SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) – We have been getting a lot of rain the past few days and we can expect more. The Springfield Water and Sewer Commission told 22News that there are pros and cons of rain when it comes to local reservoirs.

Jaimye Bartak from Springfield Water and Commission says that Springfield water comes from the Cobble Mountain Reservoir, which is a 22.5 billion gallon reservoir. She says due to the size of the reservoir, Springfield could go about two years without rain.

However, according to Bartak, rainfall can also affect the quality of water. She says it has to do with disinfection by-products.

“Those form when natural organic material that flows into any surface water body interacts with chlorine that we use to disinfect the water to make it safe to drink. If you have more organics running in, rainfall come off the watershed, there will be more interaction with chlorine,” said Bartak.

Bartak says the reason Springfield is rebuilding their water treatment plant is because it was not designed to filter out the amount of organics that need to be taken out of the water. She says this will help Springfield to meet current disinfection byproduct regulations.