Harwich Water Department News & Events Archive

New Main Station Wells Installed

As you are aware, late last fall the Harwich Water Department lost the use of the Main Station Wells, which are located at 196 Chatham Road in Harwich. Emergency measures were taken by the Town to transfer funding from line item #364 (Water Mains) in order to have these wells replaced and on-line as soon as possible.

The Department has replaced the original wells, which were installed in 1936, with 3 new 8"X12" gravel packed wells along with new submersible pumps and variable speed motors. This will allow the Department better control and management, of this finite natural resource. The original wells (which were old style vacuum pumps), have been replaced with the newest technology in pumping equipment. With the new 350 gpm submersible pumps with VFD's the Department will be able to better manage the impact and stress caused by the large volumes of water withdrawn from our aquifer during our peak demand period (May - September).

Due to the weather conditions this winter this project took much longer than anticipated, however, upon the completion of these new wells we were able to increase our yield from 550 gallons per minute to approximately 1000 gallons per minute.

The original yield for this wellfield was 1000 gallons per minute. We have now returned to the original yield for this wellfield. This is the permitted yield as established by the Department of Environmental Protection. If you have any questions please feel free to contact the Harwich Water Department at 508-432-0304.