ANNUAL WATER REPORT OF BUFFALO
In presenting the report of the Buffalo, N. Y., Bureau of Water, for the year ending June 30, 1015, to Public Works Commissioner Francis G. Ward, Deputy Water Commissioner Henry L, Lyon stated the new Porter Avenue pumping station was nearly completed and ready for use, and that the Bureau increased its receipts for water for the year $27,536.01 over the previous year, the total collection for water being $1,102,361.40. The expenses were, salaries, $250,675.97; maintenance and operation, $334,915.17; interest on bonds, $446,448.58; principal on bonds, $10,344.09; Sinking Fund, $133,828.90; building and equipment, Porter Avenue Station, $518,560.87; equipment, Massachusetts Avenue Pumping Station, $1,698.61; pipe extension, $305,425.75; remodeling new storehouse, $1,111.79; purchase of lands adjoining Massachusetts Avenue pumping station, $69,382.50. There are now 86,275 taps, having added 2,734 and abandoned 387 during the year. There are now 4,219 meters, having added 281 and removed 144 during the year. There are 5,647 hydrants, having added 159 and abandoned 11 during the year. There arc 11,139 valves, having added 420 and abandoned 20 during the year. The Bureau has laid, this year, 1,045 feet of 60-inch pipe, 4,730 feet of 48-inch pipe and 41,205 feet of smaller pipe, mostly 6-inch, now having a total of 589 miles of pipe of all sizes. The water works were contructed in 1848 by a private company and purchased in 1868 by the city. The source of supply is Lake Eric and the mode is pumping. The report says the estimated total population supplied is 475,000 and the total consumption for the year was 52,896,061,320 gallons of which 15,548,187,000 passed through meters, the percentage of consumption metered being 30 per cent. The average daily consumption was 148,101,400 gallons, or 312 gallons per day to each inhabitant and 1,716 gallons per day to each tap.
Features of the System.
The Massachusetts Avenue pumping station is situated on the bank of the old Erie Canal, now Black Rock Harbor. The new harbor has a channel 200 feet wide and 23 feet deep, as constructed by the United States Government in 1910. It is parrellel with and adjacent to the Niagara River. The new station was built in 1906-7, on the site of the old station and it was built of brick; is fire-proof; is 640 feet long by 102 in width. In the pump room are two vertical, single acting, triple power pumps, each with three single acting plungers, 12-inch diameter, 12-inch stroke. The south boiler house contains 16 horizontal, cylindrical, tubular boilers, each of which is 84 inches in diameter, 18 feet long, containing 172 tubes, each three inches in diameter, all equipped with McKenzie Traveling Grate stokers; six with Bonson Furnace. The north boiler house contains four Heine Water Tube Boilers, each 600 H. P., having 2 drums, 4 feet diameter, 21 feet long, with 346 tubes, each 3½ inches in diameter and 18 feet long, These boilers are fitted with 13-foot McKenzie furnaces and arc designed for 140 pounds pressure. In each boiler house is a gravity bucket conveyor that can handle 50 tons of coal per hour, with overhead bunkers and storage for 7,000 tons. The old tunnels and inlet pier arc not now in use but are held as a reserve. In Tune, 1907, a contract was let to the Buffalo Dredging Co., for the construction of a new tunnel 12 feet in diameter and 6,651 feet in length, and a new intake to be constructed in Emerald Channel at junction of Lake Erie with Niagara River, with a shore shaft located near the foot of Porter Avenue, and an additional tunnel 9 feet in diameter and 4,286 feet in length, extending from the shore shaft of the 12-foot tunnel to a shaft in front of the present pumping station. Both tunnels are built through solid limestone, concrete-lined throughout, and are completed. On June 2, 1911, a connection was made so as to supply a part of the Front Avenue Pumping Station with water from the new intake, through the new tunnels. On May 12, 1913, the connection was made so all the water could be taken from the new intake and since then the old intake has been in reserve for any emergency. The new intake pier was completed in the summer of 1912. It is circular in form, 110 feet outside diameter, with an interior chamber 70 feet in diameter, the water from the lake entering through 12 ports, each 6 feet by 6 feet, controlled by gates about 6 feet above the bottom of the lake and 20 feet below the ordinary lake level. The intake is two concentric concrete steel shells, one 70 feet in diameter, the other 110 feet in diameter, filled in between with concrete 20 feet thick. The shaft to the tunnel is in the center of the interior chamber, and a steel cylinder extends from the mouth of the shaft to about 15 feet above the water line, with four gates each x 6 feet, to control the flow of water into the tunnel. On the pier are installed two horizontal internally fired boilers each 100 horsepower, equipped with Jones Underfeed Stokers.
Porter Avenue Pumping Station.
