Worcester, Massachusetts voters recently chose to authorize spending $250,000 to begin mediation with ExxonMobil Corp. to determine the outcome of a long-standing dispute concerning water infrastructure in the town. The mediation will determine the mitigation of a gas leak at the former Lamountain’s Service Station, located on Route 20 in the town.

Previously, ExxonMobil was named the party responsible for the two large gas leaks into the town’s underground water table. The mediation will determine who needs to pay approximately $15 million to install six miles of water line to prevent this from happening again.

The water line’s path has been billed as a “school loop” and supplies water to three area schools. It travels off Main Street, down Old Worcester Road, across Morton Station Road, and up Old Muggett Hill Road where it then reconnects with Main Street.

Town officials state they have done their due diligence, doing everything required and getting an intermunicipal agreement with a nearby town to provide water, and getting the area retirement community to hook up to the water system. Now the mediation begins with ExxonMobil to get infrastructure into the ground and to get fair compensation for the expense. Some connected to the project believe an agreement will come before mediation begins, so the expense of the process to settle the dispute will not be an issue.

Officials in both town, ExxonMobil, and the state Department of Environmental Protection held meetings during the design phase, lengthening the process but ensuring everyone was aware of the developments. The groups are waiting to hear the final decision on who of the four suggested mediators will be overseeing the process. The final decision was up to ExxonMobil officials.