South Shore News...letter: Under the Surface
Safe Harbor, Boil Water, and Forever Chemicals
Week of June 29
The dominant story of the week isn’t any single town meeting or budget vote — it’s what flows beneath the South Shore’s streets and through its taps. A South Shore News investigation spanning 22 water systems drops this week with findings that should unsettle every Finance Committee and Select Board member in the region: the compliance language in your annual water report is technically accurate and substantively incomplete. Meanwhile, Norwell — already managing a formal PFAS violation at one distribution entry point — issued an emergency E. coli boil-water order after a July 7 sample came back positive, a reminder that water systems are stressed in more ways than one.
Beneath the water crisis runs a second pattern: infrastructure pressure forcing hard choices on tight timelines. Hingham is sprinting to align an MSBA Accelerated Repair deadline with a November ballot question. Plymouth is racing a 14-month clock to hit 40B safe harbor. Hanson fumbled a housing mortgage discharge at the fiscal year’s edge. And in Plymouth County, a fractured commission vote installed a new Administrator with a regional desalination plant on his mind. The week’s stories, read together, are about systems — water, housing, governance — where the gap between what the public is told and what’s actually happening is wider than it looks.
Water: Compliance Is a Floor, Not a Ceiling
Regional — What’s in the Water: A South Shore News Investigation A first-in-series investigation of 22 South Shore water systems finds that “meets all standards” masks a wide spectrum of conditions: Duxbury’s in-service wells sit under 10 ppt while a shuttered contaminated well keeps posting headline-grabbing numbers in the state database; Norwell is in formal violation at its Washington Street entry point and running a bottle-filling station; and Hanover and Middleborough have exceeded PFAS6 limits at active sources — none of it legible from a Consumer Confidence Report cover page.
Duxbury — What’s in the Water The town’s real PFAS reckoning is fiscal, not immediate: a $43 million treatment plant expected online around 2029 will be paid for by water rate increases of 105 percent between FY2026 and FY2029 — the first rate hike since 2010 — as the town designs its way back to using wells it has kept offline to stay in compliance.
Norwell — Town of Norwell Issues Immediate Boil Water Order Following Detection of E. Coli in Town Water System Already operating under a formal PFAS violation notice at its Washington Street entry point and running a public bottle-filling station, Norwell added an E. coli boil-water order on July 8 after a routine sample collected July 7 tested positive — a second simultaneous water-quality crisis for a system already under pressure, with the Water Department projecting resolution within 48 hours and flushing mains while increasing chlorination.
Infrastructure on the Clock
Hingham — Hingham Prepares for Major Fall Special Town Meeting to Address School Infrastructure The town is threading a needle between an August 27 MSBA schematic design deadline and an August 4 warrant-closing requirement, with a Special Town Meeting set for October 28 — the same day MSBA votes on final grant awards — feeding directly into a November 3 debt exclusion ballot question; as Select Board Member Bill Ramsey put it, “it’s a very tight timeline.”
Whitman — High Stakes Infrastructure: The Secret “Golden Egg” of Whitman’s Sewer Capacity While surrounding towns scramble to build sewer capacity, Whitman has had centralized sewers since the 1980s and is failing to leverage them commercially — but board member Daniel Salvucci warned that the DPW believes the town may be approaching the legal limits of its wastewater agreement with the City of Brockton, turning the “golden egg” into a potential ceiling.
Hanson — Technicalities Pause Hanson’s L.Z. Thomas School Mortgage Discharge A last-minute intervention by town counsel citing missing documentation and unresolved wording killed a June 30 vote to discharge a municipal mortgage on the L.Z. Thomas housing property — a deadline the board had been warned was critical — though the Housing Authority’s attorneys ultimately assured officials that a brief delay would not automatically derail the transfer to the newly formed Hanson Housing Authority Development Corporation.
Housing: Safe Harbor and the 10% Race
Plymouth — The 14-Month Countdown: Plymouth Proactively Chases 10% Affordable Housing Milestone to Block Hostile Developers Sitting at 8.42% SHI and needing 406 units to cross the 40B safe-harbor threshold, Plymouth’s Select Board authorized a strategy to permit 238 additional units within 14 months, with member Kevin Canty pushing for friendly comprehensive permits and CPC/Affordable Housing Trust “buy-downs” over municipal authority projects, which he argued have historically inflated costs through prevailing wage requirements.