Speaking of the Porter Avenue pumping station, the report says: The necessity of the duplicate pumping plant has been felt by us for years, both because some accident may happen to the one plant and because we needed a larger reserve for the water plant of so large a city. While building the new tunnel we had the foundations laid by the Buffalo Dredging Company for a new pumping station near the shore shaft of the tunnel on the lands turned over to us by the Park Department, bounded by Porter Avenue, Erie Canal, Jersey Street and Black Rock Harbor. In July, 1909, a contract was let to B. I. Crooker Company for the superstructure. The completion of this building was delayed on account of an unfortunate accident, but the building is now (July 1, 1915) completed. The boilers and the engines are so near erected that the station will be put in commission this month. The engine room is 95 by 364 feet, is built of brick and stone with terra cotta trimmings. The foundations are laid for 8 engines of 30 million gallons each. Five of these engines have been contracted for, and are now being erected, two of them being practically completed. A 30-ton crane with 50-foot lift controlled by 3 motors of 30 H. P. covers the whole length of the engine room and an auxiliary crane can deliver the load from a car or wagon to the main crane. In front of the Engine Room is a meter room 55 by 235 feet built below the ground grading line in which are erected five 48-inch Venturi meters, one for each pump. In front of the meter room is a valve system room 45 by 300 feet, built below the ground grade line in which is erected a valve system composed of 60-inch, 48-inch and 36-inch piping and so arranged that by the use of hydraulically operated valves any pump can be put on to either service or changed from one service to the other by one man within five minutes. In the rear of the engine room is a covered suction well 20 by 325 feet in which the water is 20 feet in depth and is supplied through two covered canals extended from the shore shaft of the 12-foot tunnel and so divided by gates that any part of the canals or suction well can be shut off for cleaning or repairs without interfering with the rest of the canals or suction well. In the rear of the suction well in the center is the boiler room 100 by 200 feet, with two radial brick chimneys, one on each side, each chimney being 11 feet in diameter at the top and 250 feet in height. In the boiler room eight Babcock and Wilcox boilers are erected, each 750 H. P. and equipped with McKenzie traveling grate stokers and Foster superheaters. Adjoining the boiler room on the south side is a hot well to which the steam from the engines is condensed and returned, and alongside of the hot well are two Deane feed pumps with feed water heater and purifying system. Adjoining the boiler room on the north side is an electric plant for lighting station and grounds and furnishing power for small pumps’ and machinery. We also expect to furnish the lights and power for our storehouse, a short distance away, and also light and power to the intake pier, the cable having been laid through the ground. In the rear of the boiler room is coal storage room, 45 by 100 feet, and to the rear of that the coal unloading room. Coal cars come by switch into the coal unloading room, where the coal is dumped into a coal conveyor which conveys it to the coal storage room or to the coal bunkers over the boilers, or from the storage room to the bunkers. The same conveyor takes the ashes from the boilers to a tank over the unloading room where a chute will deliver into cars or wagons. To the south of the boiler room, adjoining the engine room, is an extension 50 by 220 feet in which is a machine shop, carpenter shop, paint shop and chemical laboratory. To the north of the boiler room, adjoining the engine room, is an extension 50 by 220 feet in which is the store room and offices of the Chief Engineer and the Station.
Chlorination Plant.
Owing to the rapid growth of the population inhabiting the water sheds of the rivers and inland lakes, and increased traffic on the same, it is now generally conceded that it is no longer possible to make use of these bodies of water as sources from which pure and wholesome supplies may be drawn. Considerations of modern sanitation and to insure a pure, non-disease bearing water, the department decided to install an effective purification plant. The contract for the installation of a chlorination plant was let to the Electro Bleaching Gas Company, of New York, in 1914 and was completed and in use August 24th, the same year. The plant is located at the Emerald Channel Inlet Pier. The long run from the intake to the shore insures thorough mixing of the chemical and complete neutralization of the same. During the time the plant has been in operation, an average efficiency or bacterial reduction of 94 per cent, has been obtained. Pathogenic organisms have been eliminated when quantities of 1 cubic centimeter of the treated water were examined and 99 per cent, when tests were made on 5 C. C.
Best Street Reservoir.
Prospect reservoir is 1,472½ feet in length, 597½ feet wide and contains 20.20 acres and has a capacity of 116,213,827 gallons when filled to depth of 30 feet. The site was purchased in 1874; work on the reservoir was commenced in June, 1889, and completed in July, 1894.
Kensington Water Tower.
The Kensington water tower was erected in 1908 and put into commission in 1909. It is a steel tank, 40 feet in diameter and 85 feet in height. Its base is an elevation of 106.31 feet above water at intake pier. It holds, when filled to a depth of 75 feet, 704,970 gallons of water.
Fire Boat and Pipe Line.
A fire boat water pipe line was constructed in 1897 and several extensions have been made since. The pipe is not connected with the City water mains, but arranged at the Buffalo River end so that the fire tugs can connect to it and pump water from Buffalo River. The three fire tugs have a capacity of 18,000 gallons per minute.
