MERRIMACK – Officials with the Merrimack Village Water District saw two funding requests approved through the Drinking Water and Groundwater Trust Fund that was established from the lawsuit brought by New Hampshire against Exxon-Mobil Corp. for MTBE (methyl tertiary butyl ether) contamination of state groundwater and drinking water.

In 2017, a $1.3 million loan was approved for repairs to the Turkey Hill Booster Pump Station. Earlier this year, the water district received a $405,000 grant that will be used to repair two wells that were closed after Saint-Gobain announced PFAS (per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances) were present in water near its Merrimack plant.

Water Supervisor Ron Miner said officials approved the $1.3 million loan through a voice vote during the annual meeting and the $405,000 will be approved after it submits its final application, which must then be approved by Gov. Chris Sununu and the New Hampshire Executive Council.

“The appropriation of $1.3 million is for the construction and replacement of the Turkey Hill Boosting Station,” Miner said. “The existing station is an all-steel container built in 1988 installed underground with hatch access. It is outdated and repair parts are hard to find. The station serves to transfer water from the main pressure zone to the high pressure zone and maintains our level in the 1 million-gallon Hutchinson water tank. The timing of the project is in line with our Capital Improvement Plan and the MVD Master Plan.”

The $1.3 million loan is administered in segments based on invoices the water district sends to the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services. This is according to Erin Holmes, the Drinking Water and Groundwater Trust Fund administrator at DES. “They’ve requested a few reimbursements on the engineering side, but ground hasn’t been broken yet. The total disbursed is a little over $15,000 for preconstruction costs,” she said.

The $405,000 grant for the well repairs augments payments by Saint-Gobain to the water district. Saint-Gobain is the responsible party for the PFAS contamination that closed the wells in 2016.

Saint-Gobain agreed to fund the design, construction and installation of the new wells that will replace wells 4 and 5 that were closed.

The $405,000 will fill in gaps from the money received from Saint-Gobain.

“The SG settlement was just PFAS treatment and we want to make some non-PFAS related improvements as well,” Miner said.

He said the water district has received $630,000 from Saint-Gobain and will receive another $2.7 million within 30 days after it completes the final design for the new wells.

“We can confirm that $630,000 of the settlement sum has already been received and the remaining $2,720,000 will be paid following the completion of the engineering design. We believe it is important to take a leadership position in bringing potable water to the residents surrounding our plant,” Saint-Gobain spokeswoman Dina Pokedoff said.

Miner said the funding came from the State Revolving Fund, which is federal financing for state water projects, but it actually came from the DWGTF (Drinking Water and Groundwater Trust Fund) that was created in 2016 with the $276 million from the Exxon-Mobil MtBE trial judgment funds.

The water district applied for the Turkey Hill Pump Station funding in 2017 through the SRF but the project was not on the funded portion of the SRF applicant list so DWGTF funding was used instead.

“They applied for an SRF loan but didn’t rank high enough to be included on the funded portion of the list. The Trust Fund Commission selected drinking water projects that were important to provide funding for through a competitive process and used the new Exxon money that is available,” Holmes said. “The SRF has been an evergreen source of federal money that is available every year but it’s not enough to meet all the drinking water infrastructure needs of the state. The DWGTF is a supplemental source of funding.”