# Consolidation candidate screening — Massachusetts water systems

URL: https://municorn.us/consolidation/massachusetts-water-systems/

> **Cite as:** Municorn.us, "Consolidation candidate screening — Massachusetts water systems", Municorn water loss index, https://municorn.us/consolidation/massachusetts-water-systems/ (source filings retrieved 2026-09-12).
> **Licence:** CC BY 4.0 — https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ — reuse and redistribution are permitted with attribution to Municorn.us and a link to this URL.
> **Caveat that must travel with these figures:** "Water loss" is at least three different quantities depending on the jurisdiction, and nothing here supports a comparison between states.

Which Massachusetts water systems border which, from EPA's own service area boundary layer, and what the
published figures say across each border. **A screen, not a recommendation**: nothing here says two utilities
should merge and nothing here is a feasibility result.

## What "bordering" means

Two systems are listed as bordering when their service area outlines come within **1.11 km**
of each other. That is a proximity test and not a touch test, because the boundary layer is simplified by about
a kilometre at acquisition and simplification moves vertices — an exact touch test on these bytes would be a
question about our own simplification rather than about the world. It is not a statement that two systems share
a pipe or an interconnection: nothing in this corpus knows about pipes.

## How EPA got these shapes

| Boundary basis | Systems | With a neighbour | Mean neighbours |
|---|---:|---:|---:|
| published | 280 | 273 (98%) | 4.46 |



## The pairs

720 bordering pairs. Ordered by how many times larger one side is than the other, and by nothing else — a composite score over size, loss and compliance would be a judgement about how much one is worth against another, and this corpus has none to offer.

**Computed over EPA's whole national layer, before any filter to this site.** 720 borders reach
this state's drawn systems: 191 of them name a system this site publishes no page for, and 42
cross a state line. Until #180 neither kind existed here, because the borders were computed on the map's own
per-state, corpus-filtered extract. A row with an unknown side carries EPA's name for it, its primacy agency
and how EPA got its boundary, and nothing else — no loss, no size, no rates — and it sorts below every row
this site can describe.

**A cross-state pair may not have its loss figures compared, and this page does not compare them.** Crossing a
state line means crossing a primacy agency, and "water loss" is at least three different quantities across the
regulators in this corpus. The loss gap on such a row reads "not comparable", which is a statement about the
two regulators rather than about the two utilities.

| Primacy agency | Endpoints on a cross-state edge | Modelled |
|---|---:|---:|
| MA | 42 | 0 (0%) |
| NH | 19 | 1 (5%) |
| RI | 13 | 0 (0%) |
| CT | 8 | 1 (13%) |
| VT | 2 | 1 (50%) |

The modelled share is a fact about each state rather than a national average, so an edge basis is doing more
work on a cross-state row than on any other: its two endpoints are drawn from two different modelled
populations.


