Category Archives: Announcement

Outdoor Watering Restrictions

Outdoor Watering Restrictions in Effect

Per MassDEP

Please Conserve Water

Littleton is experiencing a Level 2 Significant Drought. All nonessential outdoor water uses are banned, except that watering ornamentals and flower gardens with drip irrigation, hand-held hose or watering cans are permitted.

What outdoor watering is prohibited?

All non-essential outdoor water uses, which include:

- irrigation of lawns via sprinklers or automatic irrigation systems;
- washing of vehicles, except in a commercial car wash or as necessary for operator safety; and
- washing of exterior building surfaces, parking lots, driveways or sidewalks, except as necessary to apply surface treatments such as paint, preservatives, stucco, pavement or cement.
- Filling swimming pools

What outdoor watering is allowed?

- Watering of vegetable gardens
- Watering ornamentals and flower gardens with drip irrigation, hand-held hose or watering cans.

What are the penalties for violating the ban?

Any person violating this regulation shall be liable to the Littleton Water Department as follows:

1st Violation: Written warning
2nd Violation: $50.00 fine
3rd Violation: $200.00 fine
4th Violation: $400.00 fine and reduction in water availability to allow for basic water use needs.

Each day of violation shall constitute a separate offense.

What Causes Water Restrictions?

Water restrictions result from a lack of precipitation as measured by drought conditions and low stream flows.

First, the restrictions depend on the severity of the drought in the region, as declared by the state’s Drought Management Task Force. The restrictions remain in place until the Task Force determines the drought conditions have dissipated.

Stream Flows

Second, the restrictions on nonessential outdoor water use in Littleton can also be triggered by flows in the Concord River below River Meadow Brook at Lowell falls, as measured by the U.S. Geological Survey gage.

Two (2) days per week, before 9 a.m. and after 5 p.m., when:

The gage falls below 427 cubic feet per second for three (3) consecutive days, between May 1 and June 30, or
The gage falls below 156 cfps for three (3) consecutive days between July 1 and September 30.

One (1) day per week, before 9 a.m. and after 5 p.m., when the gage falls below 71 cfps for three (3) consecutive days.

The restrictions remain in place until streamflow at the gage meets or exceeds the trigger streamflow for seven (7) consecutive days.

Private Well Owners

While private well owners are not required to comply with the water restrictions, we ask that they do their part to conserve water, as it all comes from the same aquifer.

WHERE CAN I GET MORE INFORMATION?

Residents and consumers are encouraged to call LWD with any questions at 978-540-2222.

Drought Monitoring

Rain Barrel Program

Rain Barrels are available for purchase at the discounted price of $89.00.

Littleton Water Customers are offered an additional $20 savings with the coupon LWD26

How to Purchase Your Rain Barrel:

Go to The Great American Rain Barrel , Select “Massachusetts” and “Littleton”, then follow the instructions on their website.

Deadline for Ordering:

Date: Sunday, May 24th

Time: Midnight

Coupon Code: LWD26

Days Left!

Pickup Instructions:

Date: Saturday, June 6th

Time: 9am -11am

Location: LELWD, 39 Ayer Road, Littleton MA

About The Great American Rain Barrel Company:

The Great American Rain Barrel is a local food importing company that has been repurposing shipping drums into Rain Barrels since 1988. The Great American Rain Barrel Co. has been an approved vendor by the MASS DEP since 2010.

If customers have product and installation questions that they cannot find on the website, or would like to order over the phone, please email [email protected] with your phone number and question and they will follow up.

LELWD Survey

Littleton Electric Light and Water Department’s survey will be open from April 27th through May 22nd.

Littleton Electric Light and Water Department has contracted GreatBlue Research, a third-party data collection agency, to assist with our survey.

The candid responses and opinions are completely confidential and will only be presented as part of the overall report. The 1974 U.S. Privacy Act requires that GreatBlue maintain the anonymity of respondents to surveys the firm conducts.  No information, by law, will be released that might in any way, reveal the identity of a respondent. 

If you have any questions about the survey, please feel free to contact GreatBlue Research at [email protected] or by phone at 860.740.4000. 

Sewer Ribbon Cutting

New Littleton Common Sewer System Fully Operating

LITTLETON – The new Littleton Common Sewer System is fully operational after nearly two years of construction to install sewer mains and construct a water resource recovery facility. The system has already sparked economic development in the town center and will improve groundwater quality by reducing reliance on septic systems.

