The United States Department of Agriculture has pledged $1 million in grants to help Tiverton deal with what one USDA official on Monday called “the biggest [PFAS] problem in the history of the state of Rhode Island.”

News of the award came three weeks after Tiverton town officials met with federal representatives to determine their next steps in dealing with “forever chemicals,” also known as PFAS, contamination in private wells around the Crandall Road area. Specifically, the North Tiverton Fire District will receive the $1 million Emergency Community Water Assistance Grant (ECWAG) to fight the PFAS contamination and town administrator Patrick Jones said it will be used to extend a water line to impacted residents on Crandall Road who are unable to get water filtration..

USDA rural development state director Christopher Lyons said USDA officials worked quickly to release the grant, gien the severity of the situation.

“We moved heaven and earth to get this done in record time,” he said.

Jones said bids for the line work are going out starting this week. As part of the bids to install the water lines, residents have to be on the public water line before the first snowfall.

“That's the criteria of the bid and that's how fast we want to move through the fall,” Jones added.

Officials said the line work does not end the problem, but provides positive momentum:

“This is step one,” Lyons said. “There is lots more work to do and we will be here doing it with you.”

According to DEM, there are 102 contaminated wells with PFAS levels over 20 parts per trillion (ppts), with testing ongoing. According to Jones, seven of those homes are above 1600 ppts, making water filtration impossible.

Jones also added that North Tiverton Fire District chairman Bob Ouellette is in talks with the DEM and the Rhode Island Department of Health (RIDOH) in order to receive more funding. Jones acknowledged that there is still concern about capacity, and that town officials plan to continue conversations with USDA in order to address those concerns.

“We want to work to continue to obtain grant money so we can look at some of the infrastructure that currently exists not only in North Tiverton Fire District.”

Jones also said that the town has begun an initial well depth test on the well at Town Fire Station #3. They hope to figure out officially if that is where the contamination came from.

In addition, town officials have teamed up with Newport Mental Health to have group and individual sessions on the PFAS situation and its effect on mental health in town, which will take place at Fort Barton School.