Hydrant flushing will begin on October 28th. We plan to follow the normal route which is posed online at flushing.topsfieldpublicworks.org

Flushing removes sediment from the water mains, identifies hydrants in need of repair and checks system fire flows. Customers will have rust colored or black water while the water mains are flushed and for a period afterwards. The work will be conducted on weeknights from 9 PM until 1 AM to minimize the disruption. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Manganese levels in areas being flushed will be higher than normal and may exceed levels described in the drinking water advisory issued in November 2013. Do not drink, cook or make formula with the discolored water. Avoid using hot water while the cold water is discolored. Doing so will allow sediment to accumulate in your hot water tank and will take longer for the hot water to clear.

November Update: Flushing has been cancelled. The next round is scheduled to begin April 20, 2020.

The Board of Water Commissioners have set the FY2020 water rates.   The new rate schedule is available online.  The rates are based on the budget approved at Town Meeting in May 2019 and the water use forecast for FY2020.

The 2018 Water Quality Report is available online.  Copies will be mailed to customers and will also be available at the Water Department Office once they are printed.  Please visit our water quality website http://watertesting.topsfieldpublicworks.org for more water testing results.

Our water system uses groundwater wells to supply water for our customers.  The water undergoes a variety of treatment processes to improve its quality in order to meet drinking water regulations. 

The first process is natural filtration through the sand and gravel deposits near the wells.  As water travels from the land surface towards the wells, the naturally occuring sand and gravel deposits filter out many contaminants including coliform bacteria, vegetative debris, and others that are commonly found on the surface of the ground or in nearby surface water bodies.

Once the water is in our supply system it travels to the water treatment plant for additional treatment including disinfection, pH adjustment, greensand filtration, aeration, fluoridation and sequestration/corrosion control.  The raw water is treated in the following order:

We conduct hundreds of water quality tests each year. Results are now available on our Water Quality Site which includes information about which water sources are in use. The site has been under development for several years and more functionality will be added as time permits.