14 CONNECTICUT GEOL. AND NAT. HIST. SURVEY [Bull. 



with the initial construction of reservoirs and distribution mains 

 in 1869. Much criticised and objected to at that time as of doubt- 

 ful wisdom, the project of a public water supply was successful 

 from the start and from decade to decade the demand for water 

 unfailingly and soon exceeded the capacity of reservoirs frequently 

 enlarged. 



In 1893 the futility of frequent and small additions was recog- 

 nized and the city took the radical step of penetrating into the 

 Litchfield hills, securing diversion rights to 18 square miles of 

 watershed on the West Branch of the Naugatuck River in the 

 towns of Watertown, Thomaston, Morris and Litchfield, creating 

 a reservoir many times larger than any it had built before, and 

 laying a 36-inch pipe line ten miles long. But although this was 

 believed to be almost a final solution of the potable water supply 

 for Waterbury and its suburbs, the continued growth of the com- 

 munity at a rate totally unexpected by the conservative citizen, 

 compelled a serious study as early as 1907 of the possibilities of 

 further resources on a still larger scale. 



There were several areas from which an additional supply of 

 substantial size could be obtained. Of these, the natural and most 

 readily accessible was that above the village of Litchfield along 

 Bantam River. Opposition was offered to this scheme on the 

 ground that it would be destructive to the attractions of Bantam 

 Lake, which has a large summer colony bringing trade to the 

 adjoining towns and benefiting them by the creation of a large 

 amount of taxable property. This opposition succeeded in obtain- 

 ing from the State Legislature an act prohibiting the City of 

 Waterbury from diverting any water from Bantam Lake or from 

 any of the tributaries. A similar act was afterward passed in 

 relation to Waterbury taking water from the Naugatuck River 

 above Torrington. 



There then remained as the most feasible project the diversion 

 of water from the Shepaug River, where that stream forms the 

 dividing line between the towns of Litchfield and Warren. Here 

 it was seen that a reservoir of large size could be formed having 

 tributary to it about 37 square miles of sparsely settled hilly coun- 

 try, largely wooded and with a very small percentage of swamps. 

 Analysis of the water showed it to be of satisfactory quality, 

 unusually soft, coming from a region devoid of limestone or other 

 formations tending to produce a hard water. A further attraction 

 is that the area is subject to very little attrition during periods of 

 heavy rain. 



The chief legal difficulty in connection with this undertaking 

 lay in obtaining rights to divert the water from one watershed 

 into another and in obtaining satisfactory adjustments with the 

 many interests along the Shepaug and Housatonic Rivers. These 

 matters, however, were finally settled in a manner apparently 

 satisfactory to all parties concerned, provision being made to 



