The Cleaner, Greener, More Affordable Water Cooler for Hartford

The fertile Connecticut River Valley and its abundance of fresh water immediately impressed European settlers when they first arrived in Hartford. But over time, residents habitually dumped waste into their waterways, making it dangerously unsanitary. By 1867, locals could no longer source Hartford drinking water from the Connecticut River. To provide clean water, Hartford city engineers built a multi-reservoir system, including the Nepaug Reservoir which used gravity to bring water from the northwest hills of Connecticut. Then, in 1929, a public non-profit municipal corporation, The Metropolitan District, formed to modernize the drinking water and sewer system.

As the city grew, planners constructed additional reservoirs and dams to bolster Hartford water supply. In 1948, they constructed the Barkhamsted Reservoir, the largest single water supply reservoir in the state. The city also initiated aggressive cleanup programs of its rivers and watersheds. Hartford continues to source from surface water outlets in drainage areas that cover approximately 89.7 square miles. These sources include the 30.3-billion-gallon Barkhamsted Reservoir, impounded by the Saville Dam, and the 9.5-billion-gallon Nepaug Reservoir, created by the Phelps Brook and Nepaug Dams.

The Metropolitan District continues to monitor and filter Hartford tap water, with additional treatment handled by the Reservoir No. 6 plant in Bloomfield. According to the recent Hartford Water Quality report, the city remains in compliance with federal requirements. However, urban and agricultural runoff often contaminates open surface water reservoirs, and some samples may still contain microbial contaminants (such as viruses or bacteria), salts, metals, and pesticides.

Like many older American cities, substantial portions of Hartford’s water infrastructure use cast iron pipes, a plumbing standard until the mid-1960s. Older cast iron pipes are prone to corrosion and biofilm contamination from chemical reactions, which result in “rotten egg” taste and smell. To combat the corrosion and biofilm contamination, treatment facilities add chlorine, which gives water a bitter, metallic taste.