Woodland Reservoir

Woodland Reservoir is a reservoir serving the city of Syracuse, New York. The reservoir was built in the 1890s as the receiving end of the new water supply for Syracuse coming by a 19 mile (31 km) pipeline from the Skaneateles Lake. It was designated an American Water Landmark in 1977.

Woodland Reservoir is a reservoir. In 1935 it was described as reaching a depth of 36 feet (11 m) and having of surface area. In the early and mid 19th century, the city of Syracuse, New York, was supplied with water by the Syracuse Water Works company from sources including Onondaga Creek. It was relatively unclean and beginning by the middle of the century had proven to be of insufficient pressure to serve the city's growing populace. After the company's contract expired in 1885, efforts began to secure a different source of water for the city. The city government considered various lakes, including Cazenovia Lake, Oneida Lake, the Salmon River, and Skaneateles Lake. They eventually decided upon Skaneatles, a vote that was overwhelmingly endorsed in a vote by Syracusans. After the rights to the water were acquired, the city began a project in the 1890s to build a 19 mile (31 km) pipeline that would carry water from the lake to Syracuse. Woodland Reservoir was constructed to hold water in Syracuse. Upon construction, it was the sole reservoir supplying water to Syracuse. By 1927, it had proved insufficient to meet the city's needs alone; if the lines carrying water from Skaneatles stopped working, it only had adequate capacity to supply the whole city for two days. A second reservoir, the Westcott Reservoir, was constructed, about 1 mile (2 km) north in the late 1920s and early 1930s. In 1977 the American Water Works Association named Woodland Reservoir an American Water Landmark, a plaque was erected at the site by 1979. In the 1990s Syracuse renovated the reservoir, including adding a new fence around the water tank and replacing portions of it. A treatment plant on the site was built in 2000 and about a decade later, in 2012, work began on a plant that would treat water with ultraviolet light.