A drinking water infrastructure project in Scituate that brought safe, reliable water to 23 elderly residents has earned national recognition from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The EPA this week named the consolidation project at the Scituate Housing Authority’s Rockland Oaks Senior Housing Community, Scituate High School and Scituate Middle School as one of five exceptional recipients of its Excellence in System Partnerships award, part of the agency’s annual AQUARIUS program.
The project, completed in late 2025, connected the Rockland Oaks Senior Housing Community to the well-based drinking water system serving Scituate’s two schools. For years prior, Rockland Oaks operated an aging system that repeatedly violated maximum contaminant level standards and experienced pressure failures that triggered precautionary boil water notices.
The Rhode Island Department of Health and the Rhode Island Infrastructure Bank financed the work through a $1,662,100 Drinking Water State Revolving Fund loan with 100% principal forgiveness — meaning the housing authority took on no lasting debt for the project.
“At Rockland Oaks, that meant using a fully forgiven loan to make it possible for 23 elderly residents who had faced years of unsafe and unreliable water to now have access to clean, dependable drinking water,” said Bill Fazioli, executive director of the Rhode Island Infrastructure Bank.
The effort required coordination among RIDOH, RIIB, the EPA, the Scituate School Department and multiple engineering firms.
Gov. Dan McKee credited federal and state partners for the outcome. “We are thankful to the EPA for their partnership on this project, as well as all the state and local partners who made this effort an enormous success,” he said.
The AQUARIUS program recognizes drinking water projects funded in part through the federal Drinking Water State Revolving Fund that are considered innovative, resilient and protective of public health. Twenty-two projects nationwide received recognition in the 2026 cycle; the Scituate project was among just five singled out by EPA as exceptional.
