AMHERST — As the Select Board prepares to establish a system of fines for people who violate the mandatory water ban, a main source of Amherst’s drinking water will be shut down beginning next week.
Town officials on Sept. 21 will temporarily close the Atkins Reservoir in Shutesbury, which, along with two reservoirs in Pelham, typically provide about half of the water used in Amherst.
Assistant Town Manager David Ziomek told the board Monday that when Atkins is shut off, the town will turn entirely to a system of wells in the Lawrence Swamp as its main source of water.
These wells should be sufficient to meet the demands for water, said Town Manager Paul Bockelman. “There is ample capacity in the wells,” Bockelman said.
Atkins is being shut down because the levels are lower than normal, which requires more treatment of the water when it goes through the Atkins treatment plant. Not using Atkins until November will allow the reservoir time to recover.
The Pelham reservoirs are also not being used due to water quality issues and the amount of treatment that would be required at Centennial treatment plant, Bockelman said.
The decision to halt use of Atkins Reservoir comes in advance of the Select Board’s Sept. 26 meeting, when it plans to authorize fines using an existing non-criminal disposition statute.
Bockelman said he conferred with town counsel Kopelman and Paige, which informed him the Select Board can implement the fines at it next meeting. These would range from $50 to $200 for the first offense, he said, and each day a violation occurs would be considered a separate penalty.
Current enforcement is being done with verbal warnings, such as happened during the weekend when contractors washing the side of a home on North Whitney Street were advised of the ban and told to stop the work.
The drought has created a serious issue for Amherst, Ziomek said, and officials continue to monitor the wells, reservoirs and groundwater supplies on a daily basis.
There is also a coordinated effort with the University of Massachusetts, Amherst College and Hampshire College and the business community to reduce water consumption.
“We need to stay vigilant,” Ziomek said. “We’re in it for the longer haul. It’s not something that will be solved here in the month of September.”
Taking Atkins off line is rare, but not unprecedented. In January 2002, the reservoir was shut down to recharge while college students were on their winter break.
Ziomek said the town continues to pump around 3½ million gallons per day, but that remains in a safe range to not deplete the water supply.
“Everybody’s actions are making a difference,” Ziomek said.
Ziomek said some of these actions have included having water trucked in from outside Amherst for certain projects, and creative uses for water that has already been pumped, such as the water that remains in the two municipal swimming pools that closed last month. The water from War Memorial Pool, for example, is being used to water newly planted trees on West Street near Atkins Farms Country Market.
“We’re making great progress, we’re making strides every day, we’re saving water, and the data shows that,” Ziomek said.
In other business, the Select Board voted unanimously that four public shade trees at Kendrick Park, and a fifth public shade tree inside a traffic median at the corner of East Pleasant and Triangle streets, can immediately be cut down to make way for construction of a new sidewalk, and eventually a roundabout that will replace the intersection.
The unanimous decision for the five trees to be cut down overrides a vote by the Planning Board and Tree Warden Alan Snow in July that called for immediate removal of only four trees.
The board’s vote was required under the scenic roads bylaw, which states that it must decide if letters are received from residents complaining about a proposed public shade tree removal. The town had received letters from two residents objecting to the removal of the trees.
Department of Public Works Superintendent Guilford Mooring said the curb line for the new sidewalk goes through the four trees along the edge of Kendrick Park.
Mooring said the plan is to wrap up much of the work on the sidewalk “before the snow flies.”
“The goal is to take these five trees out,” Mooring said.
The Select Board indicated it has sympathy toward a linden tree, which Snow said is the healthiest of the trees and would continue to do quite well, even with poor branch characteristics. But the board voted to have it cut to make way for the sidewalk.
The other four trees are a linden in fair condition, and a Norway maple, a spruce and another linden in poor condition.
Snow said he will be able to create a new streetscape of trees if these are removed now.
While the roundabout has been controversial, and a funding source for its construction has not yet been identified, Snow said an alternative of adding turning lanes to the intersection would have meant the loss of more shade trees.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
