In 1772, portions of Providence received water through a system of hollowed out logs. By 1869, seventeen years after Zachariah Allen campaigned for a public water supply, the public voted in favor of introducing water into the city from the Pawtuxet River in Cranston. By 1900, it was clear that more, purer water was needed. A public law was approved on April 21, 1915, creating the Providence Water Supply Board and granting the power to condemn 14,800 acres to create the Situate Reservoir. Today the reservoir is the largest inland body of water in Rhode Island, supplying over 40 billion gallons of water to residents.
