The Ware River Diversion is a dam on the Ware River. It is part of the Boston, Massachusetts public water supply system, maintained by the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA). It is located in Worcester County in the town of Barre, close to its border with Oakham.
Water flows from the Quabbin Reservoir to the Wachusett Reservoir using natural siphon action, through a tunnel called the Quabbin Aqueduct. This aqueduct is one of the longest in the world. The high point for the tunnel route is at the Ware River in South Barre, Massachusetts, near State Route 122 and Coldbrook Road.
At this point, a facility called the Ware River Diversion exists to control the Quabbin Aqueduct. This facility, consisting of a dam and hydraulic control systems, diverts the water from the Ware River into the aqueduct to either start a natural siphon or to store excess Ware River water in the Quabbin Reservoir. The Ware River Diversion is part of the Chicopee River Watershed.
On June 15, 1987, the Ware River Intake, which is where the water goes into the diversion, was re-dedicated and named the Roger H. Lonergan Intake.
If the aqueduct route from the Ware River Diversion to the Wachusett Reservoir is closed (the Wachusett-Coldbrook branch) and water diversion occurs, water flows from the Ware River, back down grade to the Quabbin Reservoir for storage. This is typically done when the Wachusett Reservoir water level is increasing due to run-off from its own watershed.
If the aqueduct route from the Ware River Diversion to the Wachusett Reservoir is open, diversion of water from the Ware River water into both the Wachusett and the Quabbin Reservoir routes will start the siphon. Once the siphon starts, water from the Ware River Diversion stops and the water flows from the Quabbin to the Wachusett Reservoirs continue naturally.
The Quabbin Reservoir is the largest inland body of water in Massachusetts, and was built between 1930 and 1939. Along with the Wachusett Reservoir, it is the primary water supply for Boston, 65 miles (105 km) to the east, and 40 other cities and towns in Greater Boston. The Quabbin also supplies water to three towns west of the reservoir and acts as backup supply for three others. By 1989, it supplied water for 2.5 million people, about 40% of the state's population at the time. It has an aggregate capacity of 412 billion US gallons (1,560 GL) and an area of 38.6 square miles (99.9 km2).
The Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA) is a public authority in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts that provides wholesale drinking water and sewage services to certain municipalities and industrial users in the state, primarily in the Boston area.
The Mass Central Rail Trail is a partially-completed rail trail from Northampton, Massachusetts to Boston along the former right of way of the Massachusetts Central Railroad. When complete, it will run 104 miles (167 km) through Central Massachusetts and Greater Boston. Many segments of the trail, including the Norwottuck Branch Rail Trail and the Somerville Community Path, have been developed as separate projects but will serve as part of the complete Mass Central Rail Trail.
The Wachusett Reservoir is the second largest body of water in the state of Massachusetts. It is located in central Massachusetts, northeast of Worcester. It is part of the water supply system for metropolitan Boston maintained by the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA). It has an aggregate capacity of 65 billion US gallons (250,000,000 m3) and an area of almost 7 square miles (18 km2). Water from the reservoir flows to the covered Norumbega Storage Facility via the Cosgrove Tunnel and the MetroWest Water Supply Tunnel. The reservoir has a maximum depth of 120 feet (37 m) and a mean depth of 48 feet (15 m).
The Wachusett Dam in Clinton, Massachusetts, impounds the Nashua River, creating the Wachusett Reservoir. Construction started in 1897 and was completed in 1905. It is part of the Nashua River Watershed.
The Midstate Trail is a scenic footpath which runs 92 miles (148 km) through Worcester County, Massachusetts, from the Rhode Island border to the New Hampshire border, approximately 45 miles (72 km) west of Boston. The trail is considered highly accessible, scenic, and remarkably rural despite its proximity to urban Boston. The trail includes the summits of Mount Wachusett and Mount Watatic, as well as many interesting geologic, historic, and natural features.
The Winsor Dam and the Goodnough Dike impound the waters of the Swift River and the Ware River Diversion forming the Quabbin Reservoir, the largest water body in Massachusetts. According to the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation the Winsor Dam is one of the largest dams in the Eastern U.S. The Winsor Dam is part of the Chicopee River Watershed. The Winsor Dam was named for Frank E. Winsor, its chief engineer.
The Quabbin Aqueduct carries water from the Quabbin Reservoir to the Wachusett Reservoir. It is part of the Eastern Massachusetts public water supply system, maintained by the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA). At 25 miles (40 km) in length, it is one of the longest aqueduct tunnels in the world being 1⁄2 mile (0.8 km) shorter than the Hetch Hetchy Aqueduct.
