The quest for drinking water in Rhode Island started in 1636 with Roger WILLIAMS. There being none at the place where he landed near Gano Street in Providence, he sailed around India Point and up the Providence River where he found a spring near North Main Street. Today that spring is named after Roger WILLIAMS and is part of a national historic site.
Much like our founding father, the early residents of Providence obtained most of their water from springs and wells although, prior to the introduction of the supply from the Pawtuxet River, there were several small community suppliers. One of the oldest appears to have been the Rawson Fountain Society, dating back to 1772, which supplied water from fountains or springs in the vincinty of Dean and Fountain streets. But by 1850, with population growth and increasing industralization, obtaining clean drinking water was becoming a serious problem. The Providence City Council created a committee to look into establishing a public water supply. In the spring of 1870 construction was started and on December 1, 1871 the first of thirty miles of service pipe was opened. The water supply was taken from the Pawtuxet River at Pettaconset and pumped to the Socanosset Reservoir, which was at the top of the hill, near the site of the National Guard Armory, on the road we now know as Reservoir Avenue.
It is interesting to note that in a report from the Providence Water Supply Board for the City of Providence, dated September 1924, mention is made that prior to 1906 water was taken directly from the Pawtuxet River without purification. It goes on to state that "the present source of supply is now highly polluted and, while water supply safe for use has been obtained since the introduction of filters, it is very desirable to procure water from a less polluted drainage area. Upon the Pawtuxet River and its branches above the water works intake, and within a radius of seven miles, are eighteen large mills and mill villages with a population of over 30,000 people, and with no systematic means of taking care of human or mill wastes."
In 1913 the City of Providence realized the need for a new supply of drinking water and appointed a Water Supply Board to find a new source for the city. Investigation led to the headwaters of the north branch of the Pawtuxet River and its two major tributaries, the Moswansicut and Ponaganset Rivers. On April 21, 1915 legislation was enacted allowing the condemnation of 16,000 acres of land. Over 1500 buildings were either moved or demolished. Scituate lost the villages of Ashland, Kent, Ponagansett, Richmond, Rockland, Saundersville and South Scituate. Also taken were parts of North Scituate and Clayville and the smaller villages of Elmdale and Harrisdale. 26.4 miles of new roads were constructed, including some 12 miles of state highways, and 36 miles of old roads were abandoned. Construction began in 1916 and by 1926 the largest project then undertaken in Rhode Island was completed.
A Large earth-filled dam (known as the Gainer Memorial Dam, named for Joseph H. GAINER who was mayor of Providence at the time, or Kent Dam, as it is more commonly called) holds back the largest freshwater body in Rhode Island, with a surface area of 3600 acres and a capacity of 39 billion gallons of water. It is an earth structure with an impervious earth core and rip-cap of stone to prevent erosion from the water upstream. The downstream slope is loamed and grassed. The dam is 3200 feet long with a maxiumum width at the base of about 640 feet and a height above the bed of 100 feet. The reservoir has a 92.8 square mile watershed.
Originally the reservoir was to provide water for the City of Providence but over the years it has met the needs of East Providence, Warren, Barrington, Bristol and currently there are negotiations in place to extend a pipe from Bristol to Newport. With this expansion has come additives to maintain water purity and this has led to widespread opinion that the taste has been affected. The proliferation of companies dispensing bottle water seems to prove the point.
In the mid 1960s the state, predicting that the Scituate Reservoir would become inadequate in the not too distant future, alerted the public to the need of finding another source of water. The Big River Reservoir project was proposed. First pronounced as being in some of the "best water land" in the state, plans were outlined for a water area of 3,420 feet, a land area of 85,000 acres, with a total of 29.7 square miles to be drained. The estimated cost was set at $80 million. Between 1964 and 1966 the state seized a total of 8600 acres of land in Coventry and West Greenwich. After a negative report from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and a veto from the U.S. Environmental Protective Agency, the project was abandoned. Instead of a reservoir the area is now the site of numerous wells.
Taken from The Pawtuxet Valley Historian, November 2003, Volume 17, issue 3
Related Sites:
Roger Williams Memorial
National Park Service on Roger Williams
The Big River Management Project
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