New Hampshire Ball Bearings has formally offered to buy the contaminated South Municipal Water Supply Well site from the Town of Peterborough.
On June 18, NHBB sent its offer to the town with a list of conditions, which will be reviewed by the select board on Tuesday, Sept. 1.
In partnership with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services since 1982, when the contamination was first noticed, NHBB has worked to contain and clean up pollution in the soil, wetlands, and groundwater on the manufacturing plant property and at the South Well across the street.
Now, NHBB has requested to purchase the site for $110,000, which is $95,000 above the town’s property assessment of $15,000, according to the Town of Peterborough.
However, Robyn Nattila, marketing manager at NHBB, said the property’s 2026 assessed value is $67,100.
This discrepancy stems from NHBB and the Town of Peterborough describing different parcels of land. The town references R003-021-000 in their paperwork, while Nattila claimed the company is looking at parcel R003-039-000. The property the town is referencing is on the Jaffrey Road side of the Contoocook River; the other is on the Old Sharon Road side.
If the Peterborough Select Board accepts, the town will set aside the claims and obligations against NHBB, including the town’s inability to use the property or groundwater within the Groundwater Protection Zone for drinking water, the shortage of accessible drinking water from the area, and the lost revenue from drinking water or other purposes from the property for customers of Peterborough’s municipal wells.
In addition, the town will commit to not pump any water from the site for 99 years.
Once NHBB owns the property, the site will be subject to a conservation restriction, and the town will collect property taxes. NHBB will continue to work with the EPA and NHDES to clean up the site even after they own it.
When asked about the conditions, Nattila said the company could not comment on specifics due to the legal process of purchasing the municipal property.
She said, “The EPA neither asked nor recommended that we buy the well property, but everything we do with the South Municipal Well Superfund site is under the careful oversight of, and in collaboration with, the US EPA and the NH Department of Environmental Services, with the goal of protecting human health and the environment.”
According to a statement provided by the EPA Region 1’s Strategic Communications Advisor, Ellen Frank-Lajqi, the agency was not informed of the proposal to purchase the site.
“NHBB would be pursuing this purchase independently. The purchase of the South Well property does not impact the current remedy,” the statement said.
Both the Peterborough planning board and conservation commission have recommended that the select board approve the sale due to the inability to use the well for the foreseeable future and because, either way, NHBB will still need to remedy the contamination.
Bonnie Tucker, a representative of the Select Board at the Planning Board meeting in early August, explained that this deal allows NHBB to own the land it contaminated and to continue working with the government.
“It is really a risk mitigation for them,” she said.
The EPA has not determined the South Well site to be unsalvageable, according to Frank-Lajqi’s statement. While the site has been deemed protective of human health and the environment because it prevents direct exposure to polluted groundwater, it cannot be considered ready until all areas are cleaned up.
“The designation by EPA that a site has achieved the cleanup measure of ‘Sitewide Ready for Anticipated Use’ requires that all aspects of the cleanup are in place and have been achieved for any contaminants that may affect future land use,” according to the statement from Frank-Lajqi.
The proposal will be discussed at a public hearing followed by a meeting of the Peterborough select board on Sept. 1.
South Well history
After the installation in 1952, the South Municipal Water Supply Well provided water to approximately 4,600 residents for nearly 30 years.
Four years later, in 1956, NHBB broke ground on a manufacturing plant about 1,200 feet from the well.
At a routine water sample test of the South Well in October 1982, the NHDES (previously known as the Water Supply and Pollution Control Commission) discovered the well had been contaminated with volatile organic compounds (VOCs), including tetrachloroethylene (PCE), trichloroethylene (TCE), and 1,1,1-trichloroethane (1,1,1-TCA) from common commercial and industrial cleaning solvents used in the 1950s and early 1970s.
The South Well closed less than two months later due to the unknown risks of drinking combinations of low-level chemicals.
In September 1984, the South Well was officially added to the National Priority List under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980, commonly known as Superfund. This allows the federal government to clean polluted land and force contaminators to pay for the work.
Once the EPA and NHDES had tested the site and approved the first attempt to remedy the situation, the government required NHBB to pay for the cleanup. The feasibility study estimated the cleanup would take 19 to 32 years.
A case in which NHBB sued its insurers to help pay cleanup costs documents the damage the company caused between 1957 and 1983. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit found that the business’s contamination of the wetlands and soil, which led to the well’s pollution, was not accidental despite NHBB’s lack of awareness of the consequences for the groundwater.
The case investigation found that NHBB mismanaged the use of up to 750-gallon tanker trailers for dumping liquid waste at the town dump at the time. Not only did NHBB dump the solvents and waste on their own property “about twice a year because of inclement weather,” but these tanks also accidentally overflowed onto the property between 1957 and 1983, according to the case record.
Additionally, the case found that a tumble sump container used to store waste would occasionally overflow onto the ground and, through a pipe, into a nearby brook.
The NHDES and the case investigation found that small volumes of solvents spilled into sanitary and floor drains, contaminating the soil and wetlands on the property.
Construction on the first round of remedies began in June 1993, with the intent to restore the well for use, treat the polluted groundwater, wetlands, and soil, and conduct long-term monitoring of the site. The EPA also required five-year reviews to evaluate the status of the remedies in relation to human health and the environment.
By 1997, the EPA changed its objectives by waiving the Federal Drinking Standards for groundwater due to the technical impracticability of restoring the water quality. Instead, the remedies would focus on capturing and containing the contaminant plume to allow the well to be returned to use as a drinking water source.
Then, by the third five-year review in 2008, the EPA found that the 1989 remedies did not work as intended, with the plume remaining unmanageable for extended periods.
In 2010, the EPA approved new remedies to restore the aquifer while containing contaminants, with the hope that the Town of Peterborough could use the South Well again. The remedies also included solutions to vapor intrusion, which could pose a human health risk to people near or on the property. This also introduced the plan for a Permeable Reactive Barrier (PRB) wall.
The 350-foot-long PRB wall was completed in July 2014 along the property line to stop and treat groundwater from the contaminated site.
During the fifth five-year review in 2019, the EPA found that the PRB wall was not effectively treating contaminated groundwater from the plume, and by October 2024, NHBB had installed a replacement wall at a cost of $8.5 million.
According to the EPA, NHBB continues to monitor the wall, and the PRB is functioning as expected.
Now, with the proposal to purchase the site from the Town of Peterborough, the site will continue to be treated under the oversight of the EPA and NHDES.