Scope and Content: Responsibility for operating a system of waterworks and sewers in Boston and surrounding communities was exercised successively by the Metropolitan Water Board (1895-1901) and Board of Metropolitan Sewerage Commissioners (1889-1901); the Metropolitan Water and Sewerage Board (1901-1919); and the Metropolitan District Commission (MDC) (since 1919), specifically its Water and Sewerage divisions.  Upon abolition of the Metropolitan District Water Supply Commission (1926-1947), which constructed the Quabbin Reservoir, responsibility for that agency’s capital construction projects and for those of the Water and Sewerage Divisions of the MDC was given to the MDC’s Construction Division, known by 1972 as the Engineering Division.
Arrangement: Arranged by project or contract no.
Notes: Transferred chiefly from Metropolitan District Commission, 1980 (1980/179) –copied from originals in MDC archives ca. 1985 by Boston Affiliates, Inc. as part of Deer Island Pumping Station documentation project for Historic American Engineering Record; presented to Archives by Boston Affiliates, Inc., Dec. 20, 1991. –removed to: Massachusetts. Metropolitan District Commission. Metropolitan Water Works photograph collection, 1876-1930 ((M-Ar)2630X) –removed to: Massachusetts. Charles River Basin Commission. Construction photographs ((M-Ar)2299X); Massachusetts. Metropolitan District Commission. Parks contract photographs ((M-Ar)1326) –transferred to Archives by Massachusetts Institute of Technology Archives, Jan. 13, 1997 (1997/5); some items later removed to box 1, then to series (M-Ar)2630X, subseries 3, box 11. –7600 series MWW photographic print albums chiefly removed to series (M-Ar)2630X as subseries 2, with paper copy prints (chiefly boxes 101-108) deaccessioned
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Scope and Content: Massachusetts has administered water works and sewage disposal for the Boston metropolitan area successively through the Board of Metropolitan Sewerage Commissioners (Metropolitan Sewerage Commission) (1889-1901) and the Metropolitan Water Board (1895-1901); the Metropolitan Water and Sewerage Board (1901-1919); and the Water and Sewerage Divisions of the Metropolitan District Commission (1919-1985).  Since 1985, the sewerage works functions have been assigned to the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA), and the water works functions have been shared by the MWRA (distribution) and the Metropolitan District Commission (to 2003) and the Dept.  of Conservation and Recreation (since 2003) (water supply reservoirs and their watershed management). –As part of its function to construct, maintain, and operate a metropolitan water supply system, the Water Works of the Metropolitan Water and Sewerage Board (1901-1919), and the Water Division of the Metropolitan District Commission (1919-1985) were authorized (St 1902, c 391) to document the weekly, monthly, and yearly rate of water consumption, and did so through the use of Venturi meters. The Metropolitan Water and Sewerage Board’s: Report on the measurement, consumption and waste of water supplied to the Metropolitan Water District (Feb. 1904) details the original installation of the Venturi meters in 1902-1903. Italian physicist G. B. Venturi (1746-1822) discovered ca. 1791 that when a fluid flows through a cone-shaped pipe there is a decrease in pressure at the small end. Clemens Herschel (1842-1930), a hydraulic engineer who had been a Massachusetts railroad commissioner (1881-1883) and co-designer (with William G. Preston (1842/4-1910) of the 1867 footbridge over the Public Garden Pond in Boston, applied this law of nature to a type of water meter he invented in 1887 and patented in 1888. A Venturi meter is a short pipe or tube with a constricted inner surface or throat used for measuring fluid pressures and velocities by measuring the differential pressures generated at the throat as a fluid traverses the tube. Pages 14-15 of the 1904 report describes how the Venturi meter worked as applied to this metropolitan water supply system. The Sewerage Works of the Metropolitan Water and Sewerage Board applied the first Venturi meter for the measurement of sewage in the country at the Ward Street (Roxbury) pumping station in 1904.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
Notes: Transferred to Archives from Metropolitan District Commission
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Scope and Content: State oversight of public drinking water supplies and systems in Massachusetts  has been exercised successively by the following agencies: State Board of Health (1869-1879), State Board of Health, Lunacy, and Charity (1879-1886), and State Board of Health (1886-1914); also State Dept. of Health (1914-1919) and Dept. of Public Health (1919-1975), specifically from 1914 under the Division of Sanitary Engineering, renamed Division of Environmental Health in 1969 (including its Bureau of Water Supply and Water Quality). As of 1975 the division’s functions were transferred to the Dept. of Environmental Quality Engineering (renamed Dept. of Environmental Protection in 1989), where that relating to water supply was assigned to the Division of Water Supply within the Bureau of Resource Protection.
Arrangement: Arranged alphabetically by municipality
Notes: Transferred to Archives by Dept. of Environmental Protection, Jan. 2014
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Scope and Content: Massachusetts has administered water works and sewage disposal for the Boston metropolitan area successively through the Board of Metropolitan Sewerage Commissioners (Metropolitan Sewerage Commission) (1889-1901) and the Metropolitan Water Board (1895-1901); the Metropolitan Water and Sewerage Board (1901-1919); and the Water and Sewerage Divisions of the Metropolitan District Commission (1919-1985).  Since 1985, the sewerage works functions have been assigned to the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA), and the water works functions have been shared by the MWRA (distribution) and the Metropolitan District Commission (to 2003) and the Dept.  of Conservation and Recreation (since 2003) (water supply reservoirs and their watershed management).
