WATERWORKS ITEMS FROM ALL PARTS
Special Reports to FIRE. AND WATER ENGINEERING.
Moline, Ill., has contracted for a 6-in. main.
Holly, Mich., is driving a well for a water supply.
Grand Forks, N. Dak., is building a waterworks system.
North Pascagoula, La., is extending its waterworks system.
Shenandoah, Pa., is drilling 10-in. wells for an additional supply.
Mount Healthy, Ohio, will be supplied with water by Cincinnati.
St. Louis, like Pittsburg, may electrocute the microbes in its water supply.
Tacoma, Wash., has contracted for the laying of a 12-in. main at a cost of $6,404.
The vote at Grants Pass, Ore., against municipal ownership of the Royal River Water company’s system was 344 to 52.
Until the springs revive, Ephrata, Pa., has made arrangements to pump water into its reservoirs from the Cocalico creek, 600 ft. distant.
J. H. Forbes and company, of Caldwell, Idaho, have been awarded a contract for constructing a waterworks system at Emmett, Idaho, for $18,783.
At Covington, Ga., a contract has been let to the General Contract and Construction company, of Atlanta, for a waterworks and sewerage system.
In the higher points of Pottstown, Pa., residences are entirely without water supply, owing to the drought. There has been no such water famine since 1819.
The Kennedy Valve Manufacturing company, of Elmira, N. Y., has the contract for gates for the 48-in. main in Detroit.
The Rensselaer Manufacturing company, of Troy, X’. Y., ha9 been awarded the contract for hydrants and valves for the extension of the waterworks system at Jackson, Miss.
In consequence of the drought in the Schuylkill region, the Reading, Pa., Coal and Iron company has been hauling 125 oil-talk cars of water for the supply of its colliery boilers. The operators of the Morse colliery pay for the short haul from Frackville about $4,000 per month.
A committee of engineers recommended that a canal 200 ft. wide and 15 ft. deep be opened between Gravesend bay and Sheeps head bay along the line of the old ship canal, which fell into disuse and became partly Filled more than fifteen years ago. They propose to expend $1,000,000 on the work.
Du Hois, Pa., has introduced an ordinance, which the council will probably pass, to supply manufacturers with water at three cents per 1,000 gal. The manufacturers must have their establishments within the limits of the borough, and employ help and manufacture machinery and other commercial goods.
After trying for five years, Council Bluffs, la., will build an up-to-date waterworks system. Plans have been prepared, which include all the features Kansas City, Mo., has in its waterworks system and filters in addition. The source of supply is the Missouri river. The city voted $600,000 in bonds to pay for the plant.
At Reading, Pa., cases of alleged stream pollution are being tried. It was decided that the inspectors should notify in writing the owners of the properties where pollutionsources are found that they must abate the nuisance or the State health department would do so and charge the cost against the property owner.
The Cincinnati Annexation league will oppose the extension of the Cincinnati water supply system to the group of downriver villages which have been trying to get it at the city rate. The cost to the city would be $50,000. The league contends that the new waterworks system was installed for the supply of Cincinnati only.
Sheboygan, Wis. may have to go to law with the local water company, which, as the city alleges, has failed to comply with an agreement of the former as to the purchase of the system. The city, however, may comply with the company’s demand and pay it $385,000 —$35,000 above what (it is claimed) the company was bound to accept under its contract to sell.
A successful test has been made at Cincinnati, Ohio, of the new waterworks-tunnel by Superintendent Hiller. The test was the first ever made of the tunnel under a “full head,” and necessitated the cutting off of many hilltop consumers for a short while. It resulted in finding that there was a leakage of only 1-25 of 1 per cent., which is considered unusually small. The tunnel is 7 ft. in diameter and is nearly 5 miles long.
The J. J. Child Steamer company, of Troy, recently held its eighth anniversary banquet, which was attended by about 100 active and honorary members of the company. George W. Rankin is captain of the company, of which Chief Byron, in the course of his speech, spoke as one of the “most efficient companies in the department,” whose members he had “always found willing to do more than their share” at fires.
