NEW GLOUCESTER — Described as a “watershed” moment, ground was broken Friday for the $2.4 million public water system for the village.

By next year, 48 homes and businesses will have safe drinking water, ending nearly three decades of dealing with private wells contaminated by benzene and salt.

“This means I don’t have to worry about my tenants drinking bad water,” apartment house owner Laura Sturgis said. “My property will no longer lose value.”

For Anna Hunnewell, it means she will no longer have to carry 20-pound bags of salt to her basement, where a purification system uses the salt to give her drinkable water, she said. It also means she will not have to replace corroded pipes and appliances because of salt in the well water, she said.

Sturgis and Hunnewell were among the Upper Gloucester residents and federal, state, county and local officials at the ceremony.

The first phase of the project will be construction of a pump station, a storage tank and an office at the wellhead at the Bald Hill Road fairgrounds. Water mains will be installed next with connections made to the homes and businesses next spring.

But Friday’s ceremony marked the beginning of the process and New Gloucester Water District Trustee Lawrence Zuckerman called the groundbreaking “a watershed moment.”

Joining him and others was Patricia Aho, commissioner of the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, who talked about her agency’s 27 years spent solving the gasoline contamination problem discovered in private village wells in 1986.

“I am proud that our department stayed with you,” she said. “This is the beginning of the end from the leaking, bare-walled underground gasoline tanks identified as the cause of widespread contamination at a gasoline station that sparked continuous investigations at Upper Gloucester.”

She credited DEP staff members Chris Swain, former project director, and Chris Fournier, who now manages the project.

Aho said more than $600,000 was spent in the 1980s to remove contaminated soil and, over the years, many tens of thousands of dollars provided water testing and filter systems to households with benzene in their drinking water.

“We stand here today, as you go forward so you all have drinkable water,” said Aho, whose agency is contributing $379,000 of the $2.4 million cost.

Virginia Manuel, director of the USDA Rural Development, said the funding partnership of local, county, state and federal governments is an example of hard work paying off.

“This officially marks the beginning and end for safe drinking water (projects) in your area,” Manuel said. Her agency is providing $1.47 million, $675,000 of which is a grant with the remaining $800,000 to be repaid in a 40-year loan.

Aaron Shapiro, director of Cumberland County Community Block Grant Program, said the $230,000 the agency contributed is the third-largest grant to be approved in the past seven years.

“On a hot summer day, you need a cold, clean glass of water,” he said.

State Rep. Eleanor Espling, R-New Gloucester, told residents, “Our town has waited a long time for this day. The impact will be felt in housing values and our ability to attract business to the area,” she said.

Espling introduced emergency legislation several years ago that led to the creation of the New Gloucester Water District, whose trustees applied for county, state and federal grants, with the help of New Gloucester Town Planner Paul First.

Representatives of U.S. Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine, and U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, also addressed the audience.

Also speaking at the ceremony was Board of Selectmen Chairman Steve Libby, who apologized to the community for the time it took to resolve the tainted water issues.

“I have waited for this day for a long time,” Libby said. “I apologize to the people in New Gloucester. I’m sorry it’s taken so long to get to this day. There were so many roadblocks, burdens and hurdles to move us forward.”

It took two special town meetings to approve the funds to build the system, Libby said, despite a petition drive by “a few people” trying to derail this process.

“Now we have to build it and turn the spigot on,” he said.