Arrangement: In two sequences: (1) blueprint (2) onionskin; within each sequence arranged chronologically
Notes: Transferred to Archives from Metropolitan District Commission
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Scope and Content: Massachusetts has administered water works and sewage disposal for the Boston metropolitan area successively through the Board of Metropolitan Sewerage Commissioners (Metropolitan Sewerage Commission) (1889-1901) and the Metropolitan Water Board (1895-1901); the Metropolitan Water and Sewerage Board (1901-1919); and the Water and Sewerage Divisions of the Metropolitan District Commission (1919-1985).  Since 1985, the sewerage works functions have been assigned to the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA), and the water works functions have been shared by the MWRA (distribution) and the Metropolitan District Commission (to 2003) and the Dept.  of Conservation and Recreation (since 2003) (water supply reservoirs and their watershed management).
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
Notes: Transferred to Archives from Metropolitan District Commission
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Scope and Content: Massachusetts has administered water works and sewage disposal for the Boston metropolitan area successively through the Board of Metropolitan Sewerage Commissioners (Metropolitan Sewerage Commission) (1889-1901) and the Metropolitan Water Board (1895-1901); the Metropolitan Water and Sewerage Board (1901-1919); and the Water and Sewerage Divisions of the Metropolitan District Commission (1919-1985).  Since 1985, the sewerage works functions have been assigned to the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA), and the water works functions have been shared by the MWRA (distribution) and the Metropolitan District Commission (to 2003) and the Dept.  of Conservation and Recreation (since 2003) (water supply reservoirs and their watershed management).
Notes: Transferred to Archives from Metropolitan District Commission
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Scope and Content: Massachusetts has administered water works and sewage disposal for the Boston metropolitan area successively through the Board of Metropolitan Sewerage Commissioners (Metropolitan Sewerage Commission) (1889-1901) and the Metropolitan Water Board (1895-1901); the Metropolitan Water and Sewerage Board (1901-1919); and the Water and Sewerage Divisions of the Metropolitan District Commission (1919-1985).  Since 1985, the sewerage works functions have been assigned to the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA), and the water works functions have been shared by the MWRA (distribution) and the Metropolitan District Commission (to 2003) and the Dept.  of Conservation and Recreation (since 2003) (water supply reservoirs and their watershed management). –As part of its function to construct, maintain, and operate a metropolitan water supply system, the Metropolitan Water Board (1895-1901) in 1895 established the Aqueduct Dept. to coordinate the engineering work of the construction of a twelve-mile aqueduct (Nashua, later Wachusett) from the reservoir and dam at the Nashua River, Clinton, to Reservoir No. 5 (Sudbury Reservoir), Southborough, through the towns of Clinton, Berlin, Northborough, Marlborough, and Southborough. Initially, the Aqueduct Dept. also coordinated the engineering work for the reservoir and dam built upon the Nashua River, Clinton (Wachusett). In 1896, the reservoir component was transferred to the newly established Reservoir Dept., and the Aqueduct Dept. was renamed the Dam and Aqueduct Dept., continued under the Water Works of the Metropolitan Water and Sewerage Board (1901-1919).  In 1904/05, the Reservoir Dept. merged back into the Dam and Aqueduct Dept., and was renamed the Dam and Reservoir Dept.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
Notes: Transferred to Archives from Metropolitan District Commission
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Scope and Content: Massachusetts has administered water works and sewage disposal for the Boston metropolitan area successively through the Board of Metropolitan Sewerage Commissioners (Metropolitan Sewerage Commission) (1889-1901) and the Metropolitan Water Board (1895-1901); the Metropolitan Water and Sewerage Board (1901-1919); and the Water and Sewerage Divisions of the Metropolitan District Commission (1919-1985).  Since 1985, the sewerage works functions have been assigned to the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA), and the water works functions have been shared by the MWRA (distribution) and the Metropolitan District Commission (to 2003) and the Dept.  of Conservation and Recreation (since 2003) (water supply reservoirs and their watershed management).
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
Notes: Transferred to Archives from Metropolitan District Commission
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Scope and Content: Massachusetts has administered water works and sewage disposal for the Boston metropolitan area successively through the Board of Metropolitan Sewerage Commissioners (Metropolitan Sewerage Commission) (1889-1901) and the Metropolitan Water Board (1895-1901); the Metropolitan Water and Sewerage Board (1901-1919); and the Water and Sewerage Divisions of the Metropolitan District Commission (1919-1985).  Since 1985, the sewerage works functions have been assigned to the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA), and the water works functions have been shared by the MWRA (distribution) and the Metropolitan District Commission (to 2003) and the Dept.  of Conservation and Recreation (since 2003) (water supply reservoirs and their watershed management).
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
Notes: Transferred to Archives from Metropolitan District Commission
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Scope and Content: Massachusetts has administered water works and sewage disposal for the Boston metropolitan area successively through the Board of Metropolitan Sewerage Commissioners (Metropolitan Sewerage Commission) (1889-1901) and the Metropolitan Water Board (1895-1901); the Metropolitan Water and Sewerage Board (1901-1919); and the Water and Sewerage Divisions of the Metropolitan District Commission (1919-1985).  Since 1985, the sewerage works functions have been assigned to the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA), and the water works functions have been shared by the MWRA (distribution) and the Metropolitan District Commission (to 2003) and the Dept.  of Conservation and Recreation (since 2003) (water supply reservoirs and their watershed management).
Arrangement: Arranged alphabetically by surname
Restrictions: Personnel information restricted by statutory provision MGLA c 4, s 7, d 26(c) and c 66A. For conditions of access consult repository
Notes: Transferred to Archives from Metropolitan District Commission
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