What's Coming out of the Tap? Some Questions and Answers about Southington's Water

A glass of Southington water. PHILIP THIBODEAU PHOTOS

Each year, the Southington Water Department mails out its annual, EPA-mandated water quality report. And each year, the report prompts residents to ask some questions about their water, not all of which have straightforward answers.

Recently the Outsider sat down with Water Department Assistant Superintendent Al Fiorillo and Engineering Technician Cody Cassata, and asked them to address some common concerns about the Department and what comes out of the tap. Their answers have been lightly edited for clarity.

Cody Cassata and Al Fiorillo at the Southington Water Department.

Why do residents get billed for water if they already pay taxes?

“The Water Department is considered a municipal entity by the charter, but it’s not governed or run by the Town of Southington,” said Fiorillo. “We don’t get any tax money from the town. Everything is ratepayer funded. All the decisions are made by the Board of Water Commissioners and the management team.”

“In 1884, the Southington Water Company was founded as a private entity that was owned by local entrepreneurs. The town purchased the company in 1911, but to this day it is independently run.”

Where does Southington’s water come from?

“We’re primarily a groundwater system, drawn from wells,” said Fiorillo. “We have seven wells. Some are 120 feet deep, some are 50 or 60. They all draw on an underground river called the Quinnipiac River Basin, that runs from the source in Farmington all the way to New Haven. We average about 2.7 million gallons of water a day during the off-season.”

“We also have reservoirs and a plant that only operates from June to September. During the summer, we max out at 7.3 million gallons a day. That [extra 4.6 million gallons] is all irrigation. The golf courses and the big businesses with nice lawns are all trying to keep their grass alive.”

“Everything west of West Street is served by the reservoirs during the summer.”

Reporter's note: the Department owns three reservoirs on the mountain near County Road. One is in Southington, while the other two are over the line in Wolcott. Shuttle Meadow Reservoir, although located in Southington, belongs to the New Britain Water Department.

The Southington Water Department's 2025 Water Report showing results for regulated substances.

Why does the annual water report seem to show that all the substances in the water are at maximum levels?

“The content of this report and the formatting of the table is dictated by the EPA,” said Fiorillo. “So what we have to put in here is dictated.”

“People who read it believe they’re always at the max of their range,” Cassata said. “And I understand that that is what it looks like. But it’s the MCL that shows what is the allowable maximum.”

“Even when we get laboratory results, Fiorillo explained, “it’s basically the result followed by the MCL to the right. So for alpha emitters, you might have a range, say, of ‘no detection’ to 4.9. The MCL is 15. That would tell you, no violation. To me that’s how it should go, from left to right. But the way it’s printed is mandated.”

Here are how some of the 2025 test results would look if formatted in the way Fiorello described, with the substance name followed by the detected range in parts per million, the Maximum Contaminant Level allowed, and the violation determination:

Chloride, 8.50-200 250 No

Nitrate, 1.17-3.80 10 No

Chlorine, 0.06-1.15 4 No

Fluoride, 0.30-0.99 4 No

Copper, 0.0081-0.475 1.3 No

Why does Southington’s water leave behind deposits and taste a bit off?

“Hardness and minerals are characteristics of groundwater,” said Cassata. “Hard water is not unsafe water, it’s just not ideal. It’s safe to consume.”

“People say, ‘I wash my car, it leaves spots on my car,” Fiorillo added. “’I power-wash my house, it leaves spots on my house.’ They see white deposits on their faucets, their dishwasher, their toilet. That’s just the characteristic of the water, that it’s hard.”

“That’s the downside of a groundwater system with wells. But surface water has its downsides too. For surface water systems you have to deal with water temperature and algae blooms. The water at the plant [drawn from the reservoirs] gets up to 80 degrees. Algae blooms happen. In the summer, on the west side of town, you may have taste and odor issues as the water gets warmer, which makes those things more apparent.”

Can anything be done about hard water?

“Plainville actually tried to put in a very large softening system,” Cassata said, “and it failed miserably. It’s extremely expensive and extremely hard to run, very finicky, and by the time it gets to the consumer, the water’s hard again.”

