HANOVER - June 15, 2026 - The Hanover Select Board convened an emergency discussion Monday evening following a critical depletion of the town’s water supply over the weekend. Town Manager Joseph Colangelo and Department of Public Works officials revealed that water storage standpipes plummeted from 94 feet to 84 feet between Thursday and Sunday—the lowest levels documented in 15 years. Outlining a dire gap between production capacity and unprecedented summer demand, officials implored residents to immediately cut water usage by 10 percent to protect fire safety reserves and avoid systemic water pressure failures.
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The sudden water crisis caught town administration off guard on Sunday morning when DPW Director Kurt Kelley alerted Town Manager Joseph Colangelo that the municipal water grid was operating at critical thresholds. According to Colangelo, a perfect storm of a hot Saturday combined with widespread pool fillings and residential lawn irrigation rapidly outpaced the town’s ability to produce treated water. Despite operating all three water treatment plants 24 hours a day, seven days a week, the town exceeded its production baseline by 14 percent on Saturday alone, drawing down heavily on the community’s gravity-driven standpipes.
“ If we can start as a community conserving 10% of our current use, that would make the difference and that would allow our tanks to replenish and get back to more standard levels. Just to put 10% in perspective, if you take a five minute shower, it’s a 30 second less shower.” — Town Manager Joseph Colangelo
Water Superintendent Adam Flood explained that Hanover’s water infrastructure relies entirely on gravity and tank volume to maintain water pressure. “If those get drawn down too far, you’re gonna lose pressure,” Flood warned, noting that residents on the second floors of homes in elevated areas like Walnut Hill are already experiencing noticeably lower faucet pressure. The overarching concern centers on severe mechanical stress to the town’s nine main distribution pumps, which are running continuously without the standard breaks required for vital maintenance. Officials emphasized that if a major pump or well column fails under the current strain, the town could face localized outages or be left unable to meet the water volume required by the fire department to combat a significant structural fire.
In response to the emergency, the Hanover Fire Department has deployed an unprecedented regional water shuttle contingency plan. Deputy Fire Chief Fred Freeman announced that Fire Chief Jason Cavallaro has coordinated a tiered mutual aid agreement with the unhydranted regional towns of Carver, Plymouth, Middleborough, Lakeville, and Canton to dispatch high-capacity water tankers to Hanover at a moment’s notice. Fire crews have also mapped out four emergency “drafting sites” across town—including Hackett’s Pond, Cushing Brook, Forge Pond, and the Indian Head River—where emergency vehicles can pump raw water directly from natural sources to fight fires, keeping municipal drinking water reserves intact.
