The Acton Water District (AWD, District) has posted the warrant for the upcoming Annual District Meeting, which was finalized by the AWD Commissioners (Commissioners) at their meeting on Feb. 23. Most warrant articles are similar to those that voters have seen at previous District annual meetings. Four new articles deal with investing and spending funds that the AWD has received and may receive in the future from multi-district lawsuits against the manufacturers of PFAS (per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances).
As called for in the District bylaws, the Annual Meeting of the Water Supply District of Acton will be held on Mar. 18, at 6 p.m., at the Acton Public Facilities Building, 472 Main Street. All voters registered in Acton can vote in the meeting; you do not need to be an AWD customer. Interested non-voters can attend but not vote. ActonTV is planning to record the meeting, which will be available for on-demand streaming later in the week; however, there won’t be a real time option to view or participate virtually.
What’s in the Warrant?
The 18-articlewarrant begins with three standard articles to fix salaries of officials (#1), accept reports (#2), and authorize bonding (#3). Article #4 aims “To see what sums of money the District will vote to raise and appropriate to defray the usual expenses of the District,” in other words to approve the FY 2027 budget. The FY27 expense budget is $8.58 million, as contrasted with $8.03 million for the FY26 budget. The biggest driver of the increased budget is debt service. Voters and rate-payers can view the budget details online of page 5 of the AWD annual report.
As will be familiar to attendees at previous District meetings, warrant articles #5 and #6 set the limitations on revolving funds, and Articles #7- #14 authorize the transfer of funds to pay for various operational activities of the District. This year’s transfers cover: cleaning and rehabilitating wells (#7), replacing water mains and hydrants (#8), emergency repairs to water mains (#9), replacement of filtration media (#10), upgrading the AWD website to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (#11), disposing of filtration residuals (#12), repairs and improvements to the Flagg Hill storage tank (#13), and generally improving the District’s distribution system (#14). In the aggregate, articles #7-#14 sum to $1.28M.
Articles #15-18 are new. Article #15 would establish a special revenue fund to be known as the “PFAS Settlement Fund,” into which will be placed funds received by the settlement of multidistrict litigation against several manufacturers of PFAS. Initial payouts have been received, totaling approximately $2M, and further settlement funds will be paid out over time through 2036 according to the AWD website. The eventual total is unknown, but it is expected to fall far short of the actual capital plus operating costs of PFAS removal, according to the minutes of the Dec 5, 2025 AWD Finance Committee (FinCom) meeting. Establishing a “settlement fund” and using the proceeds to fund water treatment expenses over time follows the successful model of the AWD “WR Grace Fund” established with funds related to the WR Grace Superfund Site in southeast Acton.
Articles #16, 17, and 18 would authorize the district to spend money from the newly established fund. Article #16 would transfer $330,000 from the PFAS fund towards lease payments on the North Acton Water Treatment Plant. As reported by the Acton Exchange, the North Acton PFAS treatment system, operational since July 2024, was installed with leased equipment so it could be brought on-line quickly and remain flexible for future modifications. Article #17 would transfer $150,000 for PFAS Media Replacement. Acton’s PFAS treatment systems work by filtering the water through huge cylindrical vessels filled with granulated activated carbon (GAC), also known as “filtration media.” The carbon eventually becomes saturated with contaminants. It is expensive to replace, which is one reason why PFAS treatment incurs high operational costs as well as capital costs. Article #18 would transfer $150,000 from the PFAS fund to reimburse the FY26 general fund for the costs of importing water from Littleton and Concord through the emergency interconnects with those towns’ water systems. During the most intense phase of completing the PFAS treatment systems at the South Acton and Central Acton Water Treatment Plants, both plants were taken off-line and the AWD purchased water from neighboring towns.
Under the terms of the PFAS settlements, public water suppliers can use these funds for any costs related to remediating their systems due to PFAS contamination. By choosing to apply some of the first settlement funding towards operational costs, the AWD Commissioners kept the quarterly usage fee charged to water-takers unchanged for FY27. The debt fee portion of the quarterly bill, however, will rise for FY27, as repayment begins on the loans taken out to build the South and Central Acton PFAS treatment systems. As reported by the Acton Exchange, this apportionment of PFAS settlement funding has generated some controversy.
The Board of Commissioners is expected to recommend all 18 warrant articles at their upcoming March 9 meeting. The AWD FinCom voted at their March 5 meeting to recommend all articles except Article #4 (the budget) on which they are offering no recommendation. FinCom member John Petersen stated that he may offer an amendment to Article #4 with the intent of having the “debt fee and usage fee increase by the same amount.” District Manager Matt Mostoller stated that such an amendment would be non-binding, according to District Counsel.
A continuation of the meeting or a Special District Meeting may be needed
At the Feb. 23 meeting of the AWD Board of Commissioners, District Manager Matt Mostoller warned that it is likely that articles #7-14 (the surplus revenue transfers) will not be taken up at the March 18 meeting because the District has not yet received its annual free cash certification from the Massachusetts Department of Revenue.
Mostoller explained that the late free cash certification is due to the very late arrival of the audit report from auditor CBIZ, with additional small delays due to the onboarding of a new District Treasurer/Collector, and to complications left over from last year’s free cash situation. In a subsequent email, Mostoller added that in FY25 District processed a “tremendous amount of financial transactions … related to land acquisition, treatment plant upgrades, water upgrades, and a variety of grants and other assistance.” At the March 5, FinCom meeting Mostoller assured the Committee that there is ample free cash on hand (estimated between $1.8 million and $2.4 million); it is state approval that is not in hand.
If the free cash certification is not received, then only articles 1-6 and 15-18 will be taken up at the March 18 meeting. The moderator could then entertain a motion to continue the meeting for up to 14 days, setting a specific time and date to reconvene. This is the same process used when Acton Town Meeting is “continued” from Monday night to Tuesday. If it is judged unlikely that free cash will be certified in that 14-day period, a Special District Meeting to take up the surplus revenue transfers would be called later in the year, but not later than June 30. It’s not possible to simply postpone the entire Annual District Meeting until a later date because the AWD Bylaws state explicitly that “The Annual Meeting of the Water Supply District of Acton will be held on the third Wednesday of March, of each year for the transaction of the necessary business connected with the District…“
Voters or rate-payers with questions could attend the AWD Commissioners’ meeting scheduled for March 9 at 7pm by zoom. As the AWD Annual Meeting approaches, voters can find out whether or not the full warrant will be taken up on March 18 by checking the AWD website or Facebook page.
Kim Kastens is an Associate Editor for the Acton Exchange and chairs the Water Committee of Green Acton. Greg Jarboe is a member of the Town of Acton Finance Committee (totally separate from the similarly named AWD Finance Committee) and writes on a variety of topics for the Acton Exchange.
Correction, March 8, 2026: The originally published version stated an incorrect percentage increase for the FY27 expense budget relative to the FY26, reproducing an error in the meeting packet of the March 5 AWD FinCom meeting. The text has been corrected, and a link is now provided to the budget details available in the AWD Annual Report.
