Water Department

The Village of Gowanda water services were established is the late 1800's with the creation of the Gowanda Water Works Company. In 1921 the Village purchased the assets of the company valued at $90,000 and formed the Village of Gowanda Water Department.

From the 1800's through 1920's residents were provided water from reservoirs and systems that collected water from springs located on the hill sides that surround the village. This water supply was gravity feed to village residents. In the 1930's the Village of Gowanda drilled a number of wells on Hill Street in the village and constructed an Iron removal water treatment plant on Crestwood Drive. In 1937 the village constructed a water reservoir and raw water pump station on Point Peter Road. The Point Peter facility remains in use today. In1960 the village updated it's water treatment process by adding rapid sand filters and a 1.7 million gallon finished water reservoir. In 1987 the village updated it's water treatment plant by adding Culligan Pressure filters to the treatment process.

Today the Village of Gowanda provides a high quality, reliable, and affordable water supply capable of meeting both the current and future needs of the village.

The Village of Gowanda Water Department is located on Hill Street in the Village of Gowanda and provides water to 1403 village customer accounts (2,800 residents), as well as out of village customers in Town Perrysburg and Collins under the direction of Water Superintendent Carl Sternisha. The Department employees 3 full time employees and 1 seasonal summer employee. The department has an annual operations budget of $523,000.

Facilities description and capacity
> 15 miles of water lines
> Surface water supply capacity 662,400 GPD
> 8 Million Gallon raw water reservoir
> Current treatment capacity 662,400 gallons per day
> 1.7 million treated water storage reservoir
> Backup well #1 capacity 648,000 gallons per day
> Backup well #2 capacity 490,000 gallons per day
> Current usage 360,000 gallons per day
> Current user charge $3.80 per thousand gallons, $25.00 minimum charge > Average per year customer charge $287.09 (2005)
> No water district tax

Staff  
1 Chief operator, 1 Operator, 1 Maintenance Laborer, 1 seasonal laborer  

  "Gowanda Water Reservoir
- - some of the finest quality water in the land."