| The larger | People | Loss | The smaller | People | Loss | Size ratio | Loss gap | Together | Edge |
|---|---:|---:|---|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---|
| Worcester DPW | 206,518 (EPA) | 23.0% | Elm Hill Water District | 2,278 (EPA) | 28.0% | 90.7× | 5 pp | 208,796 † | both published |
| New Bedford | 101,079 (EPA) | 7.0% | Freetown Water Commission | 1,600 (EPA) | 1.0% | 63.2× | 6 pp | 102,679 † | both published |
| Worcester DPW | 206,518 (EPA) | 23.0% | Boylston Water District | 3,343 (EPA) | 12.0% | 61.8× | 11 pp | 209,861 † | both published |
| Fall River | 94,000 (EPA) | 34.0% | Freetown Water Commission | 1,600 (EPA) | 1.0% | 58.8× | 33 pp | 95,600 † | both published |
| Worcester DPW | 206,518 (EPA) | 23.0% | Cherry Valley & Rochdale Water District | 3,696 (EPA) | 10.0% | 55.9× | 13 pp | 210,214 † | both published |
| Worcester DPW | 206,518 (EPA) | 23.0% | Paxton | 4,300 (EPA) | 25.0% | 48× | 2 pp | 210,818 † | both published |
| Lowell Water Treatment Facility | 120,418 (EPA) | 7.0% | East Chelmsford Water District | 2,800 (EPA) | 18.0% | 43× | 11 pp | 123,218 † | both published |
| Boston Water & Sewer Commission | 675,647 (EPA) | 9.0% | Winthrop Water Division | 19,316 (EPA) | 17.0% | 35× | 8 pp | 694,963 | both published |
| Lynn Water & Sewer Commission | 101,253 (EPA) | 29.0% | Nahant | 3,334 (EPA) | 19.0% | 30.4× | 10 pp | 104,587 | both published |
| Worcester DPW | 206,518 (EPA) | 23.0% | West Boylston Water District | 6,919 (EPA) | 14.0% | 29.8× | 9 pp | 213,437 † | both published |
| Lowell Water Treatment Facility | 120,418 (EPA) | 7.0% | Tyngsboro Water District | 4,416 (EPA) | 7.0% | 27.3× | 0 pp | 124,834 † | both published |
| Boston Water & Sewer Commission | 675,647 (EPA) | 9.0% | Milton | 28,630 (EPA) | 26.0% | 23.6× | 17 pp | 704,277 † | both published |
| Brockton DPW | 105,788 (EPA) | 29.0% | Avon | 4,777 (EPA) | 4.0% | 22.1× | 25 pp | 110,565 † | both published |
| Dedham Westwood Water District | 41,630 (EPA) | 17.0% | Dover Water Company Inc | 1,929 (EPA) | 18.0% | 21.6× | 1 pp | 43,559 † | both published |
| Boston Water & Sewer Commission | 675,647 (EPA) | 9.0% | Needham Department Of | 31,664 (EPA) | 15.0% | 21.3× | 6 pp | 707,311 | both published |
| Lynn Water & Sewer Commission | 101,253 (EPA) | 29.0% | Lynnfield Water Dist. | 4,820 (EPA) | 15.0% | 21× | 14 pp | 106,073 | both published |
| Springfield | 169,170 (EPA) | 17.0% | Wilbraham | 8,533 (EPA) | 7.0% | 19.8× | 10 pp | 177,703 † | both published |
| Worcester DPW | 206,518 (EPA) | 23.0% | Grafton Water District | 10,925 (EPA) | 42.0% | 18.9× | 19 pp | 217,443 † | both published |
