How Eversource and Concord Blocked New Hampshire’s Water Future - a regional water desalination plant

The Nuclear Water Solution They Refused.

As a former selectman, I took water quality, water supply, and PFAS contamination seriously enough to propose an actual solution, not just complaints. In 2019, while completing my MBA, I authored a formal business plan for a regional desalination plant for Southeast New Hampshire, using seawater, reverse osmosis, and nuclear energy to secure clean, abundant water for the Seacoast and potentially neighboring states.

The proposal was submitted to Governor Sununu and Eversource after Eversource acquired Aquarion Water Company and publicly committed to investing in water infrastructure. Despite the plan aligning with federal infrastructure priorities under the America’s Water Infrastructure Act of 2018, Eversource essentially slammed the door in my face, driven by its lobbyists and — most likely — a governor who was not receptive to the idea. The proposal was never meaningfully advanced to the EPA or studied.

Importantly, this plan was written six years ago, and desalination, nuclear, and filtration technologies have only improved since then.

Nuclear Power. Clean Water. Rejected

Nuclear energy is far more efficient and cost-stable than grid electricity, which would significantly reduce long-term desalination costs while providing reliable baseload power — making the model even stronger today than in 2019.

A regional desalination system remains the only true, long-term solution to both water supply shortages and water quality contamination, including PFAS.

Band-aid fixes, treatment after contamination, and fragmented municipal approaches do not solve the core problem.

Now that Eversource is reportedly being acquired by Unitil, the landscape has changed. If state representatives or Seacoast boards of selectmen — Hampton, Seabrook, Portsmouth, and others — use some common sense, they could and should press Unitil to seriously evaluate a regional desalination plant for Southern Seacoast New Hampshire. Doing so would ensure clean water, adequate supply, and long-term resilience for the region.

Without clean water — and enough of it — we have nothing.