Random Article Summary #126

The Holyoke Water Works (HWW), also known as the Holyoke Reservoir System, is a public agency for the City of Holyoke, Massachusetts that provides clean drinking water to the city. It was established in 1872 by the Massachusetts General Court to meet the needs of a growing population and local industry. In the late 1800s, the system was built as a network of reservoirs to supply drinking water. Today, its main water sources are the Tighe-Carmody Reservoir in Southampton and the McLean Reservoir in Holyoke, with extra backup water stored at the Ashley and Whiting Street Reservoirs. HWW is responsible for managing drinking water supply systems, related infrastructure, and protecting watershed land. Sewage and stormwater treatment are handled by the City’s Department of Public Works instead. Holyoke Water Works mainly serves Holyoke, but it once supplied most of Southampton through inactive connections with the Southampton Water Department. The system also delivers water via branch lines from a pipeline built in 1953, and the town can still draw a limited amount of water for free each day. Although the water is fluoridated and chlorinated, its reservoir system has no filtration, which is rare in Massachusetts aside from a few other protected water sources. More than 99% of Holyoke households get their water from the Reservoir System, but some homes in the Smith’s Ferry and Rock Valley areas still rely on private wells. In Rock Valley, wells draw from the Barnes Aquifer and may need added home filtration because of TCE contamination from industrial degreasers dumped by General Electric in the 1950s. For this reason, the City stopped maintaining public wells there after the Pequot and Coronet Hills wells closed in 1988.