The Oradell Reservoir was formed by the Oradell Reservoir Dam placed on the Hackensack River in Bergen County, New Jersey, completed in 1923. The Oradell Reservoir Dam is located in Oradell, but the reservoir also straddles the borders of Haworth, Emerson, Closter and Harrington Park.
The reservoir is fed by the Pascack Brook and Dwars Kill in addition to the Hackensack River.
Upstream from the Oradell Reservoir are three other reservoirs: Woodcliff Lake Reservoir and Lake Tappan also in Bergen County and DeForest Lake in Rockland County, New York.
Construction on the Oradell Reservoir began in 1901 by the dredging of a mill pond. The mill pond dam was replaced in 1911 by a low timber-crib dam that increased reservoir storage. In 1921 a 22-foot (6.7 m) high concrete Oradell Reservoir Dam was built to expand reservoir storage even more.
The Oradell Reservoir and its tributaries are protected with Category 1 water purity status in New Jersey.
The reservoir is managed by United Water New Jersey, a unit of United Water, a private utility. It provides drinking water for an estimated 750,000 residents of Bergen and Hudson counties.
Famous quotes containing the word reservoir:
“It’s very expressive of myself. I just lump everything in a great heap which I have labeled “the past,” and, having thus emptied this deep reservoir that was once myself, I am ready to continue.”
—Zelda Fitzgerald (1900–1948)