A purchase for 164 acres of land from Rousselot Peabody was approved last Thursday by the City Council Finance Committee following a presentation by Mayor Ted Bettencourt.
Underlining the purchase of the 10 parcels of land is the city obtaining what could potentially be 3.3 millions of gallons of clean water per day that can be used for public consumption, something enabled by inclusion of a water management permit in the deal.
This will now be the largest purchase of land from Rousselot after the start of negotiations with the industrial manufacturing company began in 2023 immediately after they announced their closure.
Last year saw the purchase of 135 acres of land that encompassed the Meadows Golf Course from Rousselot. The city is not, however, interested in obtaining the land where the factory itself is located.
“To be able to get a permit, that is active right now, from Rousselot which allows up to 3.34 million gallons of water per day would be of significant help to us to meet our needs during those peak months,” Bettencourt said.
Importantly, the water sources from this land would lessen the city’s reliance on the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority for their supply of clean water which has a rate that is “significantly higher than the city of Peabody’s”, according to Bettencourt.
While testing is not finished, the water sources, which include Cedar Pond and parts of Goldthwait Brook, have been deemed of high quality by engineering consultants Weston and Sampson.
“The water is of good quality, and there is also a great financial benefit moving forward. Again it would take some time and further investment, but there’s great financial investment by doing this ourselves,” Bettencourt said.
Additional funding could be made available by grants and for water-type projects from the state which Peabody has utilized in the past.
Exact numbers on how much the infrastructure for treatment and distribution of the water would cost are unclear as of now, but the committee members agreed with Bettencourt that the benefits far outweigh the costs.
“I grew up in the Cedar Pond area. I’m almost 70 years old, and there was water everywhere there and there’s still water everywhere, it’s not going away” Councillor-at-Large Tom Gould said. “We’ll have an opportunity to use a natural resource that people go to war over.”