Water supply shutdown for 3 Mass. towns

HINGHAM, Mass. -- Authorities shutdown a water source that supplies water to three Massachusetts towns on Wednesday.

Accord Pond serves Hingham, Hull and a portion of Cohasset. It was shutdown after a resident reported seeing a man throw something into the water.

The company that takes water from the pond insists that the water is fine, but as a precaution the company shutdown service from that pond. Police continue to investigate a report of someone throwing something in the water.

“What was observed by the witness was that the man had something in his hand that he threw into the water,” said Harry Hibbard, the Vice President of the Aquarian Water Company. “My water…people are telling me that that’s nowhere near enough to contaminate a water supply with any known poison. In fact, it would take a lot, lot more than that for it to be a concern.”

Officials said the incident was also more than 1,000 feet from the intake valve, far enough to dilute anything thrown in. But, the company still tested the water once and will test it again. The results of the first test showed there was no problem.

Police divers looked for anything that could have been thrown into the water, but found nothing. On shore, investigators found a paper with foreign writing that a water official said is common to Ethiopia. Water officials said investigators also found a prayer card from a Greek Orthodox Church. Police said they turned the card over to the FBI and are waiting on a translation.

“We’re hoping that possibly someone could see this and then contact us and just offer to what the activity was they were doing. If it turns out to be not criminal, then certainly we can notify everybody,” said Sgt. Steven Dearth of the Hingham Police Department.

The water from the pond is offline until further notice. The company said it only supplies 25 percent of the water to the area. The towns will get there water from other places.

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