Regional Governance
Plymouth County — Troy Clarkson Named New Plymouth County Administrator In a 2-1 vote that triggered an Open Meeting Law allegation from dissenting Commissioner Jared Valanzola — who called the outcome a pre-arranged “uniparty” fix — the Plymouth County Commission selected Dr. Troy Clarkson, Brockton’s CFO and a former County Administrator, over two finalists including Norwell’s outgoing Town Administrator; Clarkson immediately floated a regional desalination plant to address South Shore aquifer strain.
Plympton — Plympton Narrows Town Administrator Pool to Four Finalists After drawing 30 applicants — 18 with direct municipal experience — the Board of Selectmen received four finalists from recruitment firm Community Paradigm: current interim Robert Fennessy, Taunton Treasurer/Collector Christine DeMoranville, Brookline Select Board alumna and MassDOT veteran Heather Hamilton, and Lakeville assistant town accountant Sydney Viveiros.
Pembroke — Historical Night in Pembroke: Wendy LaPierre Sworn In as First Female Police Chief A 28-year department veteran was sworn in as Pembroke’s first female Police Chief — and by the end of the same meeting, Select Board Member Steve Ciciotti was demanding on the record to know who stripped “Old and New Business” from the public agenda, a transparency clash that fractured an otherwise celebratory evening.
Duxbury — Duxbury Establishes Fast-Track Interim Vacancy Process Following School Committee Resignation Following Jen Weedon’s resignation, the School Committee voted 4-0 to elect Laurel Deacon as Vice Chair and adopted a one-time expedited vacancy process — rejecting a permanent policy overhaul as too slow for a summer timeline — with applications due in early August and a joint Select Board/School Committee interview session targeted for August 17.
Public Health and Public Money
Marshfield — Marshfield Select Board Endorses $32,000 Opioid Fund Request for Plymouth County Outreach In a unanimous vote, the board approved a $32,000 draw from its restricted Opioid Settlement Fund — zero general fund dollars — for Plymouth County Outreach, whose post-overdose intervention model has contributed to a 61% reduction in countywide fatal overdoses since 2017; Marshfield has ranked among the county’s five or six hardest-hit communities for several consecutive years.
Schools: Transitions, Tensions, and Surprise Money
Cohasset — Retiring Cohasset Central Office Mainstays Honored as District Shifts Operations and Secures State Windfall The district lost its Assistant Superintendent and Director of Finance in the same week, but softened the transition with a $70,000 state earmark from Senator Patrick O’Connor to restore department head positions; a rooftop solar proposal at two elementary schools — projected to save $50,000 annually — will wait through the summer after the sole bidder missed a federal tax credit safe-harbor deadline.
Weymouth — Tensions Flare Over Minutes Accuracy as Weymouth Locks in $16.6M Bus Contract The School Committee approved a five-year, $16.6 million transportation contract with First Student, but the session devolved into dueling points-of-order over whether the June 4 minutes omitted “substantive, inappropriate, and offensive comments” by Chair Tracey Nardone — with the disputed minutes passing 3-2 over objections from members Dickerman and McClean, who also demanded all future subcommittee sessions be recorded.
Ceremonial
Abington — State Leaders Gift Abington Historic Declaration Replica for America’s 250th Rep. Alyson Sullivan-Almeida and Sen. John Keenan presented a framed Declaration of Independence replica for permanent display in Town Hall, with the brief special session also touching on cooling station hours during the week’s heatwave.
Looking Ahead
Hingham — Select Board must close the Special Town Meeting warrant and vote debt exclusion ballot questions by August 4 to meet AG submission deadlines; MSBA schematic designs are due August 27; Special Town Meeting is set for October 28, with a debt exclusion question riding the November 3 general election ballot.
Duxbury — Joint Select Board/School Committee vacancy interview session targeted for August 17; application deadline for the Weedon seat set for early August.
Norwell — Boil-water order remains in effect pending two consecutive clean samples; watch for Water Department updates on the E. coli source investigation. The town’s PFAS violation at Washington Street entry point continues, with treatment design ongoing.
Plympton — Board of Selectmen conducted finalist interviews for Town Administrator on July 9.