“For hardness, a lot of people in town have softening systems, and that’s how you resolve the issue,” Fiorillo said.

What about taste and odor issues?

“When you have taste and odor issues,” Fiorillo said, “a lot of time it’s because of lack of water use in the house. If you’re not moving water, it becomes stagnant. The chlorine level drops. If you’re on vacation, you’re not taking showers or irrigating. So when you come home, you’ve got to run your water up to the highest level in your house, to pull in fresh water from the main. The solution to a lot of complaints, not all but a lot, is to run your water.”

“When we dose the water at the plant, the chlorine level is at 0.8. As it travels through the system, what we call the residual [chlorine] evaporates out of the water. By the time it gets all the way up to the north end of Mt Vernon road, for example, the residual is probably down to 0.1.”

“You can drink the water when it comes straight out of the well; you don’t need additives. But when you expose it to 200 miles of pipe, or to a water main that is 145 years old, you need chlorine. And the old pipe affects the taste of the water.”

“People don’t like the water main work, which I get. But it’s really improving the water quality by replacing the lining material with cement. And when you go from 4 inch pipe to 8 or 10 inch, it increases the flow and the quality, and it increases fire protection.”

Are there lead pipes in town?

“There are no lead water mains or service lines in town,” said Fiorillo. “We have records that show that this department was proactive in the 40’s and did not allow lead to be installed in our system.”

“We do have some old lead goosenecks,” he added, referring to short lengths of curved pipe that connect the water main to the service line that goes into the house. “According to the EPA, we do not have ‘lead in our system’ because our goosenecks are 32 inches long, and their standard is 36 inch. That’s what the EPA says.”

“Lead creates flexibility in a pipe. On piping that’s older than the 40’s, the main was tapped by a lead gooseneck. Lead is malleable, so that when you backfill it, the pipe can settle without snapping. The idea was to add flexibility.”

“Our main focus right now is to get all of these goosenecks out by 2037, even though the EPA does not require it. There are subsidies at the state level that cover that in certain areas defined by income. On Berkley Avenue, Homesdale Avenue, and Taunton Street, we are replacing all the service lines and taking out the goosenecks. We are not required to, but the 75 percent subsidy is there, and our department is willing to pay the other 25 percent. That way we’re getting the lead goosenecks out, as well as the galvanized pipe that is prone to breaking, so the customer doesn’t have to worry.”

“Next year, we are working on Bristol and West Center Street. The main there is from 1905 and it is being replaced. We are replacing the goosenecks, but not the service lines, because the state incentives are not there.”

The Water Department's records go back more than a century and are very comprehensive. Here is a typical report on the piping for a private residence. 

Do lawn chemicals get into the water?

“I’m sure it goes into the water in some cases,” Cassata answered, “but we test for that.”

“We look for Metolachlor,” Fiorillo explained. “It’s a product of pesticides and herbicides. At Well 7A we get a hit for this. It’s a really low hit, but we don’t know why it’s there. It’s off East Street, near Hamilton Ave. All the land is residential north, south and west of that spot. Historically, it was farmed, and they probably used pesticides and herbicides. That’s the only place we see it coming from. We’ll see it for four quarters, then it will disappear. Then it will come back three quarters later, so we have to monitor.”

“We get reports from the golf courses in our watersheds about the chemicals they use, so that if something pops up in our testing, we can say where it’s coming from. Farmingbury Hills Golf Course in Wolcott is in our watershed. We have a binder that lists all their chemicals in case something gets into the water. You would really need a large area with lots of chemicals all getting channeled to the same place for that to happen.”

“I would say the chances of someone applying chemicals to their lawn and it getting into the groundwater are slim to none,” said Cassata.

Does road salt get into the drinking water?

“We do monitor for chloride spikes,” Fiorillo said. “We have three wells in town that are adjacent to roads, on Mill Street, Hobart Street, and a state road. There is the potential that, because of overuse of brine or salt, it would get into the wells. If we get a large hit, we monitor. The MCL [maximum] for chloride is 250 parts per million and we’ve gotten as high as 200. But you don’t necessarily know whether that’s naturally occurring or from road salt application.”

