PERTINENT PARAGRAPHS RELATING TO WATER SUPPLY

Not many citizens of Brooklyn, N. Y., are aware that in Forest Park the city owns a completely equipped pumping plant, capable of delivering 10,000,000 gallons of water a day. Its use is blocked by the Long Island railroad, which refuses permission to pass under its property and tracks for the pipe that would carry this water to the city pumping station at East New York. The Forest Park plant has been idle for two years.

State Geologist W. H. Sellards is collecting data for a complete map of the subterranean water strata of the State of Florida. Some of the towns of the state discharge their sewerage into subterranean streams and an important part of the geological survey work will be to ascertain if there is any danger of towns in the lower part of the state tapping these streams for their water supply. So far, no such cases have been discovered.

As a revenue producer, the Wilmington, Del., water department, according to a statement made by Chief Engineer Kienlc, at the meeting of the commissioners, is a very valuable asset for the city. Taking up last year’s report, he said it cost the department $21.65 to pump 1,000,000 gallons of water, while the city derived therefrom a revenue of about $60, the total revenue from rents being about $213,000 out of a total income of $225,000.

Brookline, Mass., will have, next summer, x reservoir of 4,000,000 gallons capacity on Cabot’s Hill for its water supply, in place of the present 350,000-gallon storage. The board voted $100,000 for its construction. The new reservoir will be 134 feet in diameter, and 24.5 feet high. The base is 4 feet thick, with steel braces every 15 feet. The cover will be constructed of cement and steel, and will be supported by several piers of cement 15 feet apart.

At a special meeting of the Board of Water Commissioners, of Perth Amboy, N. J., at which the Woodbridge township committeemen .and a number of Keasbey property owners were* present, the application of the Woodbridge township committee that Keasbey be supplied with water, was granted. The contract states that water is to be supplied at meter rates and that the township committee shall furnish all necessary pipes, meters and so forth, and is good for one year, subject to renewal.

According to the report of the water superintendent of Colorado Springs, Colo., the total earnings of the city’s water system for 1908 were $204,572.41. Deducting expenditures, the net cash earnings amounted to $33,919.86, besides which there was furnished free to the park system, fire department, public institutions, churches and for various other purposes water estimated at the value of $61,391.79. The report further shows that rates in Colorado Springs are considerably lower than in either Denver or Pueblo.

The fire commissioners of Erie, Pa., propose to find out whether the theatres of the city, having a seating capacity of about 1,000 persons, will be required to employ an efficient fireman at afternoon and evening entertainments. At their last meeting they instructed the clerk to communicate with the city solicitor and the chief fattorinspector of the state, asking for an opinion as to whether or not the new state law govern ing theatres compels the owners to have regular theatre firemen on duty at every performance.

The action of the company that supplies Beloit, Wis., with water, in threatening to shut the water off from the city’s fire hydrants unless a disputed hydrant rental is paid, has led the local board of insurance agents to file a protest with the State Rate Commission against such a proceeding. The protest is backed with the threat that if this course is pursued by the water company every insurance policy in the city will be cancelled. [This is all very well, but hasn’t the company rights that should be respected?—Ed.]

Such a display of public spirited liberality as is reported from East Hampton. Conn., is rare in these prosaic and somewhat selfish times Here is the Summit Thread Company, which has just set up a big elevated tank to furnish water pressure, offering to give the town connections with it for a pipe to run to a central point, to it for a pipe to run to a centra point, to supply A committee has been appointed to make arrangements to take advantage of the company’s offer.

Some time ago the Roanoke Gas and Water Company, purchased in the vicinity of Roanoke, Va., a spring with a flow of 2,250,000 gallons of water a day, but did not intend to develop it until next year. Lately they decided to go to work and are now laying a pipe line to the spring. The line will be 13,000 feet long, and will cost $25,000. The spring is only 26 feet below the level of the reservoir, and a pump of only small power will be required to handle the new water supply.

The massive $3,000 concrete dam in Buck creek that is to make a water famine in Springfield, Ohio, an impossibility for the next century, is completed. Superintendent George Cotter of the waterworks department, measured the water in Buck creek at the place where it will flow over the dam and found that 34,000,000 gallons of water will pass through the creek at that point every twenty-four hours. This is more than enough to supply the city of Cincinnati and have some left.

For the sum of $2,000, the Suffey Petroleum Company, of Bayonne, N. J., has granted unto the Hudson County Water Company the right and privilege of constructing, maintaining and operating two iron or steel pipes for the transportation of water, each thirty inches in diameter through over and under their lands located on the easterly line of Ingham avenue and under the waters of the Kill von Kull to the exterior line for piers. At the easterly line of Ingham avenue connection will be made with the other pipe line of the water company.

