Weston Water Treatment Plant

The Weston Water Treatment Plant is a pre-War facility in the Commonwealth infested by mirelurks and Super Mutants

Background
The plant was built in 2051 as part of a decade-long plan to modernize Boston's aging sanitation systems. The facility was equipped with mostly cheap equipment, the exception being the Mark-VI emergency flood control pump. In the years prior to the Great War, the corporation operating the treatment plant cited record profit losses in the Massachusetts regional division. They claimed this was due to high operating costs and a difficult regulatory environment.

In response the corporation gave free rein to the operations manager, Saul Arenson, to improve the company's bottom line. Confident that risks to public health were minimal, the corporation turned a blind eye to Arenson's experiments and abuse of labor laws, such as forcing employees to work double shifts after a public relations visit, dubbed the "Weston WELLness press initiative," to the plant or covering up a cholera outbreak caused by the "innovations" at the plant.

It was at this time that the facility's automated turrets were successfully water-proofed by Theodore Marks, and Emmis was injured in a work accident. As the visit came on the eve of the Great War, nobody survived who could hold the corporate manager accountable.

In the decades following the Great War, the rising sea levels overwhelmed the plant's retaining wall and slowly flooded the facility. As the pumps lost power, shorted out and began to fail, the water output fell and grew ever more contaminated. The facility has since become a super mutant camp.

Layout
The facility is a water treatment plant with a series of ring-shaped open-air basins containing water on the eastward side. Around and across these basins, super mutants have constructed a series of walkways and are patrolling them. These mutants are armed with rocket launchers and sniper rifles. There is at least one super mutant suicider with a mini nuke. The trailers and shack in the very middle of the basin have floor traps in their entrances, including a tripwire-activated missile launcher. A mattress and two sleepings bags can be used in the shacks outside.

Inside the facility, the Sole Survivor can check the entries of the front office terminal, one of which implies that Nut Island drinking water was poured into empty Weston water bottled cartons during the Weston WELLness media event. This will also update the map with the location of Warwick homestead, the pre-War Nut Island wastewater treatment plant. Around the corner is a toilet with a first aid kit. Next to the stairs is an Advanced locked door with minor loot. The player character can go up to the roof via a ladder, and there is a cache of goodies behind an Expert locked safe and a Novice locked grounds control terminal, which will disengage the safe lock and control spotlights.

Down the elevator, the player character is led to a series of rooms with locked doors. These doors can only be opened by pressing a large red button beside them, and they can only be opened when the button is illuminated red. If the button is not lit, it means the section beyond is flooded. To traverse the level, the player character must activate a series of pumps to drain sections. This will expose the Sole Survivor to attacks from mirelurks that are living in the water treatment plant. The lower levels are also guarded by a total of ten machine gun turrets, however, the Sole Survivor cannot hijack the turrets using the turret override program on the facilities terminal.

Upon exiting the elevator to the lower level, there is a turret to the left and a Novice locked door with some ammo boxes behind it. To the right (the room with the Picket Fences skill book), there is a computer terminal and an Expert locked safe. This terminal gives the option to disable all automated turrets in the section.

Loot

 * Picket Fences issue #5 - In the metal office overlooking the generator room, before descending to the main treatment chamber.
 * Super mutant heavy gauntlets - In the shack to the right of the main entrance of the water plant.
 * Super mutant bladed helmet - On the floor of the highest shack.

Related quests

 * Troubled Waters

Companion comments
At this location, companions make comments.

Appearances
The Weston Water Treatment Plant appears

Behind the scenes

 * The Weston Water Treatment Plant is a real world location, the Weston Reservoir.
 * The terminal describing the Nut Island drinking water provided at the Weston WELLness event is a reference to the "Nut Island effect," the name given to a phenomenon where skilled employees are led by distracted managers, leading to the team's catastrophic failure. The term was coined in reference to conditions at the Nut Island sewage treatment facility in Quincy, Massachusetts which resulted in a massive sewage spill into the Boston Harbor.

Bugs

 * Be careful with the exit elevator that becomes available when the mission is over. It is possible to get stuck inside permanently, forcing one to reload a previous save.
 * If you're "stuck" (elevator or pump control switch won't work) open console ` and type "coc WestonWaterTreatmentExt" then "resetinterior 6fe2f" without quotes. The alternative is to reload a previous save, however, it seems the elevator and pump control switch won't work until you relaunch the game.
 * On approach it is possible that a Brotherhood of Steel Vertibird will attack the super mutants outside the facility, but the Vertibird will fly into the raised section of highway above the facility repeatedly and then crash.