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Home > Departments > WATER RESOURCES DEPARTMENT > TOUR
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| TOUR THE WESTFIELD SYSTEM |
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| Granville Reservoir | The Granville Reservoir, located in the Town of Granville, under normal conditions supplies more than half of the water distributed by the Westfield Water Department. The dam and reservoir were constructed in 1929, after studies indicated that the City of Westfield would be running short of water and this would provide the City sufficient water until 1950. The dam is of earthen construction and is eighty (80) feet high and eight hundred fifty (850) feet long at the top. The capacity is six hundred thirty million (630,000,000) gallons of water and covers eighty-one (81) acres when full. The average depth is twenty-five (25) feet with the maximum of fifty-five (55) feet. The dam cost almost $164,000.
The Reservoir Caretaker oversees the day to day operations of the Granville Watershed as well as looking after the other 5 dams belonging to the Westfield Water Department. |
| Treatment Plant | The Granville Reservoir Water Filtration Plant, located on Reservoir Road in Southwick, filters and treats all water delivered from the City’s Granville Reservoir Supply. This plant was placed on-line in 1994.
The plant runs 24 hours a day 7 days a week. The Treatment Plant treats and filters all the water coming from the Granville Reservoir. The plant is staffed 7 days a week by one Head Operator and two Treatment Plant Operators. These operators are required to hold Massachusetts Drinking Water Treatment Licenses. The running of this plant is very technical in nature and these people have received some intensive training. The Treatment Plant Operators are also responsible for all the water quality sampling for the City. Some of these samples are taken weekly, some monthly, and some quarterly. This sampling program assures us that the water we are providing meets all Federal and State requirements.
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| Picture to the left is the inside of the Treatment Plant on Reservoir Road in Southwick where water from the Granville Reservoir is filtered and treated to produce the high quality potable water delivered to the City. |
| Tanks | The Westfield Water System has four water storage tanks with a total volume of 11.7 million gallons. These tanks store water for high usage times and are refilled when water demand is low. They help to maintain pressure in the system.
Picture to the left is the Sackett Tank with a capacity of 3.0 million gallons. |
| Wells | | The City has a series of 8 wells located throughout the City. The picture to the left is Well #2 on Union St. In addition to the main pump inside the well house, most wells have an emergency power supply and chemical feed systems. The pumps are turned on and off by the level in the storage tanks that they serve. |
| Distribution | The City has more than 200 miles of piping in the ground distributing water from the sources to residences and businesses. The earliest sections of the system were installed in 1874 and most of those are still in use today. These pipes were made of cast iron which was typical of water pipes up through the 1950s.
Starting in the 1960s some water piping was constructed of asbestos and concrete. This piping was relatively inexpensive to purchase and install.
Presently the Water Department uses ductile iron pipe coated internally with cement. This material is superior in strength and durability, and the cement coating helps to prevent corrosion. |
| Shop | The backbone of the Water Department is the distribution system operations and maintenance. This crew operates and maintains over 200 miles of water mains of various conditions. Some of these are the original mains installed in 1874. They install all new services and mains. This can be hard and dangerous work. The men involved with this work are on-call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Another important area the department deals with is maintenance of fire hydrants. Hydrants are inspected for proper operation to insure adequate fire protection for the City. Mains are flushed through the hydrants yearly to clean out settled debris and corrosion products.
The Shop Clerk handles customer calls, writes work orders and keeps distribution records which allow for smooth operation of the whole department. |
| Engineering | | The Engineering group consists of two Engineering Aides. The Engineering Office is located at 27 Sackett Street, above the vehicle garage. They are responsible for the Cross Connection Control Program, updating the City's Geographical Information System (GIS) water layers, administering the Confined Space Entry Program, construction inspections, markouts of water infrastructure, testing and disinfection of new water mains, and many other tasks assigned to them. |
| Main Office | The main office of the Water Department consists of the Superintendent, Deputy Superintendent, Office Manager, and 2 clerks. The Superintendent and the Deputy Superintendent are both required to hold Grade 4 Drinking Water Licenses and oversee the day to day working of the department and the system.
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| Meter Reading | With the start of residential metering, we've had to develop a program to read the meters on a regular basis. We do this with 2 meter readers who read a third of the City each month. With a city of approximately 47 and a half square miles to cover, this is a large task.
Our meter readers are sometimes in snow up to their hips, meet with unfriendly dogs, mad hornets and bees, and angry customers. With the meter program, we also have a person designated to install and repair meters.
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