| Boston Water & Sewer Commission | 675,647 (EPA) | 9.0% | Watertown | 35,985 (EPA) | 21.0% | 18.8× | 12 pp | 711,632 | both published |
| Northampton Department Of | 29,571 (EPA) | 7.0% | Williamsburg | 1,575 (EPA) | 4.0% | 18.8× | 3 pp | 31,146 † | both published |
| Worcester DPW | 206,518 (EPA) | 23.0% | Aquarion Water Company: Millbury | 11,368 (EPA) | 14.0% | 18.2× | 9 pp | 217,886 † | both published |
| Worcester DPW | 206,518 (EPA) | 23.0% | Auburn Water District | 12,255 (EPA) | 10.0% | 16.9× | 13 pp | 218,773 † | both published |
| Boston Water & Sewer Commission | 675,647 (EPA) | 9.0% | Chelsea | 40,787 (EPA) | 5.0% | 16.6× | 4 pp | 716,434 | both published |
| Needham Department Of | 31,664 (EPA) | 15.0% | Dover Water Company Inc | 1,929 (EPA) | 18.0% | 16.4× | 3 pp | 33,593 † | both published |
| Boston Water & Sewer Commission | 675,647 (EPA) | 9.0% | Dedham Westwood Water District | 41,630 (EPA) | 17.0% | 16.2× | 8 pp | 717,277 | both published |
| Taunton | 62,165 (EPA) | 10.0% | North Raynham Water District | 3,902 (EPA) | 8.0% | 15.9× | 2 pp | 66,067 † | both published |
| Lowell Water Treatment Facility | 120,418 (EPA) | 7.0% | North Chelmsford Water District | 7,660 (EPA) | 7.0% | 15.7× | 0 pp | 128,078 † | both published |
| Billerica | 42,119 (EPA) | 8.0% | East Chelmsford Water District | 2,800 (EPA) | 18.0% | 15× | 10 pp | 44,919 | both published |
| Brockton DPW | 105,788 (EPA) | 29.0% | Halifax | 7,575 (EPA) | 0.0% | 14× | 29 pp | 113,363 † | both published |
| Boston Water & Sewer Commission | 675,647 (EPA) | 9.0% | Everett | 49,075 (EPA) | 17.0% | 13.8× | 8 pp | 724,722 | both published |
| Brockton DPW | 105,788 (EPA) | 29.0% | West Brgewater | 7,709 (EPA) | 13.0% | 13.7× | 16 pp | 113,497 † | both published |
| Greenfield | 17,768 (EPA) | 12.0% | Deerfield Fire District | 1,300 (EPA) | 11.0% | 13.7× | 1 pp | 19,068 † | both published |
| Haverhill DPW | 61,277 (EPA) | 4.0% | West Newbury | 4,704 (EPA) | 9.0% | 13× | 5 pp | 65,981 | both published |
| Lowell Water Treatment Facility | 120,418 (EPA) | 7.0% | Kenwood Water District | 9,620 (EPA) | 6.0% | 12.5× | 1 pp | 130,038 † | both published |
| Walpole | 24,070 (EPA) | 18.0% | Dover Water Company Inc | 1,929 (EPA) | 18.0% | 12.5× | 0 pp | 25,999 † | both published |
| Amherst DPW | 39,263 (EPA) | 9.0% | Sunderland Water District | 3,190 (EPA) | 8.0% | 12.3× | 1 pp | 42,453 | both published |
| Greenfield | 17,768 (EPA) | 12.0% | Bernardston Fire & Water District | 1,471 (EPA) | 35.0% | 12.1× | 23 pp | 19,239 † | both published |
| Beverly | 47,461 (EPA) | 28.0% | Wenham | 3,942 (EPA) | 15.0% | 12× | 13 pp | 51,403 | both published |
| New Bedford | 101,079 (EPA) | 7.0% | Acushnet | 8,430 (EPA) | 9.0% | 12× | 2 pp | 109,509 † | both published |
