The Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA) is a public authority in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts that provides wholesale drinking water and sewage services to 3.1 million people in sixty-one municipalities and more than 5,500 large industrial users in the eastern and central parts of the state, primarily in the Boston area.
The authority receives water from the Quabbin and Wachusett Reservoirs and the Ware River in central and western Massachusetts. For sewage, it operates a large treatment center on Deer Island at the mouth of Boston Harbor, among other properties.
The modern MWRA was created in 1985 after being split from the Metropolitan District Commission. It gained the ability to raise its own revenues and issues its own bonds. The Department of Conservation and Recreation is the successor to the MDC, and still maintains the watershed lands.
Service area The MWRA service area covers fifty-eight communities in Greater Boston and MetroWest plus three communities in Western Massachusetts, (Chicopee, Wilbraham, and South Hadley). The table below shows the services communities receive.
ServiceMunicipalitiesMWRA: About MWRA. Mwra.state.ma.us (February 11, 2011). Retrieved on 2013-08-04.All water and sewerArlington, Belmont, Boston, Brookline, Chelsea, Clinton, Everett, Framingham, Lexington, Malden, Medford, Melrose, Milton, Newton, Norwood, Quincy, Reading, Revere, Somerville, Stoneham, Waltham, Watertown, WinthropSewer plus partial waterBedford, Cambridge (emergency water only), Canton, Dedham, Needham, Stoughton, Wakefield, Wellesley, Westwood, Wilmington, Winchester, WoburnWater onlyChicopee, Lynnfield Water District, Marblehead, Nahant, Northborough, Saugus, Southborough, South Hadley (Fire District No. 1 only), Swampscott, Weston, WilbrahamSewer onlyAshland, Braintree, Burlington, Hingham, Holbrook, Lancaster, Natick, Randolph, Walpole, WeymouthPartial waterLeominster (emergency only), Lynn (GE only), Marlborough, Peabody, Worcester (emergency only)
Water system The Massachusetts Water Resources Authority and the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) own and operate the collection, treatment, distribution, and storage facilities that supply drinking water to some forty municipalities in the metropolitan Boston area. This water system design was based upon the purchase and subsequent protection of an entire watershed. This design assures that the water remains as pristine as possible. However, modern regulations require that all supplies of drinking water be chemically treated regardless of the source. Additions to the MWRA water system throughout its history have resulted in redundancies that allow major sections of the water system to be shut down for repair or maintenance. The MWRA Operations Control Center is in Chelsea.
Water sources Primary sources:Water Supply and Demand. MWRA. Retrieved on August 4, 2013. Quabbin Reservoir – storage capacity Wachusett Reservoir – storage capacity Ware River (during high flow only)
Backup sources: Sudbury Reservoir – storage capacityDCR Site Help. Mass.gov (June 20, 2013). Retrieved on 2013-08-04. Foss Reservoir, a.k.a. Framingham Reservoir No. 3Sudbury and Foss Water Quality. MWRA (November 20, 2009). Retrieved on 2013-08-04. – storage capacity
Eastbound water flow Water bound for Greater Boston flows from the MWRA's main storage facility, the Quabbin Reservoir in central Massachusetts, through the Quabbin Aqueduct to the Wachusett Reservoir in and around Boylston and Clinton. Tributary rivers and streams comprising the Wachusett watershed, a 108 square mile (280 square kilometer) drainage basin, also feed the Wachusett Reservoir. The Cosgrove Tunnel carries water from there to the John J. Carroll Water Treatment Plant, located at the town lines of Marlborough, Northborough, and Southborough, Massachusetts. The plant replaced one used previously only for pH control. It comprises four ozone generators with diffusers and five concrete contact chambers with a volume of . The plant has a capacity of per day, on an average day or per day, at peak level. It cost US$340 million.
The MetroWest Water Supply Tunnel (MWWST) carries water further east, passing the Norumbega Reservoir, Schneck's Pond, and Norumbega Covered Storage in Weston. Near Route 128 and the Charles River, it splits in two, feeding regional distribution lines at the Loring Road Tanks and an interconnection with the City Tunnel passing into Newton. In the Chestnut Hill area, the City Tunnel splits into the City Tunnel Extension (northeast) and Dorchester Tunnel (southeast), which act as backbones for smaller distribution mains and feed various regional storage tanks.
Westbound water flow The Chicopee Valley Aqueduct carries water from the Quabbin Reservoir to the Western Massachusetts communities of Chicopee, Wilbraham and South Hadley (Fire District No. 1). It passes through the Ware Water Treatment Facility and the Nash Hill Covered Reservoir in Ludlow.
Pressure zones The water system is divided into seven pressure zones, needed because different consumers are at different altitudes. The seven zones, measured from "Boston City Base" level are approximately:Massachusetts Water Resources Authority, Master Plan, 2006 . Page 8-1 and Figure 8-2, Metropolitan System Pressure Zones 185 ft – Low Service – Cambridge and lower portions of Boston, Somerville, Medford, Malden, Chelsea, Everett, and Winchester 280 ft – Northern and Southern High Service – Downtown Boston towers, southern and western Boston, part of Milton, Quincy, Needham, Weston, Wellesley, Watertown, southern Waltham, Marblehead, Swampscott, Revere, Melrose, Peabody; parts of Newton, Brookline, Arlington, Somerville, Medford, Malden, Everett, Wakefield, and Stoneham 320 ft – Intermediate High Service – parts of Belmont, Watertown, and Newton 330 ft – Northern Intermediate High Service – Reading, Woburn; parts of Stoneham, Winchester 400 ft – Southern Extra High Service – Stoughton, Canton, Norwood, Westwood, Dedham; parts of Milton, Boston, Brookline, and Newton 440 ft – Northern Extra High Service – Bedford, Lexington; parts of Winchester, Arlington, Belmont, and Waltham
Water storage facilities The major MWRA water storage facilities outside of the source reservoirs are listed below. Covered storage facilities ( total capacity) are in primary use, and surface reservoirs are used as backup only. (Uncovered reservoirs cannot store potable water without the need for later treatment).
