Hopkinton dealing with elevated lead levels in wells

The Hopkinton Selectmen discussed a November water testing that revealed exceedances of lead and 1,4-dioxane in four wells on Penacook Road at last Monday's meeting.
Two other wells tested at the same time in this area did not reveal exceeding levels of either lead or dioxane.
The town has recommended the people using these wells do not ingest or cook with the water, and is supplying these households with bottled water for those uses.
Chairman Scott Flood highlighted that the exceedances in dioxane is a result of state levels changing. Hopkinton is one of two towns who are dealing with this problem.
The other town, Newmarket, hasn’t seen contamination in portable wells, just their testing well.
The Department of Environmental Services would like to see both Hopkinton and Newmarket expand their scope of testing by increasing their frequency and testing a wider radius.
Flood noted that they were expected DES to make these requests, and added money to the budget to do so. However, the Selectmen did not expect an incident like this.
The main resolution to this issue discussed at the meeting would be establishing a community well program for the four-to-six houses involved.
Town Administrator Leon Kenison said this type of reservoir system is not unusual, and is done typically in condominiums or clustered living situations.
Kenison added that such an undertaking would cost the town a minimal of $200,000. In Kenison’s opinion, the best option for funding this would be the NH Bond Bank, and he said fee numbers would be available at the next meeting.
Hopkinton resident Janet Krzyzaniak asked the board how they would go about drilling a well out there that would guarantee clean water.
“You hit the nut of the issue,” replied Flood.
Flood explained that the town has not chosen to do the costly well study that would tell them where to drill, and instead will look at existing geological data and make an educated guess.
“We’re caught between a rock and a hard place,” Flood explained, adding that they could get a clean well, or a contaminated one, or a well without enough water.
Flood estimated a study would be in the "100s of thousands" of dollars.
To this, Krzyzaniak asked whether the state had any obligation to help pay for any of this because they were the ones who told towns that it wasn’t safe to burn, and that they must bury their waste, which has led to the contaminated wells.
Flood maintained that the state would not be helping with the costs.
Selectman Tom Congoran expressed his concern that the town may be turning this into a fire drill, in which they try to come up with an answer to satisfy the state, that may turn out not to be the best answer.
Flood added that there is a flux in the standard of dioxane levels right now, and there is talk within the Environmental Protection Agency of increasing the limit, in which these four houses would be fine.