Talk:Weston Reservoir

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I'll try to get a photo this weekend LymanSchool 17:57, 12 October 2006 (UTC)

MWRA Overview
reverted changes made by anonymous because they were not supported by any references. I don't care if you "work there". If there isn't a public document that can be referenced, then the facts don't exist. The latest document I could find, that show the MWRA facilities, is a court order listed in the references. That is what the MWRA overview was based upon. Also, don't substitute [ [MWRA] ] for [ [Massachusetts Water Resources Authority|MWRA] ]. It creates a redirection. LymanSchool 16:08, 24 October 2006 (UTC)

-   - Also, MWRA now treats all water at Walnut Hill. This was because of the court order cited. Any of the open reservoirs could PROBABLY be used with no additional treatment. However, there are no available documents that state that the water could or could not be used directly, now that all of it is treated. So PLEASE don't add conjecture or original research. If you find a new document, cite it and rewrite the text to show the new information. LymanSchool 17:40, 24 October 2006 (UTC)

The court order that you cited was superceded by US District Court 98-10267 (United States of America vs. Massachusetts Water Resources Authority, and Metropolitan District Commission) of 05 MAY 2000.


 * There is an available document. The EPA's Surface Water Treatment Rule (40 CFR Parts 9, 141, and 142) prohibits finished water from being stored in open distribution reservoirs once it leaves a treatment plant, which is why the covered storage reservoirs were built in the first place. This would definitely preclude the Weston Reservoir going back into service in all but an emergency basis. The Weston (As well as the High Fells and Norumbega) were set up to disinfect water with gaseous chlorine and ammonia, which the MWRA would never revert to. All chlorimation equipment has been taken out of the Fells gatehouse and while some equipment remains at Weston and Norumbega, it has been capped off and all of the equipment designed to handle and connect the 1,000 lb. chlorine gas cylinders has been removed from both and the chlorine building at Norumbega is scheduled for demolition this spring as part of a Hultman Interconnection project. The building at Weston is scheduled to be converted next month to house the MWRA's Emergency Service Unit, which will include removal of the remaining ammonia tank.

The Weston could, in an extreme emergency, be fed from the Weston Aqueduct, which could bring Wachusett or even Sudbury water through a connection in Southborough, but it would require deployment of one of the MWRA's Mobile Disinfection Units (18-foot trailers equipped with pumps, generators, proportioning and measuring equipment and sodium hypochlorite tanks), which would probably be required elsewhere in the event of an emergency. -   - The MWRA overview keeps being edited with incorrect, undocumented information by some anonymous person. For instance, http://www.mwra.com/04water/html/watsys.htm shows that the new Carroll Treatment Plant is fed from the Wachusett, not the other way around. Anonymous is obviously a know-it-all that cannot even spell Carroll. I do not like my entries being screwed up in this manner with bogus information from anonymous persons. Therefore, I am through with this entry.LymanSchool 00:22, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

Water from the CWTP goes directly into the covered distribution reservoirs at Norumbega, Loring Road and the High Fells (and will go to a new covered reservoir at the Blue Hills upon completion) without seeing daylight. There is no CWTP water currently sent to the open reservoirs (Spot Pond Norumbega, Weston, Fells) although it could be in the event of a failure of the MWWST via the Hultman Aqueduct and/or the Weston Supply Mains. The Enhanced Surface Water Treatment Rule prohibits storing treated water in open reservoirs. The Town of Winchester takes water directly from Spot Pond on a seasonal basis, but it goes directly to their own treatment plant.

The Sudbury System, consisting of the Sudbury, Framingham Nos. 1, 2 and 3 and Chestnut Hill could be activated using the Sudbury Aqueduct, but the treatment apparatus for this system (consisting of a chlorination station at Leland Street in Framingham) was removed from service in the 1970s. The water quality in Framingham Nos. 2 and 3 is bad enough so that one of them was removed from service in 1931. The emergency would have to be catastrophic before Nos. 2 and 3 would be used and then it would only be for fire protection. The MWRA SOPs for the use of the Sudbury Aqueduct, Chestnut Hill, Sudbury, Framingham No. 1, Weston and Norumbega reservoirs include a boil order and the use of Mobile Disinfection Units at designated locations to add chloramine. This system was used for a few weeks in 1980 and the water quality was very bad.

As of 01 MAY 2008, all remaining chloramination equipment has been removed from the Weston Reservoir. Any use of this reservoir in the future would require deployment of one of the MWRA's four Mobile Disinfection Units (MDUs). The reservoir building is now the quarters of the MWRA Emergency Service Unit.