Proposed Worcester Water Tank

(Photo rendering of proposed tank taken from the perspective of the driveway of the Techni-Tool property located at 1547 N. Trooper Road.)

Proposed Tank Specifications and Q&A:

Q: How tall will the tank be?

A: The tank will be 132 feet tall.

• Worcester Volunteer Fire Department has expressed interest in adding a communications antenna on top for in order to improve the emergency communications in the area. This would also avoid the need to construct a stand-alone communications tower for this purpose.

Q: Why a tank versus something at the ground level?

A: An elevated water storage tank relies solely on gravity to operate, so it is 100% reliable. In contrast, NPWA currently utilizes a booster pumping station located near the Peter Wentz Farmstead to provide the needed fire protection. However, service interruptions can occur due to a power loss or equipment failure, which could put fire protection in jeopardy, or could result in unacceptably low pressures in the system, potentially creating a water quality problem that could trigger a boil-water advisory. Instead, the gravity operation of an elevated water storage tank would prevent all those problems from ever occurring. This is a “fail-safe” design that is now considered the best practice in the water industry.

Q: Is the proposed tank going to promote further development in the area?

A: The tank will NOT promote additional development in the Township; the primary purpose of the proposed water tank is pressure reliability for our current customers, not added water volume to serve additional new customers.

Q: Why is this new tank necessary?

A: Pressure relibility and fire protection.

• Pressure reliability has a two-fold benefit; first, the tank will improve the day-to-day stability of existing water pressures in the system, preventing undesirable fluctuations; second, the tank will improve fire protection by providing the consistently reliable pressures that are needed to fight a fire.

Q: Why did you select this location for the tank?

A: Several factors including:

• Ground elevation high point
• Limited Industrial (LI) Zoning with a minimal number of residences in close vicinity
• Nearby proximity to our large size water transmission main piping to transport water in and out of the tank

The Techni-Tool site meets all of these criteria.

Q: Why did you condemn the the The Techni-Tool property?

A: Condemnation of the property became necessary only because the property owner was unwilling to cooperate with NPWA, despite the fact that we conducted a third-party real estate appraisal and made a fair financial offer to purchase the small part of their property that we need for tank construction. The property owner refused to enter into good-faith negotiations with us to arrive at a mutually agreeable purchase price. Condemnation became the action of last resort, and within our eminent domain rights as a municipal water supplier, because the project is critical and necessary for the public good.

Q: Is this tower going to benefit the Palmer Property at Center Point?

A: The tank will NOT serve the Palmer property at Center Point, since that site is located in a different pressure zone in our system.

 For more information, please call 215-855-3617.