Water quality takes back seat to cost

The water gushing from the taps of one of the wealthiest communities south of Boston is among the priciest in the state, but it's no ''blue gold."

According to survey results released late last year, many Cohasset residents think the water smells musty, swampy -- even rancid. A gulp may be refreshingly cool, but also metallic or sour. Sometimes, it's brown. In January, residents got a notice that the water violated a public safety standard last year with high levels of trihalomethanes, a chlorination byproduct linked to cancer and developmental problems. Next month, residents will receive a second warning, that trihalomethane levels were above the safety regulations again in the first quarter of this year.

All that, water commissioners say, has driven residents away from the tap. According to the town survey, as many as half of Cohasset's 7,200-plus residents were consuming bottled water even before the safety issues arose.

But change is trickling forward. Cohasset's aquatic aesthetics have been improving as old pipes have been replaced. Last month, after weeks of meetings, commissioners devised a solution to the unsafe trihalomethane levels: They are now running the treatment plant 24 hours a day, rather than 8, and replacing old filters while checking water quality more frequently -- improvements they hope to pay for with the first water rate increase since 1997. The rate hike is proposed in an article for Town Meeting approval on Saturday.

Even as the water quality problems are being resolved, many residents say they are concerned less with the trihalomethane-level violation than their water bill, which according to water commissioners' estimates would increase by about 18 cents per day for the average household, which uses 60,000 gallons of water each year. While the water rates aren't as high as those in neighboring Hingham, water commissioner John McNabb said, Cohasset's rates are among the top 20 in the state.

The violation ''didn't bother me at all. Just putting the rates up is what's bothering me," said Robert Figueiredo, a 75-year-old lobsterman who says he only drinks water from the springs at Mount Blue in Hingham.

Residents' relative calm over their tap water could be attributed to their high dependence on water from out of town.

Assistant health inspector Tara Tradd said one rumor was that people weren't brushing off the warning, but weren't concerned because they drank bottled water. Tradd said she received fewer than 10 calls from concerned citizens after the first violation was sent out in January, although she was bracing herself for more.

David Reckhow, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst who advised Cohasset officials, said he also was surprised he didn't encounter more residents concerned about their water quality.

Officials said a possible reason the issue hasn't captured the town's attention is that it does not involve an exotic pollutant; the trihalomethanes are created when naturally occurring organic matter -- bits of decaying leaves or algae, for instance -- in the water interact with the chlorine used in the sterilization process.

In the notice, residents were warned that the town had violated total trihalomethane standards during 2004, with the water supply registering 100 parts per billion while the acceptable threshold is 80 ppb. They also were told that long-term consumption of water with high levels of the compound had been linked to liver, kidney, and central nervous system problems, as well as an increased risk of cancer.

Scientific studies have shown that in lab animals, trihalomethanes can cause tumors and cancer, and may be linked to miscarriage or low-birthweight babies, said Michael Hutcheson, head of the air and water toxics section at the state Department of Environmental Protection.

But residents who consume tap water said they were unfazed. Ralph Dormitzer, chairman of the Board of Selectmen, said his family wasn't worried and didn't change its drinking practices.

In about half of the homes that received the notice, the warning probably didn't matter, anyway.

In the town's water survey, updated in November, 48 percent of respondents reported that they drank bottled water, while 52 percent drank tap water, or both bottled and tap water. In contrast, a national 2003 Gallup poll for the US Environmental Protection Agency found that 82 percent of the population reported drinking tap water, while 20 percent drank bottled water exclusively.

Consumption of bottled water tends to be high in suburbs outside Boston, according to water bottlers. Jane Lazgin, a spokeswoman for Poland Springs, said company records show that about 5 to 10 percent of residents in a typical community get water delivered directly to their homes, but that the percentage is higher in Boston's suburbs. Lazgin said she could not be more specific.

At a meeting last week, Figueiredo, the lobsterman, got a collective wince out of the town's water commissioners when he said, half jokingly, ''I tell you, 8 out of 10 people are buying water at Stop & Shop anyway."

The commissioners said they hope that when they bring the town's water up to EPA standards, they will also improve the look, taste, and smell that have put off some residents.

When much of the work is done, perhaps in May, ''we're hoping for dramatic improvement," said McNabb.

The Water Commission member, while admitting that he is biased, said he thinks his water already tastes better now that the treatment plant has begun operating around the clock.

''We hope that will bring people to drinking the water in Cohasset," McNabb said.

Carolyn Johnson can be reached at cjohnson@globe.com.