“I’ve seen hits of chloride at Well 2A and I’ve written to the state about it. But that goes nowhere. Because who is going to be responsible if we dial back on the application and someone gets in an accident?”

Do you add fluoride to the water?

“Yes,” said Cassata. “It’s actually federally mandated, based on population: if you have over 5,000 residents, you have to it add it to the water. If you’re under, you don’t.”

“For the past 14 years, since I’ve been here,” Fiorillo added, “I’ve seen the mandated fluoride requirements go down. I think now it’s 0.7. When I started it was 1.2.”

Recently Congressman Larson visited the Water Department to announce a grant for remediation of PFAS or ‘forever chemicals.’ Can you explain what is happening with PFAS?

“So, the EPA chose us for its UCMR5 program,” Fiorillo said. “We participate in it. You don’t have a choice, it’s like an audit. We’re required to sample substances so that they can then decide what the regulation needs to be.”

“With this program, when you measure, you’re going down to parts per trillion. Our normal monitoring is parts per million. We found PFAS when we monitored at parts per trillion. We have detectable PFAS levels in wells 1, 3, 9, and 10. All of our levels are under 8 parts per trillion.”

“One part per trillion is one drop in twenty Olympic-sized swimming pools,” Cassata added. “So that shows you how sensitive these tests are. It also shows you how small the level is.”

“Currently the EPA is regulating up to two dozen PFAS chemicals,” Fiorillo continued. “There are over 12,000 of them. The concern is that there are others that are going to become regulated in the future. You’re looking at $18 million to build one plant. But there’s no guarantee that that plant will be able to treat the shorter or longer-chain molecules that may be regulated down the line.”

“Typically, they based these MCL’s [maximum levels] on humans with exposure over 70 years. That’s not how they are testing PFAS. That testing is based on mice. In my opinion, and it’s just my opinion, there was political pressure to do this. In part it’s because PFAS chemicals are everywhere. They’re in clothing, they’re in carpeting…”

“They’re great chemicals for durability,” Cassata added, “because they don’t break down. That’s why they put them in everything.”

… there’s PFAS in your blood, there’s PFAS in the environment,” Fiorillo continued. “It’s actually present in higher levels in rainwater than it is in drinking water.”

“So when Europe is establishing an MCL of 50 parts per million and we’re doing 4 parts per million – well, typically they are more stringent about standards than we are. Just look at food standards. To me, there’s a contradiction there.”

“But in any event, it’s now our number-one priority. Over the next five to ten years we’re going to be dumping tens of millions of dollars into it and it’s going to be reflected in the rates. We are getting $1.5 million from the state in grants to cover the cost, we’re getting $2 million from the government, and we’re getting some settlement money that’s coming in.”

“There are proven technologies like granular-activated carbon that can take PFAS out. I don’t understand the escalating prices for these technologies when they’re proven technologies. There are technologies being developed that are more expensive up front but last longer. MIT, Carnegie Mellon, etc. are testing them. But for now we’re stuck with existing technologies.”

“We’re going to build two treatment plants for the four wells I mentioned. We don’t have any PFAS in the reservoirs.”

What’s the overall message here?

“There are a lot of misconceptions out there about whether the water in Southington is safe to drink,” said Fiorillo. “People will call in and say ‘I wouldn’t give this water to my dog,’ or ‘I feed this water to my pets and it’s killed all my pets.’ But at the end of the day…”

“…ninety percent of us live here and we all drink the water,” Cassata said. “And we know exactly what’s in it.”

“I was here at a time,” Fiorillo said, “when all there was here was a chlorine house with a filter. The filter would filter out fish and sticks, and then they’d dose it with chlorine and send it out into the system. We’ve come a long way since then.”

Correction: the original version of this article misspelled the name Al Fiorillo. We regret the mistake. The number of production wells in town is seven, not eleven as originally reported.