Lincoln Water Study Points to Pawtucket Connection

The Lincoln Water Commission has released the final report of its source water assessment, a study of how much water the town will need and where it could come from, and the answer it points to is Pawtucket.

The commission posted the completed report to the town website on Aug. 6, according to a civic alert on lincolnri.gov. It follows a July 8 vote by the commission to move ahead with the engineering and design phase of a proposed connection to the Pawtucket Water Supply Board — the option the study, prepared by Pare Corporation, identified as the town's preferred supplemental source.

For residents, the practical effect is not immediate relief. Engineers estimate the connection would cost between $12.5 million and $15 million, with design and permitting taking 12 to 18 months and construction another 18 to 24 months. That puts the earliest possible date for water flowing from Pawtucket around 2028 or 2029, assuming permits, financing and construction all hold to schedule.

In the meantime, outdoor water use is restricted. Effective July 3, the commission imposed mandatory odd-even outdoor watering rules on all customers, tying watering days to house numbers.

The supply squeeze is the reason. Lincoln has bought all of its water from Providence Water since 1985, when the commission connected to the Scituate Reservoir system after its own groundwater sources were found to be contaminated. The town takes roughly 5 million gallons a day and, on an average summer day, uses 89 to 94 percent of it. New development is projected to push that toward full capacity. Pare's work also projects that Lincoln will double its water use between now and 2060.

Lincoln once had a cushion. The commission used Well #4 in the Lonsdale wellfield as a supplemental supply to get through summer peaks without straining the Providence connection, but that practice was discontinued in October 2004, according to the commission's water supply system management plan filed with the Rhode Island Water Resources Board. Since then the town has had one source and no local production.

The commission does maintain emergency interconnections with Woonsocket, Cumberland and Pawtucket. Those are sized for emergencies, not for routine daily supply, which is why a new connection requires its own booster pump station and storage rather than simply opening an existing valve.

Chairman Kenneth Booth has said the July vote does not authorize construction. Before design work begins, the commission plans to formalize an agreement with Pawtucket, solicit proposals and brief the Lincoln Town Council. "We've already had preliminary discussions with them, and they know what they can supply," Booth told The Valley Breeze. "But we have to formalize that a little bit before we enter into spending considerable money on design."

Engineers looked at other paths first, including a second connection to Providence Water, a connection to Woonsocket, and reactivating the town's former wells. Pawtucket was chosen in part because it would give Lincoln a second, independent supplier rather than more of the same one. Providence Water serves, directly or indirectly, about 60 percent of Rhode Island's population.

Water quality is not the issue driving the project. Lincoln's system has no maximum contaminant level violations on record, and testing has not found contaminants above federal legal limits. The problem is volume and redundancy.

Cost is where residents are most likely to feel this. The commission operates as an enterprise fund, meaning the water system pays for itself through rates rather than general property taxes. Unless state or federal money covers part of the project, the $12.5 million to $15 million would have to come from ratepayers. No financing plan has been made public.

Permitting also runs through state agencies. The Rhode Island Department of Health's drinking water office and the Water Resources Board both have roles in approving a new interconnection, a process Booth has described as a significant part of the timeline.

The commission has not scheduled a construction vote. Its next steps, as outlined after the July meeting, are the agreement with Pawtucket, a solicitation for engineering and design work, and a report to the Town Council. The full source water assessment is posted on the town's website at lincolnri.gov.