and tanks run. However, the water level in storage could still only be monitored in 2 of the 5 tanks.
With the Forge Village WTF and one well operating under two different generators, the water system could not be run automatically. Any shutdowns and restarts of equipment would have to be done manually at each site. At 10:30 AM on Friday, the system was pumping about 1,000 gallons per minute, which in a 24 hour period matches the typical water demand in the winter.
At 2:00 PM on Friday, Mass DEP called to see how things were running and was pleased to hear that with the available wells (now 4) feeding Forge Village WTF, things were under control.
At 9:18 AM on Monday, December 15, 2008, 2 of the 3 wells that supply the Nutting Road WTF had power and the WTF was restarted using its generator. Following this, the generator at one of the wells feeding the Forge Village WTF was turned off. This would allow both WTFs to be operated automatically.
By Tuesday afternoon the WTFs were still under generator power, and 3 out of 8 wells still did not have power.
At 12:00 AM on Wednesday, December 17, 2008, power was restored to the entire system. All use of generators was discontinued.
At no time during the storm, or during the days after the storm, was water service ever affected. Water storage levels, fire flows, and water service to customers were never impacted or interrupted.
Please contact the Water Department at 978-692-5529 if you have any questions or concerns.
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WATER DEPARTMENT RECEIVES MWWA's COMMUNITY AWARD
On November 14, 2008, the Westford Water Department received the Massachusetts Water Works Association's "Community Award." The Community Award is an annual award given to one community water system that exemplifies the highest standards of water works practice. Below is a photo of Water Department personnel accepting the award from MWWA. (From left to right: Water Treatment Manager Bob Worthley, Business Manager Robin Fullford, MWWA President Raymond Jack, and Environmental Compliance Manager Jessica Cajigas.)
NOTICE TO WESTFORD WATER USERS
IN THE NABNASSET AREA
The Westford Water Department will be flushing water mains beginning October 14, 2008. The flushing program will be in effect for approximately 6 weeks. Flushing will be conducted between the hours of 8am and 3pm, Monday through Friday. There maybe situations when we will also flush at night between the hours of 10pm and 2am. During these times, water pressure may be low and the water discolored. Let the water run awhile and it should clear up quickly.
We regret any inconvenience this may cause you. Thank you for your assistance!
 The Westford Water Department is charged, by the town, with providing safe, high quality, uninterrupted water at a reasonable pressure, to meet the health and fire protection needs of that portion of the town served by the public water system. service while meeting various state and federal requirements.
Nutting Road Water Treatment Facility
Forge Village Water Treatment Facility
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