DESCRIPTION OF ISSUE
WHERE/WHEN APPLICABLE
LINKS

DESCRIPTION OF ISSUE:
Many Heart of the City residents do not know where their drinking water comes from. In the Heart of the City, local groundwater supplies are inadequate for the needs of the population. Local groundwater is also contaminated by leakages from underground storage tanks and contaminated runoff. Thus, the Heart of the City and Greater Boston relies on an outside source for drinking water. The water is gravity-fed to the area via pipes from the Quabbin and Wachusett reservoirs in central and western Massachusetts. The Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA) provides an average of 250 million gallons of water per day to the 46 communities it serves - far more than would be available to the population if it were forced to rely on local supplies.

The Quabbin Reservoir is more than 50 miles from the Heart of the City, covers 39 square miles, and is 150 feet deep. The MWRA flooded four towns to create the reservoir in the 1930s. The authority provides an average of 250 million gallons per day to the 46 communities it serves.

The water in the Quabbin and Wachusett Reservoirs meets and exceeds the EPA's Safe Drinking Water Act requirements for quality. MWRA currently disinfects the water with chlorine, adds fluoride for dental protection, and alters chemistry to prevent lead from leaching out of old household plumbing. Beginning in 2005, MWRA will begin using a new treatment plant featuring ozone gas, which is a more powerful disinfectant without the byproducts associated with chlorine (Frederick Laskey, executive director of the MWRA, Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston Lecture on the MWRA, October 7, 2002).

The water supply remains pristine in large part because the watershed around the reservoirs has been protected through large investments. For example, the Metropolitan District Commission (MDC) spent more than $100 million in the late 1980s and 1990s to purchase almost 20,000 acres of land around the Quabbin and Wachusett Reservoirs, as well as the Ware River Watershed.

The MWRA delivers water to local suppliers who charge residents for usage. Southern High Service serves Dorchester, Roslindale, and parts of Jamaica Plain and Roxbury, while Southern Extra-High Service serves portions of Jamaica Plain.

The MWRA is working on a $1.7 billion Integrated Water Supply Improvement Program that will significantly upgrade the entire water system from watersheds to the customer's tap. The new 17.6-mile-long MetroWest Water Supply Tunnel was completed in November 2003 after seven years of construction and serves as the secure backbone transmission tunnel to bring water to the MetroBoston area. Several new covered storage reservoirs have also been built to improve water quality and security.

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WHERE/ WHEN APPLICABLE:
Underground storage tanks:
Although Heart of the City residents do not drink their groundwater, by law, leaky underground storage tanks that hold or have held gasoline, oil, chemicals, and other toxics must be cleaned up if redevelopment of these areas is to occur. In areas where underground storage tanks exist, redevelopers must remove the tanks and remove contaminated water from the site. For example, when the Grove Hall Mecca Mall was redeveloped, environmental remediation experts removed and recycled contaminated soil, removed 11 gasoline tanks, and shipped contaminated water away from the site. Leaky underground storage tanks that affect the groundwater have or will be removed in Mattapan in preparation for the construction of a new middle school.

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LINKS:

Basic information about groundwater

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