Independent community water quality initiative

What's really going on with Pembroke's water

We track public EPA and DPW data on Pembroke's five groundwater wells — including the town's own $75 million plan to fix chronic discolored water — and help neighbors understand what's actually in the tap, in plain language.

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~18,300
residents served by the Pembroke Water Division
$75M
infrastructure plan announced Dec. 2024 to fix discolored water
Disputed
violation count varies across public trackers

A mineral problem, not (so far) a PFAS crisis

Pembroke draws all of its public water from five groundwater wells — there's no surface reservoir or river intake. Two of those wells, Hobomock and Bryantville, sit in ground naturally rich in iron and manganese, the same minerals that historically fed the pond-and-bog network that once supported over a dozen cranberry growers around Bryantville village.

Those minerals are also the reason many Pembroke households have dealt with brown, discolored tap water — enough of a problem that the town's Water Superintendent presented a $75 million, multi-year infrastructure plan to the town in December 2024 aimed at replacing aging pipes and cutting down on the sediment stirred up by routine flushing, fire-flow tests, and main breaks.

IssueStatusSource
Discolored (iron/manganese) waterOngoing, aesthetic per DPWTown DPW, resident reports
PFOA / PFOS (federal 4 ppt limit)Not reported detectedPublic UCMR5 aggregator data
Total Coliform Rule violationReported by one tracker (2010–2015)Disputed — see Water data page

See the full breakdown, sourcing, and where trackers disagree on the Water data page.

Stump Pond in Pembroke, Massachusetts, part of the town's interconnected pond and cranberry bog network
A church in Pembroke, Massachusetts

Built by Pembroke neighbors, for Pembroke neighbors

Pembroke Water Watch started as a handful of residents comparing notes after yet another round of brown-water complaints — and finding that the town's own explanation ("aesthetic, not a health concern") and the EPA's public compliance data didn't always tell the same story at a glance.

We read the DPW's own reporting, track EPA and Massachusetts DEP data as it's published, and help neighbors figure out whether their household should be doing anything differently while the town works through its infrastructure plan.

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Dealing with discolored or concerning water?

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