Water

Over 2.5 billion people in the world lack access to sanitary water. As a result millions of people die every year due to water related illness. Living and going to school in Worcester we enjoy some of the highest quality water in the world

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Kettle Brook Reservoir #1

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Worcester Reservoir Map

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South of Tucson

El Paso TX

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Part of the reason is that central Massachusetts receives abundant precipitation with an average of over 44 inches. Desert region cities within the U.S. such as Tucson,AZ or El Paso, TX, in contrast, receive an annual average of 3-12 and 9 inches each, respectively. Further, Worcester’s water reservoirs are fed by the headwaters of the Blackstone and Nashua River Watersheds (areas drained by a river) and by extension are at higher elevations than the bulk of human developments and polluting sources in addition to being located in areas with varying degrees of effective primary protection barriers ( actions taken to prevent pollution) consisting of ownership of surrounding land, evergreen trees bordering the reservoirs, and pronounced buffer zones (barriers and vegetation/soil areas between roads/human activity and a reservoir). Last, water from these reservoirs is filtered at an EPA regulated water filtration plant in Holden,MA before being distributed, primarily through gravity, to the city of Worcester and surrounding towns. The EPA (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency) is the governmental body responsible for setting and enforcing environmental regulations( standards for allowable pollution). In the U.S. water is primarily protected under law by the Clean Water Act and Safe Drinking Water Act. For more details read the last parapraph and attached Worcester Water Quality Report.

Many cities and towns across Massachusetts receive water from reservoirs, Boston and other MWRA members being the largest supplied via the 412 billion gallon Quabbin Reservoir located in central MA. However, many other citizens get water from town and individual property wells which pump groundwater. Groundwater has the potential of being clean do to the natural filtration materials of the earth (sand, gravel, clay, etc.). However, contaminated water can be hard to detect and even harder to clean up depending on the type and source of pollution. Further, do to increasing water demand many wells are dug deep underground into bedrock which can increase arsenic (a toxic heavy metal) pollution of the water.

The Worcester Water Filtration Plant filters about 22 million gallons of water every day by collecting water from 10 reservoirs (containing 8 billion gallons) located throughout the Blackstone and Nashua River Watersheds, running it through a 10-step filtration process, and then using gravity and pumps to deliver it through 600 miles of piping to Worcester and surrounding towns. Worcester water meets every EPA Safe Drinking Water Act standard, with the exception of a few detected cases of lead due to old piping in homes ( the solution to which is to simply run the faucet for at least 30 seconds to flush out stagnant water before filling up larger water containers). Click on Worcester’s Water Quality Report 2006 below, for a detailed report and list of reservoirs, their locations, and estimated volumes.

Worcester Water Quality Report 2006

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A key component in providing sanitary and potable water is waste water treatment technologies. For the city of Worcester and surrounding towns, the Upper Blackstone Water Pollution Abatement District filters (physically, biologically, and chemically) an average of 37 million gallons of wastewater a day, which after treatment is discharged back into the Blackstone while meeting Clean Water Act standards and accounting for upwards of 66% of total headwater flow to the river during dry summer periods.

Below is a video on water shortages in southern Californian.

Below is a video on

Below is a video of one type of wastewater treatment plant:

Below is shorter video of the biological treatment performed in aeration tanks