About us

A plain-language watchdog for Hanover's water supply

We're neighbors, not regulators — reading the same public data everyone has access to, and translating it into something you can actually use.

Our mission

Hanover Water Watch exists to make water quality information accessible to every household in town. The Water Department publishes Consumer Confidence Reports once a year and issues public notices when a standard is exceeded — but that information is scattered across town-website subpages, written in regulatory language, and easy to miss if you're not already looking for it.

We collect it, check it against public health guidance, and put it in one place, in language anyone can read in five minutes.

How we started

The group came together informally after a handful of Hanover residents started asking questions at Town Meeting about the $32 million water treatment bond on the May 2026 warrant — and realized how little plain-language information existed about why the town has three separate treatment plants in the first place, or what "PFAS6" actually means for a household on Hanover water. What began as a shared set of notes turned into this site: a standing, volunteer-run effort to keep tabs on the Hanover Water Department and flag anything worth a second look.

Hanover Town Hall in Hanover, Massachusetts

What we do

Monitor

We track new PFAS results, public notices, and Consumer Confidence Reports as they're published, and compare them against the Water Department's own reporting and public EPA and MassDEP records.

Explain

Regulatory language is dense on purpose. We translate what a given detection level, treatment upgrade, or town-meeting vote actually means for a household, without the jargon.

Connect

If you want a second opinion on your own tap water, we help connect residents with free testing and point toward locally relevant filtration options.

A note on independence

Hanover Water Watch is an independent, volunteer-run initiative. We are not affiliated with the Town of Hanover or the Hanover Water Department, and we don't speak on their behalf. Everything we publish links back to its original public source so you can verify it yourself.