The $45 million project started in the spring of 2023 and finished on schedule in the fall of 2025. The project was awarded $11 million in MassWorks grants and $2 million federal funds. The remaining cost will be paid by sewer users and not local tax revenues.

Local and state officials, the project contractors, and others gathered at the wastewater resource recovery facility on a cold January day for a ribbon-cutting ceremony.

“For many years, our town has dreamt of a sewer system to serve the Common, and today it is a reality because of the support of the people of Littleton and the leadership of the Board of Water Commissioners and the professional staff at the Littleton Water Department,” said Ivan Pagacik, Chairman of the Board of Water Commissioners. “Even before a shovel broke ground, the plans for the system were sparking development projects on King Street and Great Road, proving its potential for increasing economic activity.”

“This new sewer system will benefit economic development and the environment for generations to come. A project of this size and scope is made possible with assistance from many state, local, and private partners. We are grateful to the Board of Commissioners and all the town boards, committees and departments; the Littleton Town Meeting voters; state Rep. James Arciero and his legislative colleagues; and the Mass.

Department of Environmental Protection, MassDOT, and other state agencies and officials,” said Nick Lawler, P.E., General Manager of LELWD.

The sewer system is permitted by the MassDEP for up to 243,000 gallons per day. The Littleton Common Sewer District will serve 58 commercial-business properties, including several town buildings. The mixed-use development at 550 King Street will be the system’s largest user, followed by the Town of Littleton buildings.

About 50 residential properties are eligible to connect to the system. After a commissioning period in the fall, the sewer system and plant are operational and serving municipal buildings. Properties within the district are now able to connect to the system. The sewer betterment fee, required to connect to the system, is about $40,000 per Residential Equivalent Unit, a standard billing and measurement unit used to compare the impact of different properties to that of an average single-family home.

Even before the completion of construction, sewer planners have been considering future expansion. LELWD is in discussions with MassDEP about increasing the system’s permitted capacity. In addition, the potential exists to expand the district boundaries to serve other areas of Littleton.

The sewer collections system runs from the Westford town line south on King Street, and from the business area on Great Road west to the Common. From there, the system travels south on King Street to Shattuck Street and across lots to Russell Street. It meets the WRRF at 242 King Street, and after treatment, effluent travels to the discharge site adjacent to Littleton High School.

Sewer systems provide benefits to economic development and the environment. The Littleton Common sewer system is expected to spur the development of underutilized properties that have greater potential when connected to the system. This will increase local tax revenues, create new jobs and services, and add needed workforce housing. Sewer systems also improve groundwater quality by replacing septic systems. The Littleton Common area is within the Zone 2 Aquifer Protection Area surrounding the Beaver Brook drinking water wells.

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LELWD Awarded $285K State Grant

LELWD has won a state grant to reduce the impact of power outages by upgrading equipment in the distribution system. The $285,522 grant was recently awarded by the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center’s (MassCEC) Grants for Enhancing Grid Resilience and Reliability Program.

LELWD will use the grant to install six aging reclosers in its distribution system in Littleton and Boxborough. Reclosers isolate damaged sections of power line, shutting off electricity to the fault, and rerouting electricity around the fault to customers. These switches, in conjunction with sensors and software, turn a potentially large outage into a small, quickly resolved one.

“By upgrading the LELWD infrastructure, technology enables us to automatically isolate an outage by rerouting electricity around the trouble spot. This reduces the number of customers who lose power and helps crews quickly identify and fix the problem. We are grateful to MassCEC for providing this award and recognizing the work LELWD does to keep the lights on for our customers,” said Nick Lawler, P.E., General Manager of LELWD.

MassCEC awarded more than $8 million to seven municipal electric utilities and UMass-Amherst for projects to strengthen the electric grid, reduce costly outages, and better protect residents from the impacts of extreme weather.

LELWD’s customers lost electricity for a total of 30 minutes on average in 2024, compared to 149 minutes for consumers nationwide. The LELWD has been recognized for Excellence in Reliability for eight consecutive years by the American Public Power Association.

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LELWD on ’60 Minutes’

LELWD Case Study Resulted in ’60 Minutes’ Story

As seen on “60 Minutes,” the Littleton Electric Light and Water Departments has publicized the case of foreign hackers targeting its computer systems. LELWD first made the announcement in March with the release of a case study to educate the utility industry and others on cybersecurity threats.

For more information, read LELWD’s public statement from March below and click here to read the case study.

