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The city of Cambridge, Massachusetts, began sourcing its water from the Massachusetts Water Resource Authority Tuesday.

Cambridge, the state's fourth-largest city, usually gets its water from the Stony Brook Watershed in the Charles River Basin. MWRA water is from the Quabbin and Wachusett reservoirs.

"The responsibility lies with the City Manager in terms of the final decision here. So we decided that, I decided that, we need to change out immediately and so we're doing that tomorrow morning," acting Cambridge City Manager Owen O'Riordan.

The two contributing factors to the decision to temporarily switch to MWRA water are increasing Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) levels and supply chain delays for the upcoming replacement of the filter media used to treat the drinking water at the Walter J. Sullivan Water Treatment Facility.

The chemicals have been linked to some health issues.

“Initial results for August showed PFAS levels trending upwards and September results are generally highest and so out of an abundance of caution, the Cambridge Water Department will be temporarily switching to MWRA water to eliminate potential health effects from PFAS levels above the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) regulatory standard,” said Sam Corda, Managing Director of the Cambridge Water Department.

The Cambridge Water Department anticipates that the MWRA will exclusively supply all of the city's public water through the end of the year.

Massachusetts in May sued more than a dozen companies involved in the manufacture or marketing of forever chemicals, alleging they knowingly polluted the environment and endangered public health, the Associated Press reported. The chemicals have polluted more than 126 public drinking water systems in 86 Massachusetts communities, the suit said.

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