Success Stories

The Drinking Water and Groundwater Trust Fund has been providing financial support to a broad range of projects to provide safe and clean drinking water to New Hampshire residents since 2017.

construction crew digs a trench for a watermainConstruction Project Assistance Program

The Drinking Water Construction Project Assistance Program has funded 111 drinking water infrastructure projects across the state – totaling $103 million in grants and $67 million in loans for general infrastructure upgrades – interconnecting small systems with municipal water, watermain replacements, and treatment for emerging contaminants.

This program provided significant financial support for the Southern New Hampshire Regional Water Project, a monumental project that brought water from Manchester Water Works to five communities in southern New Hampshire that had groundwater impacted by MtBE contamination.

Source Water Protection

Protecting important water supply lands to ensure clean drinking water now and into the future.

The Source Water Protection Grant Program has awarded $7.5 million in grants to 40 land protection projects in New Hampshire. This amounts to 6,477 acres conserved for drinking water! These properties will be permanently protected from environmental degradation, development and pollution to provide clean sources of water to the communities that rely on them. 

Private Well Initiatives

The Drinking Water and Groundwater Trust Fund also supports several smaller initiatives to help private well owners, from free water testing to installation of PFAS treatment systems and drilling new wells for low-income homeowners impacted by a natural disaster.

  • Since 2022, the PFAS Removal Rebate Program has provided grants to 560 homeowners impacted with PFAS contamination for installation of treatment or connection to a public water system.
  • The Water Assistance for Natural Disasters (WAND, formerly the Drought Assistance Program) has helped 161 low-income New Hampshire homeowners whose wells had been impacted by drought, by providing financial assistance to drill a new well and have a source of safe and clean drinking water.
  • In 2017, the Advisory Commission approved the Statewide Private Well Sampling Initiative to provide information to homeowners about the quality of their drinking water and steps that can be taken to improve water quality. NHDES sampled 500 private wells statewide for over 250 chemicals and parameters including volatile organic compounds, metals, radionuclides, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and pesticides. 
  • The Lead Remediation in Schools program has disbursed $191,000 in grant funds to 26 school districts to cover 50% of the cost to remediate lead levels at outlets higher than 5 ppb. Remediation activities include installing filtered drinking fountains or replacing fixtures with certified lead-free fixtures.

map of sampling sites

 

Testimonials of Successful WAND Projects

“For many summers, because of low water in our dug well we were always trying to invent new solutions to this problem out of necessity. Our dug well is set next to a stream, but it still went dry. We would haul buckets of water from the brook and collect water from a nearby spring, but last year’s drought hit us especially hard. We are so grateful we were finally able to drill a well!”

– Private well owner, Gilsum NH

“Thank you so much, you have no idea how much this means to me and my family.”

– Private well owner, Warner, NH