Pembroke voters must decide: Is cleaner water worth $10.4 million?

After detecting perfluoroalkyls, also known as PFAS or “forever chemicals,” in the town’s water supply a few years ago, Pembroke Water Works has tried to keep levels below the state health limit while exploring other options.

Superintendent Matthew Gagne is proposing a more long-term fix: borrowing $10.4 million from the state’s Department of Environmental Services to connect Pembroke’s water system with Concord’s. This would help offset usage from the town’s contaminated source.

He hasn’t yet received approval from Concord to do so, so he’s baked a few alternatives into the bond.

“If something were to happen and the City of Concord decided that they didn’t want to provide water to us,” Gagne said, “we’d have to kind of revisit whether we’d be treating the water that has PFAS in it or trying to find additional water sources elsewhere.”

Pembroke wouldn’t be on the hook for the total amount. The bond includes just over $1.78 million in guaranteed grant money, which Gagne said residents wouldn’t have to pay back. An additional $1.35 million loan could also be forgiven.

The actual payback would be a little more than $7 million, to be paid back over 20 years.

Pembroke residents will consider the bond, and the town and school board’s proposed budgets, at the budget public hearing Thursday at 7 p.m. at Pembroke Academy.

The bond payback doesn’t come in the form of taxes – it comes from water fees, which Gagne said have been on the rise for a few years now. Rates are currently expected to increase from $2.25 to $2.75 per thousand gallons in April.

“We didn’t want to do a one-time large increase, so we began doing that over a number of years,” he said.

Gagne said his team began checking for PFAS contamination back in 2016 and makes pumping adjustments as needed to keep the water below state thresholds.

Since New Hampshire implemented stricter standards in 2020, more water sources have been flagged.

Once Pembroke detected a larger problem, a study was conducted in 2021 to explore alternatives – connecting with Concord’s water system is the cheapest option. However, Gagne said he’s still waiting on approval from the city.

He also hopes more PFAS relief money will come soon. Pembroke had signed onto the state litigation against several chemical companies, though Gagne isn’t sure how much those  cuits could ultimately aid the town.

More budget details

Pembroke’s selectmen and budget committee have recommended two options for the operating budget, both hovering around $11.5 million. That’d be a slight reduction from 2024, where the town spent about $11.65 million.

One petitioned warrant article calls for the “responsible use” of property tax dollars on New Hampshire’s school voucher program. It’s nearly identical to similar propositions in Weare and Salisbury and, if approved, would ask state legislators to reject any expansion of that program without more accountability, transparency and sustainable funding.

The Pembroke School Board’s proposed budget lands at $33.3 million, a roughly $2 million increase.

 

Charlotte Matherly is the statehouse reporter for the Concord Monitor and Monadnock Ledger-Transcript in partnership with Report for America. Follow her on X at @charmatherly, subscribe to her Capital Beat newsletter and send her an email at cmatherly@cmonitor.com.