Union fire company, of Reading, Pa., expects its new Metropolitan steamer on the 9th inst. It is a third-size steamer, equipped with a Fox sectional water tube boiler. Its rated nominal capacity is 600 gallons per minutes. The bore of the pumps is 4½ by 7-inch stroke and the diameter of steam cylinder 7j4 inches. The boiler is 32 by 62 inches, with a heating surface of 185 square feet. The engine is also equipped with all of the latest devices, such as the marvel mechanical oiler, three-way compression grease cup and the international expanding ring brake.

Although by the “referendum” vote the proposed issue of bonds to the amount of $20,000 for essential repairs to the waterworks of Bloomington, 111., was defeated, the city officials propose to begin them at once, under the emergency provision of the municipal charter. The water plant, according to Mayor Edmonson and city officials, is in so much need of repair in order to bring it up to the highest standard of efficiency, that it becomes necessary to begin work soon, or a new plant will have to he installed.

Des Moines, Iowa, firemen want the council to grant them one day’s rest in four. Chief Will Burnett, who says tie was not approached on the proposition of shorter working hours before the men went to the council, says he will need at least twenty more firemen if they get what they ask. That would mean an additional cost of $20,000 annually to the department. Each of the firemen receives $1,000 a year after he has been on the department twelve months. The expenses of conducting that department during the last fiscal year were $132,550.38.

The high pressure fire main system of Philadelphia, Pa., is being extended, as planned by Chief Baxter, of the fire bureau, to give protection to the neighborhood of Broad and Callowhill streets, where many garages are situated. When completed, it will be used as a connecting link between the central and the northeast system. The latter is now about two-thirds completed. ami will give protection to the city between Cumberland and Master streets. Sixth street gad the Delaware river, The system will consist of a reservoir at Sixth and Lehigh avenue, with a capacity of 4,962,000 gallons.

A year ago, when workmen were painting the big elevated water tank, that holds the reserve supply of the Glencoe, Minn., water system, they noticed that the hoops were badly corroded and notified the officials to that effect. Nothing was done, however, and one day last week the tank burst, the escaping water ruining two residences and injuring a woman who happened to be passing. She saw the lower hoop giving way and ran for safety but was overtaken and dashed with great violence to the ground. The siding was stripped from one house and carried away for several blocks.

Knoxville, Tenn., draws its water supply from the Tennessee river and is just now considerably exercised at the action of a tannery at Newport, which is discharging its drainage into the French Broad River, a tributary of the Tennessee. The tannery refuse is heavily charged with the leachings from the tan pits and, as a consequence, tannic acid and organic impurities are discharged into the river in such quantities as to kill the fish. Much of the impurity is removed by the filtration plant, but the water still shows the pressence of tannic acid and the question whether this is not injurious to health is disturbing the Knoxville Water Commission.

According to a decision of the State auditor’s office the city of Marshalltown is legally able to transfer that idle sum of $15,200 from the bond sinking fund to the general waterworks fund, according to information given by the State auditor’s office, from which the examination of city accounts is made. The money has been in a fund that was not legally created, and was to have been used for payment of bonds in the waterworks department. For two years it has drawn no interest, and the council has feared to order a transfer. The money will be used in paying for the new concrete dam and retaining walls, now being built at a cost of $33,000.

The Ashtabula, Ohio, Water Company, in the franchise presented to the city council, ask a 10-cent increase in the rates to be charged consumers. The present rate is 20 cents per 1,000 gallons, when the amount used is between 1,000 and 3,000 gallons daily. Other rates are also changed. The flat rate for private residences by the year is lifted as follows: For six rooms or less, from $5.10 per year to $6; for seven rooms, from $5.95 to $7; for eight rooms or more, from $6.80 to $8. It is stated that the water company representatives feel that recent improvements made in the installation of a filtration plant and larger mains justify the increased rates.

The public Water Company will sell its Ottumwa plant to the city of Ottumwa, la., for the sum of $275,000, plus the rentals, aggregating some $13,000, now held by the ciy for alleged violation of the franchise of the company. The city council of Ottumwa offers the sum of $235,000 flat, not including the rentals now being held, for the plant. The Public Water Company will, in all probability, make a compromise proposition to the city with the figure for the plant placed at about $250,000. The council will consider this expected offer and, if acceptable, a petition signed by 200 voters will be filed, requesting a special election to ratify or reject the action of the council.

The water committee of the council of Oklahoma City, Okla., has decided to authorize an important change in the conduct ,of the city’s water department business. The new system will enable monthly collections for water rentals to be made instead of quarterly payments as have been the rule in the past. It provides for a card index system for handling the separate accounts of the 7,000 consumers in the city, thus obviating much delay occasioned by the cumbersome book system now being used. A daily ledger sheet system is a part of the whole, and the department will be able to have its accounts up to the minute so that none need be kept waiting. This will save much time and annoyance on the part of the public as well as of the department.