DOWNSTREAM Page Number 12 Wachusett Dam - 100 Years Old Wachusett Dam then and now. Completed in 1905 at left looking east and today, looking west, holding back 65 billion gallons of water. DCR, New Name, But Our Mission Remains The one hundredth anniversary of the laying of the last stone in the construction of the Unchanged Wachusett Dam will take place on June 24, 2005. The undertaking of a massive public works The Department of Conservation and project can take years and the building of this Recreation (DCR) was created in July 2003 dam, with only the power of man and horse, was when the legislature merged the no exception. The Metropolitan Water Board Metropolitan District Commission (MDC) was formed in 1895 and given broad powers to and the Department of Environmental find the solution for what had become an urgent Management (DEM). Chapter 26 of the problem. The urbanized hub of central New Acts of 2003, s. 290 transferred the England’s commerce had nearly exhausted the responsibilities of the former MDC Division existing water supplies of Spot Pond, the of Watershed Management entirely to the Cochituate Reservoir, and the multi-reservoir Office of Watershed Management within the Sudbury System. This challenge needed quick Division of Water Supply Protection. The resolution; the problem was resolved in a names have changed, but the mission of the relatively timely fashion with world-class Office of Watershed Management remains notoriety. The facts, figures and images in the constant: to provide pure water through following pages tell the story of the ten year responsible land management. process of constructing the Wachusett Dam. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 NUMBER 12 Spring 2005 Published by DCR Division of Water Supply Protection - www.mass.gov/dcr/waterSupply.htm A New Look for Downstream - Downstream was initiated in In This Issue: 1999 by the managers of the greater Boston drinking water supply lands as a twice The New DCR 1 yearly publication to foster communication on common land protection issues with A readers guide to how we’ve grown property owners in the Quabbin Reservoir/Ware River/Wachusett Reservoir water- Building Wachusett Dam 3 shed system. Greater interest in the nature of the Office of Watershed Manage- A very important Anniversary ment’s work has created some changes to the Downstream newslet- Historic Photo Essay 4 ter: a larger audience, a wider scope of topics, and a new layout. A visual account of building the dam Downstream now strives to present an expanded range of informative Watershed Education Program 7 features promoting responsible environmental practices along with Raising environmental awareness interesting topics and listings for family activities. The 100th anniver- Kids Corner 7 sary of the Wachusett Dam in Clinton, MA is the focus of this edition. DIY watershed and see how it works! DCR Office of Watershed Management, as always, encourages public From Concept to Reality 8 feedback on the information presented in this issue of Downstream, Design alternatives for the dam input on possible subjects for future articles, and general comments or concerns. See the back page for contact information. DOWNSTREAM Page2 Spring 2005 DCR - FROM PAGE 1 DCR’s Office of Watershed Chapter 149 of the Acts of 2004, s. 27, community officials and residents in Management is the steward of the vast and written into the general laws at this endeavor. Please visit water supply comprised of the Quabbin MGL c. 10, § 73. The trust provides a www.mass.gov/dcr/waterSupply.htm for Reservoir, Ware River, Wachusett more efficient mechanism for MWRA’s more detailed information about the Reservoir, and Sudbury Reservoir funding of the Office of Watershed activities of the DCR Office of watersheds. This watershed system Management. The Water Supply Watershed Management. provides the Massachusetts Water Protection Trust has a five person Resources Authority (MWRA) some of board of trustees, which is responsible -Joel Zimmerman, DCR/DWSP Regional the highest quality drinking water in the for approving the Office of Watershed Planner country to treat and distribute to over 2 Management’s annual work plan and million citizens of the Commonwealth. budget; the members represent the The DCR/MWRA System Map courtesy of MWRA There is a well established working executive director of the MWRA, the relationship between DCR and MWRA. secretary of the Executive Office of MWRA’s ratepayers entirely fund the Environmental Affairs, the president of Office of Watershed Management’s the Swift River Valley Historical Society, annual $30 million budget, including the chairperson of the MWRA costs associated with land acquisition Advisory Board, and a member jointly and payments in lieu of taxes. The selected by the North Worcester terms of this relationship are defined