On December 9th, John Boisvert, CEO Pennichuck Water Works Corp., addressed the Rotary Club of Nashua regarding, the Pennichuck Water Works, the water utility of Greater Nashua that has been in business since 1852. It employs 120 people and services 38,000 customers and an overall population of greater than 110,000.
John is a local, NH product. He went to UNH for undergrad, Vermont Law School for a year and went back to UNH to get his Civil Engineering degree. He is an engineer at heart.
In 2011, the City of Nashua bought Pennichuck for $152m. Pennichuck is made up of three separate companies and are looking to combine into one entity to service Nashua and several surrounding towns/communities.
Much of Pennichuck’s efforts and resources go into finding out what is in our water in terms of contaminants and chemicals. It measures water make up in an area equivalent to a gallon of water in Lake Winnipesauki!
Another priority is managing old capital and infrastructure. Several communities have older systems in place that need replacing. With the merger, the costs of upgrades will be spread across a larger customer base and prices will be manageable for customers.
Main challenges Pennichuck deals with include PFAS across their service area, workforce development and bringing in younger workers to grow with the organization. Environmental emergency preparedness is a recent priority as well as resiliency from recent droughts in our area.