| Taunton | 62,165 (EPA) | 10.0% | Dighton Water District | 5,280 (EPA) | 8.0% | 11.8× | 2 pp | 67,445 † | both published |
| Waltham | 65,218 (EPA) | 24.0% | Lincoln | 5,593 (EPA) | 26.0% | 11.7× | 2 pp | 70,811 | both published |
| Shrewsbury | 38,325 (EPA) | 38.0% | Boylston Water District | 3,343 (EPA) | 12.0% | 11.5× | 26 pp | 41,668 | both published |
| Worcester DPW | 206,518 (EPA) | 23.0% | Holden | 18,016 (EPA) | 5.0% | 11.5× | 18 pp | 224,534 † | both published |
| Springfield | 169,170 (EPA) | 17.0% | South Hadley Fd #1 | 14,800 (EPA) | 13.0% | 11.4× | 4 pp | 183,970 † | both published |
| Peabody | 54,481 (EPA) | 27.0% | Lynnfield Water Dist. | 4,820 (EPA) | 15.0% | 11.3× | 12 pp | 59,301 | both published |
| Tewksbury DPW | 31,342 (EPA) | 21.0% | East Chelmsford Water District | 2,800 (EPA) | 18.0% | 11.2× | 3 pp | 34,142 | both published |
| Brockton DPW | 105,788 (EPA) | 29.0% | Hanson | 9,612 (EPA) | 3.0% | 11× | 26 pp | 115,400 † | both published |
| Boston Water & Sewer Commission | 675,647 (EPA) | 9.0% | Medford | 61,700 (EPA) | 26.0% | 11× | 17 pp | 737,347 † | both published |
| Boston Water & Sewer Commission | 675,647 (EPA) | 9.0% | Revere | 62,186 (EPA) | 5.0% | 10.9× | 4 pp | 737,833 | both published |
| Fitchburg | 41,946 (EPA) | 24.0% | Westminister | 3,889 (EPA) | 7.0% | 10.8× | 17 pp | 45,835 † | both published |
| Boston Water & Sewer Commission | 675,647 (EPA) | 9.0% | Brookline | 63,191 (EPA) | 15.0% | 10.7× | 6 pp | 738,838 | both published |
| Springfield | 169,170 (EPA) | 17.0% | Longmeadow | 15,853 (EPA) | 15.0% | 10.7× | 2 pp | 185,023 † | both published |
| Springfield | 169,170 (EPA) | 17.0% | East Longmeadow DPW | 16,358 (EPA) | 9.0% | 10.3× | 8 pp | 185,528 † | both published |
| Chelmsford Water District | 28,750 (EPA) | 9.0% | East Chelmsford Water District | 2,800 (EPA) | 18.0% | 10.3× | 9 pp | 31,550 | both published |
| Gloucester DPW - Water Supply | 37,440 (EPA) | 31.0% | Essex DPW | 3,675 (EPA) | 17.0% | 10.2× | 14 pp | 41,115 † | both published |
| Centerville Osterville | 50,000 (EPA) | 1.0% | Cotuit Fire District | 4,938 (EPA) | 3.0% | 10.1× | 2 pp | 54,938 † | both published |
| Plymouth DPW | 47,100 (EPA) | 10.0% | North Sagamore Water District | 4,668 (EPA) | 12.0% | 10.1× | 2 pp | 51,768 | both published |
| Haverhill DPW | 61,277 (EPA) | 4.0% | Groveland | 6,508 (EPA) | 7.0% | 9.42× | 3 pp | 67,785 | both published |
| Northampton Department Of | 29,571 (EPA) | 7.0% | Hatfield | 3,164 (EPA) | 23.0% | 9.35× | 16 pp | 32,735 † | both published |
| Brockton DPW | 105,788 (EPA) | 29.0% | Holbrook | 11,405 (EPA) | 1.0% | 9.28× | 28 pp | 117,193 † | both published |


