Pumping Station and Wells – Dracut MA

City:
Dracut, MA

Site Type:
Parks and Recreation, Tennis Courts

New Deal Agencies:
Works Progress Administration (WPA), Work Relief Programs

Description

Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) labor conducted water system expansion work in Dracut, Mass. WPA Bulletin:

If you were asked to locate an additional water supply for your community probably the last place you would look would be a shaded, waterless forest. Engineers, generally a contrary lot, don’t care for the obvious and a dry forest on such a quest wouldn’t automatically be overlooked. Evidence of all this may be found in Dracut where, since its settlement in 1630, the town has been handicapped during dry summer weather by an inadequate water supply. When Federal funds became available a program to find a new water supply was adopted. No surface water was available. Soundings had to be made for an underground supply. Selecting the forest between Lakeview and Long Lake, drilling brought to light a water table located in a strata of gravel which millions of years ago was a pre-glacial river. This water was subjected to exhaustive tests and found to be so pure it was not necessary to supplement natural filtration. Recently WPA workers completed the project which dug and connected 50 wells to a one-story, brick pumping station in the woods. This station is connected to the town’s water mains and a work of nature started ages ago has solved Dracut’s water problem in 1937.

The exact location and status of this facility is unknown to Living New Deal.

Source notes

Works Progress Bulletin, Massachusetts: Oct. 1, 1937 (pg. 2) https://archive.org/details/worksprogressbul3637unit

Site originally submitted by Evan Kalish on February 19, 2017.

Location Info


Dracut, MA

Location notes: Approximate location

Coordinates: 42.682874, -71.365364

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