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Originally published in the Historic Nantucket, Spring 1993 (Vol. 41, No. 1), p. 4-6

In 1878 the vision of tweny-five-year-old Moses Joy,Jr., brought water pumping and distribution to Nantucketers.

One Hundred Years of Water Service on Nantucket
By David D. Worth

The background for Nantucket's water story begins with the water on earth. Water, that most vital resource, without which we cannot live, is earth's most abundant substance. Water covers three-quarters of our planet. Huge quantities are stored in our oceans, frozen in glaciers, and trapped in underground rock formations. Water makes up two-thirds of our bodies, and is the main substance found in all living things. Without water, there would be no life on earth today.

There is no more, nor less, water today than when the earth was formed. It constantly moves through the hydrologic cycle wherein it falls to earth as precipitation in all its forms. The water runs into our rivers, lakes, and oceans. It is absorbed by the soil, or it seeps into underground formations called aquifers. The sun heats land as well as water surfaces. Water evaporates from the oceans, lakes, forests, fields, animals, and plants. The evaporated moisture is carried into the atmosphere and falls back to earth as rain, snow, or fog. And so it goes, which brings us back to our island water.

On Nantucket we have two aquifers, both created by the glaciers. We have what is known as the perched aquifer, which rests upon a clay layer, and a deep aquifer, which lies below the clay layer. When we drilled our deep well in 1983, we penetrated that clay layer. In so doing, we entered a formation that yielded tiny pieces of sea shell, estimated to be some 10,000 years old, and a large quantity of water at a depth of 117 to 140 feet.

The perched aquifer is the one the Wannacomet Water Company has been pumping from since the early 1900s. The wells in this aquifer average 42 feet in depth and are small in diameter. The larger well we drilled later in the century draws our water from the deep aquifer. However, the story of water service on Nantucket predates the turn of the century.

The year was 1878 and whaling was a thing of the past. Gone were the days of whaleships, cooperages, candleworks, ropewalks, boatyards, and most of the ancillary businesses that flourished during the Golden Age of Whaling. Now, the sidewheel steamer was to be seen in the harbor, transporting goods and merchandise, bringing the summer visitor to Nantucket, and ushering in a new era on the island.

Living in the community in 1878 was a young man named Moses Joy. Then aged twenty-five, he had a vision of pumping and distributing water to every home on Nantucket. This vision, or dream, was the cause of considerable opposition from a fair number of people in the town who were firmly convinced that water could not be made to run uphill. Through persistence and hard work, however, the Wannacomet Water Company began to take shape, and the lands around Washing Pond (later to be known as Wannacomet Pond) were selected by Joy as the watershed area.

At the southeast end of the pond he constructed a steam-pumping station made of brick, the remains of which can be seen today. On the top of the hill a 25,000-gallon, elevated storage tank was erected. From the facilities at Wannacomet, 11,156 feet of eight-inch pipe were laid all the way to the center of town; 5,130 feet of six- and four-inch pipe were set in various streets. A sixteen-inch intake pipe was installed, extending out into the pond and connecting to what we now call Well No.l, at the shore's edge, and at the south end of the pond a filter was also installed. With all components of the facility in place, it was time to start up. By now it was late 1879, and on line and ready for service were sixty-three customers.

Prior to the existence of the water company, the townspeople had obtained their water by catching rainfall in various types of containers or from pumps at neighborhood wells. Water for fire fighting was pumped from cisterns located throughout the town that were filled by rain that landed on roofs and was diverted to them.

In succeeding years, during the summer months, it would be necessary for wagons from the water company to top off the cisterns because of leakage through bricks into the ground. The carts would also water down the streets to settle the dust. The wagons covered areas of town that didn't have mains, where they would fill smaller cisterns that had been constructed under homes for domestic use.

A familiar sight in the summertime was the Wannacomet ice wagons that traveled through the town and delivered blocks of ice to houses wherever the driver saw an ICE sign in a window. The ice had been cut from the ponds in the winter, then dragged by horses up ramps to be stored in large buildings on the shore of the pond. A covering of sawdust and hay wrappings served as insulation to hold the ice over the winter.

