A new treatment system designed to improve water quality for Eastport and the Passamaquoddy at Pleasant Point is scheduled to arrive this week for a long-awaited upgrade.

The system is one solution to a decades long water problem at the Passamaquoddy Water District, which serves about 1,400 people. Officials at the Department of Health and Human Services told lawmakers earlier this year that the upgrades will significantly improve water quality in an effort to reduce the number of times users have to be warned about the presence of chemicals linked to cancer.

Passamaquoddy Water District business manager Ann Bellefleur said there will be no disruption in service when the filtration system is installed at the treatment plant in Perry. She said customers will likely not notice an immediate difference but the upgrade should help during “runoff season” when the water is sometimes murky and smelly.

“After spring and fall heavy rains, that’s when I’m hoping they are going to notice a difference,” she said.

The water district has hired engineer Mark McCluskey of A.E. Hodsdon Engineers of Waterville to oversee the work. McCluskey told Spectrum News in an email that all the equipment is expected to be delivered to the site this week, with installation to follow.

The water quality issue came to light again this year when Passamaquoddy Tribal Rep. Rena Newell sponsored a bill to allow the tribe to work with the federal government on a new water system. Lawmakers supported the measure after public testimony about quarterly water tests that sometimes prompted the water district to warn customers about high levels of a chemical that has been linked to cancer.

The district last sent out a notice about high levels of trihalomethanes in the water in October 2019. The notice lists as possible health effects: “some people who drink water containing trihalomethanes in excess of the (maximum contaminant level) over many years could experience liver, kidney and central nervous system problems and an increased risk of cancer.”

The water issues in Sipayik, the Passamaquoddy tribal lands outside of Eastport, go back decades. Tribal members have long said they have to use bottled water or haul it in from other sources because of the water’s taste and smell.

State officials have said that the source of the water — shallow Boyden Stream Reservoir — is the problem because certain times of year it produces water with “high natural organic content.” The state paid for the filtration system to help address the issue and had planned to install the upgrade last year, but COVID-19 shipping problems led to the delay to this summer.

Earlier this year, the Legislature approved and Gov. Janet Mills signed a bill to allow the tribe to tap in to other water sources on land it owns near the reservation. The legislation also makes the water district tax exempt, which is consistent with how other districts are treated across the state, and gives the tribe more latitude to work directly with federal officials on water regulations.