Whitman doesn't run its own reservoir — here's where the water actually comes from
The Whitman Water System (EPA/MassDEP Public Water System ID MA4338000) is operated by the Town of Whitman's Department of Public Works, Water and Sewer Division. But Whitman doesn't own a reservoir or well field of its own for its main supply — it purchases essentially all of its water from the City of Brockton's water system, which treats surface water from Silver Lake in Pembroke at the Silver Lake Water Treatment Plant, supplemented seasonally by Furnace Pond (Pembroke) and Monponsett Pond (Halifax).
A research spreadsheet used to plan this site initially suggested Whitman might be a partial customer of the Abington-Rockland Joint Water Works (ARJWW), the shared utility serving Abington and Rockland. We checked directly: that's not accurate for the overwhelming majority of town. Whitman's own 2023 and 2024 Consumer Confidence Reports describe the Brockton/Silver Lake supply as the town's entire water source and never mention ARJWW at all. There is a real, small ARJWW interconnection at the Abington/Rockland town line — see our water data page for exactly which street it affects.
| Category | What 2024 testing shows | Limit |
|---|---|---|
| PFAS6 (combined) | 2.2 ppt at the Silver Lake source | 20 ppt (MA PFAS6 MCL) |
| Total trihalomethanes (TTHM) | Running annual average 49 ppb (individual samples ranged 21–93 ppb) | 80 ppb (MCL) |
| Lead (tap sampling) | 90th percentile effectively non-detect | 15 ppb (Action Level) |
Sources: Town of Whitman 2024 Annual Water Quality Report; City of Brockton 2024 Consumer Confidence Report. Full breakdown with citations on the Water data page.
