Wayland Town Crier 12/24/10: ‘Wayland A to Z’: ‘W’ is for ‘Water Works’. Thirty years before Wayland had a public water supply, Bostonians were drinking the clear pure waters of Lake Cochituate.

Until 1848, a hollowed-out-log system brought water from Jamaica Pond to the residents of Boston. However, the water tasted like “rotten eels” and residents demanded a new source. City officials tested various well sites in the city but the ground water proved unsanitary.

At last they found three sources – Mystic Lake and Spot Pond in Winchester and Lake Cochituate in Wayland – that had the quality and quantity needed and set up a “scientific experiment” to test the waters. They hitched a team of horses to a wagon that held three clean whiskey barrels and drove to each site to fill one barrel from each. Officials set up the barrels in Boston Common, put advertisements in Boston newspapers, and invited the public to the Common to vote for their choice for drinking water. Votes were made on a piece of paper put in a cigar box at the site. On this scientific basis, Lake Cochituate was chosen as Boston’s public water supply.