PFAS Remediation Update 2.22.2022

Wayland Town SealTown of Wayland
41 Cochituate Road
Wayland, Massachusetts 01778
For Immediate Release
Date:  March 22, 2022
Contact: John Bugbee, Asst. Town Manager
Telephone: 508.358.6821

Wayland Updates PFAS Response


Wayland, Massachusetts The Town of Wayland issued a statement today regarding the status of elevated levels of certain per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS6) in the Town’s public water supply. Since February of 2021, the Town of Wayland has been working to develop and implement the most effective and efficient means possible of addressing PFAS in the municipal water supply. It was decided in Spring of 2021 that a resin-based PFAS mitigation system was the best option for addressing the PFAS6 issue in the Town of Wayland. Since that time, the Town has worked continuously to implement this system. The work has included procuring the needed equipment, identify the appropriate vendors, and coordinating with the Town’s efforts with the Massachusetts Department Environmental Protection (DEP).

These efforts have culminated in the scheduling of the system to go on-line upon passage of the final performance based testing. Once completed, the Town will begin actively removing the PFAS6 from the Town of Wayland’s water supply. It is worth mentioning that although the system will go live at that point, the Town will not know the exact PFAS reduction level until such time as we receive the test results back from laboratory licensed to test for PFAS.


Selectboard Chairman Thomas Fay stated, “I am pleased to provide the aforementioned status update of the PFAS6 mitigation equipment. Today’s update is the culmination of many hours of
hard work performed by staff and volunteers alike. Everyone involved with this project has worked tirelessly to make this system a reality and to have this project become reality in roughly one years’ time is a testament to that commitment. This is a particularly significant achievement when one factors in the challenges related to equipment set-up, supply chains issues, labor shortages, and the fact that this will be the first system, of this type, in the State of Massachusetts to be approved by DEP for the removal of PFAS6 from a municipality’s water supply.”

Once the Town of Wayland has three consecutive months of PFAS levels below the maximum contaminant level of 20 ppt , the Town can then be released from what is referred to as the, “Notice of Non-Compliance (NON).” The NON is a regulation which requires the Town to provide an alternate source of water to those residents who self-declare as being part of a sensitive subgroup as defined by DEP. As part of this compliance, the Town of Wayland first distributed bottled water and later moved to a rebate based system in which residents in the sensitive sub-groups applied for a rebate on their quarterly water bill. Once the DEP releases the Town from the NON, the Town of Wayland will end this rebate-based program. The exact date is yet to be determined, however, the Town’s will post this information on their website with as much advance notice as possible.

Anyone interested in reviewing the historic levels of PFAS in Town’s water supply is encouraged to go to the following web address: https://www.wayland.ma.us/pfas#anchor_Testing

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