**Two publishers on these rows.** The loss percentage is MassDEP's own filing. A
population marked (EPA) is not: it is `POPULATION_SERVED_COUNT` from EPA's national inventory of community
water systems, carried on the rows where MassDEP published no population of its own — it files none for any system in this table, in any year. **MassDEP did not publish the figures marked (EPA).** What EPA publishes is the
count a system reports to its primacy agency — not a census, not audited, and the retail population for some
systems and the total population served for others — collected in a different year and for a different purpose
than the loss figure beside it.

† EPA records at least one side of this pair as selling water wholesale to other systems. Two service
populations add only where neither system already serves the other, and nothing in this corpus knows who sells
to whom, so a flagged combined figure is an upper bound rather than a sum.

## Borders to systems this site has no page for

**191 of these 720 borders** reach a system this site publishes nothing about. They are
listed separately because the ordering above ranks candidates and a row with one unknown side cannot be ranked
— not because the border is less real. EPA drew both shapes; this corpus holds a filing for one of them. Every
cell about the other side is absent on purpose: this site does not know that system's water loss, its size, its
rates or its compliance record.

| System with a filing here | Its loss | The bordering system | Regulated by | Its boundary | Edge |
|---|---:|---|---|---|---|
| Acton Water District | 11.0% | PINE HILL CONDOMINIUM | MA | published | both published |
| Acton Water District | 11.0% | APPLEWOOD COMMUNITY CORPORATION | MA | published | both published |
| Acton Water District | 11.0% | LIBERTY HOUSE CONDOMINIUM | MA | published | both published |
| Acton Water District | 11.0% | BENFIELD FARMS | MA | published | both published |
| Acushnet | 9.0% | BROOKSIDE MOBILE HOME PARK | MA | published | both published |
| Acushnet | 9.0% | ACUSHNET MANUFACTURED HOMES | MA | published | both published |
| Agawam | 9.0% | CTWC - NORTHERN REG-WESTERN SYSTEM | CT (across a state line) | published | both published |
| Agawam | 9.0% | CTWC - CHIMNEY HILL | CT (across a state line) | modelled | modelled |
| Aquarion Water Company: Millbury | 14.0% | MILLBURY IND. PARK/ PARK HILL VILLAGE | MA | published | both published |
| Aquarion Water Company: Oxford | 21.0% | TORIA HEIGHTS CONDOMINIUM | MA | published | both published |
| Aquarion Water Company: Oxford | 21.0% | MAPLEBROOK APARTMENTS | MA | published | both published |
| Ashland | 20.0% | THE PRESERVE AT HOPKINTON CONDO | MA | published | both published |
| Ashland | 20.0% | MAILLET WOODS CONDOMINIUMS | MA | published | both published |
| Attleboro | 21.0% | PAWTUCKET WATER SUPPLY BOARD VEOLIA-NA | RI (across a state line) | published | both published |
| Auburn Water District | 10.0% | STAFFORDSHIRE COUNTRY ESTATES | MA | published | both published |
| Ayer DPW | 2.0% | CRAFTSMAN VILLAGE CONDOMINIUMS | MA | published | both published |
| Bedford | 16.0% | HANSCOM AFB | MA | published | both published |
| Belchertown Water District | 6.0% | CEDARWOOD APARTMENTS | MA | published | both published |
| Bellingham DPW | 9.0% | MENDON WATER DEPARTMENT | MA | published | both published |
| Bellingham DPW | 9.0% | WOONSOCKET WATER DIVISION | RI (across a state line) | published | both published |
| Bernardston Fire & Water District | 35.0% | NORTHFIELD MT HERMON SCHOOL | MA | published | both published |
| Blackstone | 2.0% | WOONSOCKET WATER DIVISION | RI (across a state line) | published | both published |
| Blackstone | 2.0% | SLATERSVILLE PUBLIC SUPPLY | RI (across a state line) | unstated | one modelled |
| Bourne Water District | 9.0% | SCHOONER PASS TRUSTEES CONDOMINIUMS | MA | published | both published |
| Bridgewater | 7.0% | MCI BRIDGEWATER | MA | published | both published |
| Brookfield | 3.0% | NANATOMQUA MOBILE HOME PARK | MA | published | both published |
| Buzzards Bay Water District | 16.0% | SCHOONER PASS TRUSTEES CONDOMINIUMS | MA | published | both published |
| Centerville Osterville | 1.0% | BEECHWOOD POINT CONDOS | MA | published | both published |
| Cherry Valley & Rochdale Water District | 10.0% | HILLCREST WATER DISTRICT | MA | published | both published |
| Cherry Valley & Rochdale Water District | 10.0% | STAFFORDSHIRE COUNTRY ESTATES | MA | published | both published |
| Cherry Valley & Rochdale Water District | 10.0% | PINEWOOD ON THE GREEN CONDOS | MA | published | both published |
| Cheshire | 58.0% | BERKSHIRE ESTATES | MA | published | both published |
| Concord | 9.0% | PINE HILL CONDOMINIUM | MA | published | both published |
| Concord | 9.0% | HANSCOM AFB | MA | published | both published |
| Concord | 9.0% | BENFIELD FARMS | MA | published | both published |
| Cotuit Fire District | 3.0% | SEA OAKS CONDOMINIUMS | MA | published | both published |
| Deerfield Fire District | 11.0% | EAGLEBROOK SCHOOL | MA | published | both published |
| Devens Commerce Center | 11.0% | FOXGLOVE APARTMENTS | MA | published | both published |
| Devens Commerce Center | 11.0% | CRAFTSMAN VILLAGE CONDOMINIUMS | MA | published | both published |
| Devens Commerce Center | 11.0% | MCI SHIRLEY | MA | published | both published |

## What "together" can and cannot mean

**People and connections add. Prices do not.** A combined rate is not the average of two rates, and a combined
cost of service cannot be computed from two sets of filed figures without the cost allocation neither utility
publishes. That is why there is a combined population column and no combined rate column.

The loss gap is in percentage points between two filed figures for the years each system last filed, which are
not necessarily the same year.

Source: US EPA community water system service area boundaries, retrieved 2026-09-09; adjacency
derived 2026-09-12 at a 1.11 km tolerance. Service populations marked (EPA) from the US EPA SDWIS inventory of active community water systems,
retrieved 2026-09-09 (`data/archive/sdwis-national/2026-09-09-national-cws-spine.jsonl`).