All water suppliers in the nation are required to submit a service line material inventory.  The Topsfield Water Department began this process in early 2023 by digitizing our service records and building a service layer in our GIS (Geographical Information System).  The intitial inventory was submitted on October 14, 2024.  Documenting service line materials is part of a nationwide effort to identify lead service lines and get them replaced.  To the best of our knowledge, including asbuilt plans, service cards, contract documents and instututional knowledge, Topsfield does not have any known service lines containing lead.  Topsfield has historically required plastic or copper service lines but the materials used were not often called out on plans so there are a large number of service lines where the material can not be documented so it's listed as Unknown-May Contain Lead.

What is a service line?

A service line is a small diameter line, typically 3/4" or 1" in size, that connects your home/building to the water main in the street.  Many water systems allowed lead pipe to be installed for part or the whole line.  Our system has split ownership, the Town owns the pipe from the main to the property line and the property owner owns the pipe on private property.  Sometimes, particularly in areas served by wells or private water systems, the new line connecting the water system to the home was conected to a pre-existing pipe of unknown material.

What is next?

Now that the inventory is complete we need to notify customers on an annual basis that have a service with unknown materials.  The first round of notices is due to be sent by mid-November 2024.  Then work begins on identifying materials through field inspection, statistical sampling, and water testing.  The Town has 7 years to identify an unknown materials.

PFAS are a broad group of manmade chemicals used for a wide variety of purposes. Used since the 1950s, these compounds are in fire-fighting foams, clothing, flame retardants, food packaging, water proofing materials, and carpeting to name a few. These compounds, of which there are reportedly thousands, are structurally and chemically different from each other but share certain properties such as very strong carbon-fluoride bonds that make them very durable in that they do not readily breakdown in the environment, are not affected by natural biological processes, and can persist for years.

Some of these compounds were first detected in our water during the fall of 2019. Further tests conducted in 2020 have confirmed the presence of these chemicals in varying amounts. We now test for 18 of these compounds on a monthly basis. For detailed testing results please visit our water quality site at  https://www.topsfieldpublicworks.org/apps/watertesting/.

MassDEP promulgated new regulations concerning PFAS which took effect in October 2020. 

This section of the site contains information about the Water Department Budget.  Descriptions of various sections and actual budgets will be posted.