in County Quabbin Anglers Association, a Memorandum of Understanding Inc. and the Quabbin Fishermen’s (MOU) between the two agencies. Association, Inc.. The legislature further enhanced the The dedicated staff of the Office of ability of the Office of Watershed Watershed Management are committed Management to maintain this drinking to protecting these invaluable water supply by establishing a Water resources entrusted to them and Supply Protection Trust, created by working closely with the watershed A horse and buggy in the Wachusett Aqueduct while under construction. DOWNSTREAM Page3 Number 12 Building Wachusett Dam buildings, relocating cemeteries, and dam. Workers lived in “commissaries” stripping 3,943 acres of topsoil to a depth or encampments, comprised of sod huts The City of Boston had nearly of one foot, leaving a clean gravel bed for sleeping and crude wooden dining grown to the capacity of its water supply with little organic material. Soil removal halls. Hand labor was aided by two- by 1892. Several of the communities was completed with the assistance of a wheel, one-horse carts to move material surrounding Boston also found their small, three-foot gauge railroad that brought into the valley via a cable water resources dwindling due to operated on 27 miles of track, utilizing 25 system suspended across the Nashua industrialization and increasing small locomotives and 725 open gondola River valley from one of two sets of urbanization. It was evident that a cars. Over six miles of existing commercial movable towers, mounted on tracks. comprehensive scheme would be railroad was re-routed to 4.5 miles of new necessary to ensure an ample supply of track, including a new 1,100 foot rock clean water. The following year, the State tunnel adjacent to a 917 foot long steel Board of Health investigated possible viaduct. This viaduct would carry trains alternatives for a solution to this dilemma. 133 feet in the air across the Nashua River The three most viable alternatives Valley next to the new dam. The viaduct identified were: 1.) constructing an is now gone, but the supporting stone- aqueduct from Lake Winnipesauke in New work can still be seen today near the dam. Hampshire; 2.) capturing water from the The new reservoir would be over Merrimack River; and 3.) damming the eight miles long by two miles at its widest south branch of the Nashua River at a point with a surface area of 4,195 acres or narrow pass in Clinton. After thorough 6.65 square miles. Reservoir capacity was studies, the state chose to construct a planned to be over 63 billion gallons with Laborers who worked on the dam dam on the Nashua River, and thus create a maximum depth of 129 feet and an were housed in sod huts. the Wachusett Reservoir, at that time, the average depth of 46 feet. As progress largest man-made water body in the world. was made preparing the reservoir floor, Containment of the elevated The Metropolitan Water Works construction of a temporary dam and water level was to be augment by was established in 1895 by an act of State containment weir were also under way. earthen dikes on each side of the dam. legislature to oversee the project. The This temporary dam held back the flow of The dikes were partly composed of the dam location was 35 miles west of Boston, the Nashua River, while the weir carried spoils removed from the reservoir floor. but only 12 miles from the Sudbury the water past the construction site to a The North dike stretches in two Reservoir System, the link into the point further downstream. courses of 4,300 and 6,500 feet with a metropolitan water supply. The board Excavation for the Wachusett maximum height of 65 feet. The south was given broad powers for construction, dam commenced in October of 1900, after dike is 2,800 feet long, with a height of as well as land acquisition and transit the temporary dam was finished, and 30 feet. Both dikes are protected from route relocation. No firm cost estimate for continued for just over five years. The erosion along the reservoir shoreline the project was made, but the board was dam was constructed of granite masonry with a 12 foot layer of stone rip-rap. allowed to issue bonds up to $27 million. and stretches 944 feet across the Nashua The last stone of the In order to provide water to a River valley. At its highest point the dam Wachusett Dam was laid June 24,1905, thirsty metropolitan area as quickly as was 207 feet with a maximum thickness of while the North Dike was completed possible, as well as facilitate dam 185 feet at the bottom and 22.5 feet at the about 6 months earlier and the South construction, the first component of the top, just below the projecting cornice. Dike about 3 months later. Earth work system to be built was the Wachusett The top of the dam rises 20 feet above the preparing the upper edges of the Aqueduct.