Drinking Water

The Cambridge Water Department supplies approximately 13 million gallons per day of drinking water to more than 100,000 customers. Raw water is obtained from a serial system of three primary storage reservoirs—Cambridge Reservoir (also known as the Hobbs Brook Reservoir), Stony Brook Reservoir, and Fresh Pond Reservoir—in parts of Cambridge, Lexington, Lincoln, Waltham, and Weston, Massachusetts...

The Providence Water Supply Board (Providence Water) and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) are collaborating on a study to predict future water demand in and around the city of Providence.

As part of water-quality data collection activities in New England, water samples are analyzed for chloride in monitoring networks and projects across Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. Chloride is of interest because high concentrations may affect aquatic life in streams or affect water quality of reservoirs and aquifers used for drinking water.

The Scituate Reservoir system is the largest inland body of water in Rhode Island and the principal drinking-water supply for more than 60 percent of the State’s population. The system includes the Scituate Reservoir and five tributary reservoirs with a maximum storage capacity of 37 billion gallons. The drainage basin that contributes water to the reservoir extends across 93 square miles in...

Droughts are one of the most expensive and damaging hydrologic hazards in the United States. They are generally slow in developing, frequently occur over a long period of time, and can affect large areas and populations.

Monthly water use estimates for New England and the rest of the conterminous U.S. are now available for the three largest categories of use in the United States: public supply, crop irrigation, and thermoelectric power generation.

The USGS, in cooperation with the Town of Barnstable and MassWildlife, is assessing the potential effects of new water-supply withdrawals on groundwater levels in the Hyannis Ponds Wildlife Management Area on Cape Cod. A groundwater-flow model is being used to simulate the effects of several possible withdrawal and wastewater-return flow scenarios developed by the Town of Barnstable and...

The USGS and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are examining the potential effects of droughts on the arsenic hazard in private well water across the Nation.