The Londonderry Utilities Committee received an update from its water subcommittee on the High Range Road project on Nov. 7. Committee member Jeff McGraw outlined the immediate concerns behind both the ongoing project, and regarding plans for future waterline extensions across town.
“This is looking at the middle of 2026 for that line,” said McGraw, referring to the initial extension. “We drove that line quite a ways, I was shocked for what we’re getting for $10 million. Hopefully we’ll have an incrementally better water system, not complete, but a better water system in the summer of ’26.”
The line under construction was described as a “main trunk” from which other lines would eventually branch off from.
“This is the timeline the High Range Road Water Project going from the intersection Parmenter and Old Nashua going as far up Parmenter into High Range,” said Committee Chair Lynn Wiles. “This is a work in progress.”
McGraw stated he was in constant communication with Pennichuck Water to keep track of the project.
“As a committee, we’re really improving transparency and communications with Pennichuck,” he said. “There’s still a lot of work to do, I like things to go faster, but I think we’re getting good things done.”
Committee member Anne Fenn worried progress was not happening fast enough, especially in the consent decree area, where many residents are still on bottled water owing to continued high levels of PFAS contamination. She alleged that some residents in the consent decree area did not have access to the financial aid needed for reverse osmosis filters. Town Council Liaison Ron Dunn pointed to slow action by Saint-Gobain in getting unconnected homes closest to Londonderry’s water system as the main factor.
“They’re dragging their feet on the waterline,” said Town Council Liaison Ron Dunn. “Anybody that’s connected to a water-main has to wait until Saint-Gobain decides to do what they’re going to do.”
Saint-Gobain is supposed to provide clean water to everyone in the consent decree. Dunn estimated there were 350 homes in the contaminated area that were “designated to make a water main connection” at an unspecified future date.
The sewer and solid waste brought up the possibility of a waste oil grant for the town.
“There’s some grant money available, a small amount of money available to communities that recycle waste oil,” said Wiles. “We were talking about applying for some money, it was about $2,500 to maybe refurbish our little building behind the fire station where we do our collections.”
The collection building has had a step some residents have had trouble getting past when going out to deposit their extra oil. Waste oil collected near Central Fire Station is used in a furnace to heat the Highway Garage.
There were no updates from the cable and Internet subcommittee.