The Ware River is a 35.4-mile-long (57.0 km) river in central Massachusetts. It has two forks, the both of which begin in Hubbardston, Massachusetts. The Ware River flows southwest through the middle of the state, joins the Quaboag River at Three Rivers, Massachusetts, to form the Chicopee River on its way to the Connecticut River.
The Wachusett Aqueduct is a secondary aqueduct that carries water from the Wachusett Reservoir to the John J. Carroll Water Treatment Plant at Walnut Hill in Marlborough, Massachusetts. It is part of the public water supply system for the communities of Greater Boston that are served by the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA), which manages the aqueduct. The aqueduct serves as a standby backup to the Cosgrove Tunnel.
The Quinapoxet River is part of the Nashua River watershed in northern Massachusetts in the United States. It is part of the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority water system supplying drinking water to the greater Boston area.
The Stillwater River is part of the Nashua River watershed. This river is part of the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority system that supplies drinking water to the greater Boston area.
The Weston Reservoir is part of the greater Boston water supply maintained by the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority. It is located in central Weston, with its principal public access point on Ash Street.
The Goodnough Dike is on the southeastern end of the Quabbin Reservoir, the largest water body in Massachusetts. It impounds the waters of Beaver Brook and therefore closes that exit to the Chicopee River Watershed. The Goodnough Dike is not as large as the Winsor Dam, but it is equally important as they both trap the waters of the Quabbin Reservoir. This dam is part of the metropolitan Boston's water supply, maintained by the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority.
The Barre Falls Dam is located on the Ware River in Barre, Massachusetts, about 0.3 mile (0.48 km) below the junction of the river's east and west branches and 13 miles (21 km) northwest of Worcester, Massachusetts.
The Weston Aqueduct is an aqueduct operated by the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA). Now part of the MWRA backup systems, it was designed to deliver water from the Sudbury Reservoir in Framingham to the Weston Reservoir in Weston. The 13.5-mile (21.7 km) aqueduct begins at the Sudbury Dam, and passes through the towns of Southborough, Framingham, Wayland, and Weston. In 1990, the route, buildings and bridges of the aqueduct were added to the National Register of Historic Places as the Weston Aqueduct Linear District.
The Sudbury Dam Historic District is a historic district on the southeastern end of Sudbury Reservoir off Massachusetts Route 30 in Framingham and Southborough, Massachusetts. The district encompasses the Sudbury Dam, which impounds the reservoir, and an area encompassing several historic structures located below the dam. The area includes water-supply-related structures from three phases of development of the Greater Boston water supply system. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990.
The Sudbury Aqueduct is an aqueduct in Massachusetts. It runs for 16 miles (26 km) from Farm Pond at Waverly Street in Framingham to Chestnut Hill Reservoir in Boston’s Chestnut Hill neighborhood. A later built extension main runs from the Farm Pond gatehouse to the gatehouse at the Stearns Reservoir where additional mains connect to the Brackett and Foss Reservoirs Going east from Framingham, it runs through Sherborn before entering Natick. From Natick it runs east through Wellesley and Needham to the Charles River, which it crosses on the Echo Bridge into Newton. It ends at the Chestnut Hill Reservoir on the Newton side of the Newton-Boston line. The Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA) operates the aqueduct.
The Hultman Aqueduct forms part of the water supply system of eastern Massachusetts, managed by the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA). The aqueduct extends from Southborough to Weston, connecting the Cosgrove Tunnel to the distribution network in the Greater Boston area. Opened in 1939, it replaced the Weston Aqueduct. It is now itself a secondary system, having been supplanted as the primary conduit in 2003 by the MetroWest Water Supply Tunnel. From 2009 to 2014, it was rehabilitated and taken offline, in order to repair leaks which were causing losses of at least 400,000 US gallons (1,500,000 L) of water per day in the 1990s.
The Sudbury Reservoir is an emergency backup Boston metropolitan water reservoir in Massachusetts, located predominantly in Southborough and Marlborough, with small sections in Westborough and Framingham. It was created when the Sudbury Dam was constructed to impound the Stony Brook branch of the Sudbury River; no part of the reservoir lies in the town of Sudbury. Nearly 5,000 acres (2,000 ha) in the Sudbury Reservoir watershed are administered by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation as a limited-access public recreation area.
