What is meant by group operation of our reservoirs and how will it help to minimize impacts on the aquatic environments in the Lake Whitney area and elsewhere?
Central to the RWA’s ability to withdraw water from Lake Whitney while minimizing environmental impacts is that we provide water from a regional interconnected system consisting of ten reservoirs and five wellfields. This will allow Lake Whitney to operate in a group operation with our other nine reservoirs. Lake Whitney’s water use will be maximized during high-flow periods when it is only a fraction of the amount of water that flows over the waterfall adjacent to East Rock Park. By relying more on Lake Whitney in the winter and spring months, we will rely less on our other reservoirs in the region and allow them to store more water for later use such as in the summer. During typical summer-time low natural streamflow and high consumer-use demand periods, we will rely less upon water from Lake Whitney and rely more on the other reservoirs to meet the region’s drinking water needs. This group operation approach will help the environment of Lake Whitney and the lower Mill River and will