The LELWD issued the following statement on March 14, 2025:

LELWD Publicizes Case Study on Foreign Hackers Targeting U.S. Utilities

LITTLETON, MA – The Littleton Electric Light and Water Departments has participated in a case study with its cybersecurity provider that details the immediate steps taken to protect its computer networks after a 2023 intrusion by foreign hackers. There was no serious threat to public safety or customer data, and LELWD hopes publicizing the problem and solution helps utilities of all sizes act on the threats posed by foreign adversaries.

Here are key points to consider:

No customer-sensitive data was compromised.
In November 2023, the FBI alerted the LELWD that a Chinese cyberespionage group, Volt Typhoon, had access to its system. At that time, investigators told the LELWD that about 200 New England organizations were similarly affected.
The LELWD took immediate action and cooperated with the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) to install sensors to monitor the activity of the hackers. While in the system, it appeared the hackers accessed a file server that stores public records.
By December 2023, the federal government and the hackers were off the system. Last August, CISA returned to the LELWD to perform a two-week penetration test that showed the cybersecurity defenses working properly. The LELWD is a distribution company, and its systems do not have access to or control of the larger, critical electrical grid infrastructure. It appears the LELWD was targeted simply because its system used a firewall with a known security flaw. The then-managed service provider had not updated the firmware and as a result, was terminated.
The LELWD was already bolstering its cybersecurity to better monitor operational technology (OT) assets, security information technology and OT network traffic, and monitor communications between OT devices and systems. OT systems are used to control and manage physical equipment and processes.
The LELWD now contracts with managed served provider EvoLab Technology Solutions and uses a system monitoring platform from Dragos, Inc., a provider of OT cybersecurity technology for industrial and critical infrastructure. In addition, the LELWD’s network architecture was changed to render unusable any system information potentially obtained by the hackers.

“We were able to quickly isolate the threat in late 2023 before anything happened, and we accelerated our ongoing work to strengthen our cybersecurity. We worked with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s CISA, the FBI, the American Public Power Association, and our cybersecurity partners, EvoLab and Dragos, to protect our systems. We can now publicize this threat and solution to educate other small utilities. You would never think that you’d be targeted, but there is a real threat from foreign adversaries,” said Nick Lawler, General Manager of the LELWD.

The cybersecurity improvements were led by David Ketchen, Assistant General Manager, whose efforts were recognized by the state’s Executive Office of Technology Services & Security. Ketchen received the Cybersecurity & Risk Management award at the Massachusetts Excellence in Technology Awards in September 2024.

The LELWD was supported by the American Public Power Association, a national organization representing municipal electric utilities nationwide. Though its cybersecurity programs, the APPA has awarded more than $14 million to 32 utilities, funding 78 cybersecurity projects.

“The response to the LELWD breach was swift, according to Dragos. Investigators identified the attacker’s movements, including server message block traversal and remote desktop protocol lateral movement,” reported Infosecurity Magazine. “The compromised organization was able to contain the threat and reconfigure its network to prevent further exploitation. No customer-sensitive data was reportedly compromised.” ###

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Please be aware of telephone scams. LELWD will never seek immediate payment over the phone using a prepaid debit card or money order. LELWD does not contract with Eversource or another utility on service shut offs. If called about an instant payment or service disconnection, immediately hang up and call LELWD to verify your account status at 978-540-2222, Mon.-Thurs., 6:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.

Paving Schedule

Paving & Planting Scheduled to Complete Sewer & Water Main Projects

The following paving related to LELWD projects is planned for the remainder of 2025.

Whitcomb Avenue

Paving is planned for the week of September 15. Work will take place in three phases with separate detours for each:

1. Taylor St. to Sanderson Rd.
2. Sanderson Rd. to Porter Rd.
3. Porter Rd. to Route 2 Bridge

Expect detours between 7 a.m. and 4 p.m.
This will be a full-width paving.
Follow detour signs and use caution in this area.

Meetinghouse Road

King Street
Common to Westford line

King Street
small area near I-495 bridge

Great Road
near Acton Toyota of Littleton

Paving is expected in October and November. This section will be updated when more information is available from the contractor.

Paving schedules are subject to change without advanced notice.

Milling grinds off the top layer of existing asphalt to prepare the surface for paving. Milled roads may not be immediately paved. Please proceed with caution.

The contractors are required to repair and seed damaged turf at the end of the project – typically after the final road paving. The project specifications call for any planting to occur between April 15 and June 1 or between August 15 and October 30.

For More Information On The Projects

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Invitation For Bid & Proposals

Invitation For Bids & Proposals

All Legal Notice and Advertisement Bids will be posted here when they become available by LELWD. Select your desired notice below and follow the instructions specific to that notice. Littleton Electric Light & Water Departments reserves the right to reject any or all bids, wholly or in part in accordance with Massachusettes General Law.

