Scope and Content: Responsibility for operating a system of waterworks for the Metropolitan Water District (Boston and surrounding communities) was transferred from the Metropolitan Water Board to the Metropolitan Water and Sewerage Board by St 1901, c 168 and then to the Metropolitan District Commission by St 1919, c 350, ss 213-219, specifically to its Water Division.  These agencies were successively responsible for providing an adequate supply of pure water; controlling ponds and other watershed property; and constructing, operating, and maintaining reservoirs, aqueducts, and other waterworks.  Subject files were created to assist directors in the administration of the Water Division and its predecessors.
Arrangement: Arranged alphabetically by subject
Notes: Subject files were part of an administrative file that was selectively retained by the Archives.  See also series (M-Ar)569X, (M-Ar)570X, and (M-Ar)894X
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Scope and Content: As part of their function to care for and supervise the harbors and waterways of Massachusetts, the Division of Waterways of the Dept. of Public Works and predecessors in this function, the Division of Waterways and Public Lands of the Dept. of Public Works, 1919-1927, and the Dept. of Public Works as a whole, 1927-1938) employed engineers to make surveys of harbors and rivers.  Time and tide field notebboks were created by these surveyors to record changes in tides at established gauges.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically, thereunder by location of gauge
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Scope and Content: The Topographical Survey Commission was created in Massachusetts per Resolves 1884, c 72, and during its existence had a mandate to carry out two projects: preparation of a contour topographical map of the state in conjunction with the U.S. Geological Survey, and with the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey (1884-1887) to produce a town boundary survey (the determination by triangulation of boundary lines of cities and towns) starting in 1885. Additional legislation was initiated to authorize the commission to resolve problems with the state boundaries with Rhode Island (Resolves 1897, c 88), New York (Resolves 1897, c 25), and Connecticut (Resolves 1898, c 39). –The Board of Harbor and Land Commissioners took over the town boundary surveys in 1901 and completed them in 1914. Beyond that date, the following agencies succeeded the board in its responsibility for state surveying: Commission on Waterways and Public Lands, in 1916; Division of Waterways and Public Lands of the Dept. of Public Works, in 1919; Dept. of  Public Works as a whole, in 1927; and the department’s Division of Waterways, in 1938. –Atlases were produced in conjunction with these projects. Resolves 1890, c 57 authorized the production of topographical maps from plates engraved by the U.S. Geological Survey, showing only geological features. Copies of: Atlas of Massachusetts. Boston : Topographical Survey Commission, 1890 ((M-Ar)1548X (original maps in: Massachusetts. Office of the Secretary of State. Maps and plans (M-Ar) 50)) were distributed free to every public library and historical library in the state (Resolves 1891, c 95), and to public schools in every town (Resolves 1894, c 83). Atlases of town boundary lines ((M-Ar(421X)) were authorized per St 1897, c 69, and were published in batches, 1898-1915. As each atlas was published it was distributed free to towns, public libraries, and various other agencies per St 1900, c 360.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
Notes: Box 1: Items 1-4. Box 2: Item 5. Box 3: Item 6
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Scope and Content: To establish accurate Massachusetts town boundaries, and eventually interstate boundaries as well, beginning in 1885 the Topographical Survey Commission in conjunction with the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey (but replaced in this function in 1901 by the Board of Harbor and Land Commissioners) sent out field teams to establish and describe triangulation stations and to set monuments designating boundary lines.  Additional legislation was initiated to authorize the commission to resolve problems with the state boundaries with Rhode Island (Resolves 1897, c 88), New York (Resolves 1897, c 25), and Connecticut (Resolves 1898, c 39). The Connecticut legislation (Mar. 29, 1898) specified that the commissioners were to investigate the condition of the boundary line and determine if remarking was necessary. St 1898 c 299 (Apr. 8, 1898), directed the Topographical Survey Commission to perform an inspection of all state boundary markers every five years, restoring or replacing as necessary. These working papers and reports were created to communicate findings and report progress made on the surveys.
Arrangement: Arranged by topic
Notes: Box 1: Items 1-9. Box 2: Item 10. Box 3: Item 11
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Scope and Content: The post of undersecretary in Massachusetts’s Executive Office of Environmental Affairs was established by MGLA c 21A, s 1. The principal duty assigned to this officer is oversight and coordination of state’s waste management programs. Series is created to develop policies, regulation, and legislation in the areas of hazardous, solid, and low level radioactive wastes.
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Scope and Content: The Hazardous Waste Facility Site Safety Council was an independent Massachusetts state agency responsible in conjunction with the Dept. of Environmental Management and the Dept. of Environmental Protection for overseeing siting of hazardous waste treatment facilities from 1980 to 1996.  Siting process as administered by the council included receiving and reviewing developer’s proposal and facilitating negotiations among developer and affected communities prior to the reaching of a siting agreement declared operative by the council.  Series consists of audiovisual materials publicizing or providing background for the agency’s mission, as produced chiefly by the Dept. of Environmental Management or local television news organizations.
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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, Earlier volumes lost in agency flood
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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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