Projo 7 to 7 News Blog

Water is the big issue in the project because the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management has said the town cannot tap an unused well on the property. DEM doesn't want anyone removing more groundwater from the Hunt River Aquifer between mid-May and Mid-October, when it becomes dangerously low.

So the town's Fields Construction Committee, with the advice of its consultant, the John P. Caito Corp., developed a plan -- and submitted it to DEM -- to build an $850,000 irrigation pond on the site, a move whose cost would have meant abandoning plans for new fields on the town-owned McHale property next door.

Nobody bothered to ask the Kent County Water Authority if it could use their water, much of which comes from the Providence system.

When they finally did, Kent agreed to sell enough water to the town, so now the $850,000 pond won't be necessary. The School Committee gave its blessing to that plan at Monday night's meeting.

So now there will be other expenses.

Although it will cost $15,000 to water the fields this year, the annual price tag in subsequent years is expected to be about $40,000, said Caito President John P. Caito.

In addition, Ernie DiSaia, who is coordinating construction for the School Department, said Kent County is requiring $13,609 worth of work to hook up to its system.

Then there is the cost of designing an irrigation pond that won't be needed.

Caito said the price tag is $10,000. And because the water problems led to a decision by the fields committee to split the project into two phases, Caito will be charging the town for two DEM submissions, not one.

Asked after the meeting how much the additional submission would likely cost, Caito said, "No comment."

When originally approved by the Town Council, "it was one project," said Town Manager William Sequino. "I'm not sure we should have to bear the separate costs."

At one point, Councilman Michael S. Kiernan lashed out at Caito for the way the project has been handled.

"It was your job to determine if we could actually do this," he said.

Caito responded that the problems didn't surface until the proposal was submitted to DEM.

By then, construction had begun.

"It was way too late, and here we are," said Kiernan.

Meyers said change orders for the project already total $50,000.

"Those are costs we didn't anticipate," said the superintendent, who is officially retired on Wednesday and who has acknowledged that he pushed the project forward on the belief that the on-site well would provide the water.

"I know there's a concern we're not going to get into the McHale property," said Meyers. "I don't see the scope of the project changing dramatically. We may have to shave here and there."

It's possible that the town could eventually free itself from some of the burden of using Kent County water to irrigate the fields.

DEM has proposed tapping storm water runoff from Route 4 that collects in a basin owned by the state Department of Transportation.

Russell Chateauneuf, DEM's chief of groundwater and wetlands protection, said in an interview Friday that during the summer months the town could continue to use the well as long as it pumped an equivalent amount of runoff from the DOT site and deposited it in a recharge basin that would be built near the well.

"I think everyone can agree that to simply purchase water for irrigation [from Kent County] is probably not the best use for what is otherwise very clean drinking water," said Chateauneuf.

There has been some concern that the storm water runoff would be too polluted to use on the fields directly.

"If you design the recharge basin properly, you'll get the treatment you need" and the cost would be dramatically less than $850,000 because the size of the basin would be much smaller, he said. "It seems like it might be a much more cost-effective solution in the long run."

Chateauneuf declined to estimate what the cost might be, saying it would be determined by engineering studies.

Meyer said the money is not there for that. "It would not be covered in this bond issue."

Public Works Director Joseph C. Duarte said the DOT basin only holds about 850,000 gallons, not the 7.5 million gallons that would be needed to keep the fields green.

"That's a huge deficit," he said. "I don't see you getting [the water] from runoff."

gemery@projo.com / (401)277-7442