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You will receive the bid documents to this email.

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Street Address Address Line 2 City State ZIP / Postal Code

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Boxborough Water Main

Drinking Water Improvements-Boxborough

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This project will bring public water to about 1,100 residents living along the western edge of Boxborough, where drinking water wells are contaminated with PFAS and road salt

Construction Update

Updated August 18th, 2025

Water Main Installation & Well Project Progressing

Water Mains

The water main from the Whitcomb Avenue Water Treatment Plant to Boxborough has been nearly completed.

- Paving on Whitcomb Avenue is now scheduled for September. (It was originally set for mid-August.)
- Water main installation on Mass Ave./Route 111 in Boxborough is to begin August 25.

Trumbull Well Development

This project also includes the development of a new well. The Trumbull Well on Taylor Street will be installed in late summer, early fall of 2025. Building of the pump house will start shortly after.

This project cost is estimated at about $19.1 million in total. The estimated $10 million to extend the water main to Boxborough will be paid for by the new customers who benefit from the project.

The Trumbull Well will supply about a quarter-million gallons of water per day, of which less than 25 percent will be needed to meet the demand of the Boxborough customers and 75 percent of the water will go toward Littleton’s needs.

The cost of developing the well is being split, with 24.5 percent (or about $2 million) to be paid for by Boxborough ratepayers through a betterment charge. The balance of about $6.9 million is to be paid for by all ratepayers, through regular rates and debt service, as it benefits the entire system.

Because this well is being developed to address PFAS contamination, the project qualified for a no-interest state loan. This will save all ratepayers a lot of money.

Paving Whitcomb Avenue

Paving on Whitcomb Avenue, from Taylor Street to the town line, is now scheduled for September. (While previously scheduled for August 11, construction and paving schedules are subject to change.)

It will be a permanent mill and overlay. Please note, we are required to wait at least three months, and sometimes longer, before applying the final layer of pavement over a trench patch to allow for settling. This reduces the potential for voids forming under the pavement which can result in potholes. We also make sure the new pipes are sealed tight and working properly so we don’t have to dig up new pavement to fix a problem.

Forum

Thank you for joining us for a public forum held on January 15th, at 7pm. You can watch the replay here.

For more information, watch the replay of the Boxborough Water Extension forum from July 26.

Watch the first Boxborough Water Line Extension Project Information Session from January 2023.

Pagacik Scholarship Winners

Pagacik Scholarship Winners to Study Engineering, Environmental Sciences

Three graduates from Littleton High School who will pursue degrees in engineering and environmental science have been awarded the Denise M. Pagacik Memorial Scholarship.

Tvisha Nanda, Kaitlyn St. Gelais, and Cainan Pletcher each received a $2,000 prize toward college tuition. This is the first year three winners have been chosen due to the strength of the applicants.

The scholarships are given in the memory of Denise M. Pagacik, the late wife of LELWD Commissioner Ivan Pagacik. A Littleton resident for more than 25 years, she was a loving mother who is remembered for her selfless commitment to the community and helping others. Two scholarships were funded by the Pagacik family and the third by LELWD.

“Tvisha, Kaitlyn and Cainan all have a track record of academic achievement, but perhaps most importantly, they have demonstrated a commitment to their community through volunteering and public service,’’ said Nick Lawler, LELWD’s general manager.

The competitive scholarships are awarded to LHS students pursuing engineering or environmental sciences – careers vital to the future of electric and water utilities.

Cainan will be attending Lehigh University for engineering.
Tvisha will be attending UMass Amherst to study biomedical engineering.
Kaitlyn will be attending the University of New Hampshire for environmental science.

Scholarship Leads to Engineering Career

Four years after receiving the Denise M. Pagacik scholarship from the LELWD, Littleton resident Paige Hornbeck is launching her career with the engineering firm Weston & Sampson in Manchester, N.H.

Paige graduated from the University of New Hampshire in May with a civil engineering degree, and recently joined the company’s structural and transportation sector, working with software for site plans and structural calculations.

Paige loves interacting with people and hopes to work her way into the field, engaging with community members and learning more about environmental sustainability. The 2021 Littleton High School alum thanked LELWD and her community for the support that helped guide her career path.

“Having that support from multiple sectors and knowing that people cared about putting me through college with this specific degree was really assuring,’’ she said.

July 8th, 2025

(978) 540-2222