As time went by, Wannacomet Water Company grew. Starting with the sixty-three original customers in 1879, the number had risen to 357 five years later. Fire hydrants in the system increased from three in 1879 to thirty-one at year's end in 1884. Little by little, acceptance of the system and the concept of "making water run uphill" caught on, and Moses Joy was able to complete the installation of an eight-inch line down Cliff Road into town; he installed the first fire hydrant on Centre Street in front of the First Congregational Church.

Joy declared that he could pump water over the steeple. This met with considerable doubt on the part of the townsfolk, and when he sought to obtain a fire hose from the local fire companies, he was turned down and was required to go to New Bedford to purchase or borrow a hose. When he returned, he set up to run his test and proceeded to pump water over the church. All the pumps must have been running and, probably, just about jumping off the floor. Needless to say, Moses Joy made believers out of a great many people that day.

As the years passed, plans got under way for building a standpipe to replace the 25,000-gallon tank that had become obsolete. Work on the new 411,000-gallon tank started in August of 1908, and was completed in late November of the same year. But with its successes, the company was not without problems.

Because of the poor quality of the water from Wannacomet, cleaning the mains became almost a yearly ritual. During the work week, according to the records, one could almost count on three requests a day to dig up and clean out the corporation stop, or shut-off valve, as it had apparently become clogged with vegetation from the pond. When the mains were cleaned, flows were increased considerably and crowds would gather to observe the improvements.

During the next few years, particularly in the summer, the water in Wannacomet Pond took on an objectionable odor and an unbearable taste, caused by the temperature of the water and the growth of algae. The water's iron content was also very high and created considerable discoloration.

These unacceptable conditions prompted the company to drill several two-inch wells around the perimeter of the pond in hopes of obtaining water of a decent quality to mix with the pond water in order to get by during the warm months. But mixing well water with pond water did not materialize as planned, and prospecting for a new source to augment the supply at Wannacomet started in 1910.

Documentation of why Wyer's Valley was chosen as a site is unclear. Perhaps the existence of a natural valley that runs from the head of Miacomet Pond to the harbor creeks was the determinant; the valley receives water from the highlands on either side and channels it to the ocean. A program to drive two-inch wells was started at Wyer's Valley in 1912 and water was pumped into the system that year. It was intended that Wyer's Valley would be used only in the summer months, with Washing/Wannacomet Pond utilized for the rest of the year. But the quality and quantity of the supply at the valley was so superior that by 1922 the entire production came from the well fields at Wyer's Valley.

Over the years, as both year-round and summer population has grown, the company has upgraded its equipment. The two-inch wells were retired and replaced with the two-and-a-half-inch wells from which we now get our water. The present number of these wells has increased to eighty-eight. They have been replaced from time to time, and today they are augmented by one deep gravel-packed well.

Spanning the years, Wannacomet Water Company has moved from local ownership to off-island ownership and back to local ownership, but always with local membership. Moses Joy was the first owner and manager. He, in turn, sold to a group of local investors, with Charles H. Robinson as president. Then came William F. Codd, a man well skilled in engineering, who was responsible for establishing Nantucket's sewer system. In the early years he also directed the Water Company.

The exact chain of managers is not very clear, but apparently following William Codd came John H. Robinson, who, incidentally, was the founder of the U.S. Parcel Post system. It was during his managership that the company passed into off-island ownership. Company holdings were bought by the Community Water Service, which held them until 1936 when American Water Works Company purchased them. Mr. Robinson retired in 1947. He was followed by Edgar F. Orpin, who guided the company until his retirement in 1970 when I took over. On March 31, 1988, the full swing back to local ownership was made when the Town of Nantucket purchased company assets.

Wannacomet Water Company's record of reliable water service spans more than a century. However, protecting the earth's water is a responsibility to be shared by both the water utility and the public.

On Nantucket, Wannacomet Water Company regularly monitors our water for quality and ground-water level. Everyone is expected to guard against hazardous materials entering the water supply and to use it wisely. We must all play our part in protecting Nantucket's water so that this resource, most vital to our health and survival, will continue well beyond the first hundred years of Wannacomet stewardship.