Name City/Town Capacity (gal) Type CompletedMWRA Covered Storage Facilities. Mwra.state.ma.us (October 12, 2012). Retrieved on 2013-08-04.MWRA – Water System History . Mwra.state.ma.us. Retrieved on August 4, 2013.Norumbega Weston 115M Covered 2004Nash Hill Ludlow 25M Covered 1999Carroll Marlborough 45M Covered 2005Fells Stoneham 20M Covered 2000Loring Road Weston 20M Covered 2001Arlington Arlington 2M Covered 1937Bear Hill Stoneham 6M Covered 1986Bellevue West Roxbury 3.7M Covered 1955Deer Island Boston 2M Covered 1994Turkey Hill Arlington 2M Covered 1945Walnut Hill Lexington 2M Covered 1961Blue Hills Quincy 20M Covered 2009, replaced 1941 open surfaceDiscolored water may occur in Quincy starting Sunday night – Quincy, MA . The Patriot Ledger (July 30, 2009). Retrieved on 2013-08-04.Spot Pond Stoneham 1,900M Surface 1895–1910?Chestnut Hill Reservoir Boston 500M Surface 1870Norumbega Open Reservoir Weston 200M Surface 1941Weston Reservoir Weston 200M Surface 1905Fells Open Reservoir Stoneham 67M Surface 1895–1910?Schenck's Pond Weston 50M Surface ?
Redundancy The Wachusett Aqueduct is an older parallel conduit to the Cosgrove Tunnel, and is still available as standby transmission for moving water from the Wachusett Reservoir to the Carroll Water Treatment Plant. It was used for this purpose during a tunnel shutdown in 2003.
The Hultman Aqueduct begins at the Carroll Water Treatment Plant and parallels the MetroWest Water Supply Tunnel (MWWST), which replaced it in 2003. After the MWWST's completion the Hultman Aqueduct underwent a major reconstruction project, which lasted from 2009 to 2014, with the goal of maintaining it as a standby alternative to the MWWST. With the completion of its refurbishment in 2014 it returned to standby status for use in the event the MWWST is unavailable.
The Wachusett Aqueduct open channel extends past the Carroll Water Treatment Plant and connects the underground portion of the Wachusett Aqueduct to the Sudbury Reservoir. Before the Hultman and Cosgrove aqueducts were built this served as the primary method of transmission for water from the Wachusett Reservoir. Although no longer used for that purpose it is maintained as emergency transmission. In an emergency this can be used to feed untreated Quabbin and Wachusett Reservoir water into the emergency source reservoirs.
The backup Weston Aqueduct runs from the Sudbury Reservoir in Framingham, running to the Loring Road storage tanks in Weston via the Weston Reservoir (a backup surface storage reservoir). The Hultman Aqueduct and the MWWST connect with the Sudbury Reservoir and Weston Aqueduct.
The Sudbury Aqueduct runs from Foss Reservoir (Framingham Reservoir No. 3) in Framingham directly to the Chestnut Hill Reservoir, parallelling the MWWST. Sudbury Reservoir and Foss Reservoir are connected by a surface waterway. Framingham Reservoirs No. 1 and No. 2 are downstream on the Sudbury River from No. 3, and are no longer designated as emergency water supplies.
Construction on a redundant barrel of the Chicopee Valley Aqueduct was substantially complete in 2008.
During the failure of the interconnection between the MWWST and City Tunnel in May 2010, the MWRA drew water from the Chestnut Hill Reservoir, Spot Pond Reservoir, and Sudbury Reservoir via the Sudbury Aqueduct. The Hultman Aqueduct was unavailable as a backup as it was undergoing reconstruction at the time.
In an emergency, water can be treated with sodium hypochlorite at any point in the system by deploying Mobile Disinfection Units – trailer-mounted units that the MWRA has stored at strategic locations throughout its system. Emergency chlorination was used during the main break of May 2010, but not quickly enough to prevent the need for a boil-water order; part of the delay was the need for follow-up testing.
Electrical generation The system includes three hydropower stations (one inactive) and two wind turbines, with a total capacity of 19.8 MW. Water released to the Swift River flows through the Winsor Station below the Winsor Dam but the turbines were damaged in a fire and have not been reactivated. Water transferred from Quabbin to Wachusett can pass either through the turbines at Oakdale or through bypass pipes when flow requirements exceed turbine ratings. Water released from Wachusett into the Cosgrove Tunnel passes through the Cosgrove turbines. The 4 original turbines in the Wachusett Gatehouse, located at the start of the Wachusett Aqueduct, have not been used in over 40 years. A 1.54MW turbine is currently being installed at the dam. A turbine at Southborough at the start of the Weston Aqueduct has also been inactive for a long period. MWRA power generation Name City Unit Year in service Year retired Output MW Type Winsor Dam Belchertown WINS 1950 Currently Out of Service 1.2 HY Oakdale West Boylston OAKD 1951 In service 3.5 HY Cosgrove Clinton UNI1 1969 In service 1.6 HY Cosgrove Clinton UNI2 1969 In service 1.6 HY