Harwich Water Department News & Events Archive

Harwich New Source Investigations

The Harwich Water Department recently completed a Water System Master Plan that comprehensively evaluated the entire system in terms of supply, storage and distribution. One of the considerations during the evaluation was the clustered exiting water supplies in the southeastern area of the town that serves as the majority of the town's water supply source. Over 50% of the Town's water supply is concentrated in this area, putting the Town at risk if the aquifer were to become impacted in this area and become unavailable for use. For this reason, the Master Plan recommended and the Water Department is now pursuing development of new water supplies in other areas of the Town.

Seven alternative sites that could serve as new water supplies for the Town were evaluated as part of the Master Plan, and all seven sites prove to have merit because they are on property already owned by the Water Department and they meet Department of Environmental Protection's (DEP) siting criteria for water supplies. A property located in the northwest area of Town, on the opposite side of the Town that the existing wells are concentrated, was selected as the preferred site to be pursued as the Town's next water supply location. The Water Department already has one well on the property (Well #10), which has been in operation since the early 1990s. The large tract of land that this well is located on provides great potential for additional water supply wells. The Water Department has initiated the DEP permitting process for this new water supply, which typically requires at least 3 years to complete.