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Nantucket water official details PFAS contamination, treatment plans and offshore freshwater research
Summary
Mark Willett briefed the Nantucket Planning and Economic Development Commission on the island's three-layer aquifer, recent PFAS detections near Tom's Way, construction of an ion‑exchange PFAS treatment system, pending water‑withdrawal permit negotiations with MassDEP, and an international research project to test for offshore freshwater lenses.
Mark Willett, a water-system presenter for the island, told the Nantucket Planning and Economic Development Commission on April 28 that the town's public water draws from a three-layer sole-source aquifer and outlined recent PFAS contamination and the town’s response.
Willett described the aquifer as “the upper, the middle, and what we call the lower aquifer,” explaining a semi-confining layer separates the upper and middle zones and that most public supply wells are screened in the middle aquifer. He said the town operates five supply wells (numbers 12–16), and that shallow wells 15 and 16 are in an upper aquifer zone used by many private wells.
The nut graph: The presentation focused on a PFAS plume near Tom’s Way that produced a detection of 55 parts per trillion in Well 15 — above the regulation Willett cited of 20 parts per trillion — and the town's plan to build an ion‑exchange filtration system, while also noting limits set by MassDEP on how much water the town may withdraw.
Willett said Well 15 was…
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