When the Portland Water District took over the Portland Water Company in 1908, the trustees saw the need to protect the public water supply and began to take measures to ensure the quality of the water. This image is of the Sebago Village Brook in the rear of a grain store, showing stagnant water that was of concern to the District.

Sebago Village Brook was a tributary of Sebago Lake. Because it's water flowed into the lake and fed into the public water supply, this brook was first chemically treated at a hypochlorite plant before it fed into Sebago, where it was purified again through the Sebago Lake intake.

Part of the concern over the quality and purity of the water supply stemmed from fear that typhoid fever may have been caused by bacteria in the water supply. The Portland Water District strove to dispel those concerns through added water treatment and laboratory tests of both water and milk.