New Well Project

The town’s Swanberg wellfield construction project is well along. Awarded in [when] to

[whom] for [how much $], the project is on time and under budget according to Town

Manager Bill Chenard.

The Swanberg Wellfield Property, owned by the Town of Pembroke Department of Public

Works is a largely undeveloped, 270-acre parcel located at 161 Pleasant Street. The parcel

is predominantly composed of large wetland and woodland areas and is utilized by the

Department of Public Works to maintain town owned drinking water and drainage

infrastructure.

The construction project includes three new drinking water supply wells and a new masonry

chemical feed pump station building. Following an old pathway for the bogs, a new gravel

driveway leads to a parking area for authorized personnel to service the pump station. The

project also involved considerable site work, all at the northern edge of the parcel as far

away from the wetlands as possible, to manage site drainage and to control erosion.

The town purchased the property from Cranberry Conservation Corp. in 2012 for

$1,325,000. While the construction site looks massive from the street, the “disturbed area”

where the vast majority of the site work is concentrated is only three quarters of an acre or

0.3% of the total parcel.

The Pembroke Department of Public Works Water Division operates and maintains a water

system consisting of approximately 133 miles of water main, 6,446 service connections,

four groundwater wells, three water storage tanks, and the water treatment plant.

Pembroke's water is entirely from groundwater sources, presently #2 Center Street, #3

School Street, #4 Bryantville, and #5 Windswept Bogs. All four wells are part of the South

Coastal Watershed and are located in the southwestern portion of town. [The old #1

Hobomock well is no more and the new Swanberg operation has not yet been numbered.

Stay tuned.] Raw water from each well is treated at its respective well house except for #5,

which is pumped to the treatment plant at #4 for pressure filtration and chemical addition

prior to distribution.

Swanberg is just one of several important Water Division projects underway or in design. At

the January 7, 2026 Select Board meeting, town manager Chenard said that the Water

Master Plan would be presented to the Select Board soon. He had already seen a draft and

was expecting to receive a second draft shortly. A presentation of the plan to the Select

Board by Water Superintendant Dan Sullivan and the consulting engineer on the project will

soon be scheduled.

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