Sometimes people find stories, and other times the stories find them – and that is what happened to Elena Palladino when she decided to look into the history of her house.

Palladino came to find out it used to stand in a Massachusetts town that no longer exists thanks to the Quabbin Reservoir.

Palladino stood in the Senate Library at the State House Wednesday afternoon and told the story of her home, and the woman who used to own it. She lived in a town that was disincorporated in the 1930s when the state realized it needed a clean water source for Boston and built what is now known as the Quabbin Reservoir.

So, Palladino did a little digging, fascinated by the unique history.

“There were about 2,500 people who lived in these four towns that were disincorporated to build the Quabbin, and they didn’t want to leave,” Palladino said. “And I think they would be devastated to think that their sacrifice was forgotten.”

The towns’ residents didn’t want to leave, and yet they did so that Boston and eastern Massachusetts could continue to build industry and thrive, all while the areas surrounding the water don’t get to use it for themselves.

It’s a fact that seems criminal to state Sen. Jo Comerford, D-Hampshire and Worcester.

“The lovely pristine water, but who is paying for it?” Comerford said. “I think we are paying for it in western Massachusetts, and I would like a little recompense for that.”

Palladino turned the stories she learned about the people who were displaced into a book, “The Lost Towns of the Swift River Valley.”

“So, my hope is that my book keeps their memory alive so that we remember what was sacrificed to build the reservoir,” Palladino said.

A bill inspired by that history has been introduced to both the state House and Senate would provide many things, including financial compensation for the towns surrounding the Quabbin.

“The bill is very important,” Palladino said. “It does a couple of things, and one of those is to tax the water that eastern Mass. is drinking and kick some of that money back to the communities that surround the Quabbin for their water infrastructure and other things. I think that is a really important thing for the people who steward this amazing resource, but don’t get to benefit from it themselves."

Comerford said she has been met with a lot of opposition to the bill, and she said that’s because it’s challenging the status quo.