At Pittsburg, Pa., seventy men have been added to the rolls as regular firemen, to perfect at Norfolk, Va., has been authorised to allow steel standpipe weighing 27 tons, which, when erected, will stand 25 ft. high, and will have a capacity of 125,000 gal. The concrete foundation for the same has been completed. This will be used in addition to -the present wooden standpipe, which also has a capacity of 125,000 gal.
Johnstown has had a $100,000 Sunday morning fire which totally destroyed the non-fire proof and non-sprinklered leather dressing plant of Karg & Fennell on East Fulton street. Johnstown has a fire area of 1,600 acres. Its mercantile buildings are 1-story to 5-story and of brick; its private residences are 2-story, of wood, with wooden roofs permitted. In fire protection its volunteer department depends on chemical hand-extinguishers and hydrant streams, the pressure on its 165 hydrants being 140 lb.
A recent San Francisco dispatch states that the Spring Valley Water company has filed a demurrer to the suit instituted by some 3,405 claimants, who ask for damages running well into millions of dollars for the losses they sustained by reason of the fire of April, 1906 The water company attacks the sufficiency of the complaint, and has followed the demurrer with notice of a motion to dismiss the suit The motion is based on the contention that the f ederal court is without jurisdiction.
Each year for the past three or four sessions the District Commissioners of Washington, I). C, have included in their estimates an item of $750.(XX) for high pressure service. The item has been rejected by the District Subcommittee of the House Committee, whose opinion that the downtown section of Washington does not need a high-pressure service is said to have been st’l! further strengthened by the recent failures of the high-pressure system in Manhattan. New York. The item will certainly not pass this year.
It is said that Mayor McClellan will try again, early next vear, to have the Croton aqueduct commission legislated out of office. The commissioners asked the board of estimate yesterday for $500,(XX), but the appropriation was not passed. There are five commissioners. who draw $5,000 a year apiece. The work for which the commission was appointed, the construction of the Jerome Park reservoir and the Croton dam, has been completed. Their usefulness as a body is, therefore, gone.
The Marin County, Cal., Water company is laying mains from Corte Madero to Sausalito, The pipe line will be carried through the Corte Madero ridge, and the dam at lake Lagunitas will be raised, so as to increase the capacity of the reservoir by 35,000,000 gal., which, together with the increase on the Phcenix gulch, will add more than 2(X),000,(XX) gal. tothe present storage capacity. Sausalito will own its distributing system, and (he company will furnish the daily supply according to a graduated schedule.
The Iowa City, la., Water company is having test wells driven on the west side of the river. If expert analysis proves that the water from these is free from organic matter, these and not the galleries will furnish the supply of the future. 1 he wells will be connected with the pumping system, if the water is not satisfactory, mechanical filaration will be resorted to.
The new waterworks system to be installed in Wallingford, Vt., by the local waterworks company will include a 30,(XX)-gal. reservoir and miles of cast iron pipe 10-in., 12 in., 6-in. and 4-in, and 1-in and i’/i-m. of wrought iron pipe. The reservoir will be of concrete, covered, and will be 25 ft. in diameter and 12 ft. deep. A 10-in, pipe, reducing to 8-in. will lead from the reservoir, and a 6-in. pipe will run through the main street of the village. The source of supply will be the never-failing springs, whose waters will be brought into the reservoir by the inlet-pipes.
1 he Scranton, Pa., Gas and Water company has bought land for a new reservoir at Dunsmore, but has not begun construction work. If the company makes all its contemplated improvements, it must issue bonds to the amount of $1,000,000 or $1,500,000 to pay for a big pipe-line across the valley from lake Scranton; the installation ot the water meters; the Providence filter; and the construction of additional reservoirs. One of the reservoirs is likely to he in the neighborhood of Moscow.
1 he Mahoning Valley Water company, of Youngstown, Ohio, has petitioned for leave to lay a main along Wilson avenue to the East End bridge, and then along Crab creek, for tile supply of the industrial plants in the district adjoining that territory, The company’s franchise does not give it tile right to furnish a domestic supply in competition with the city waterworks department. The company’s source is a large lake of very pure water and with capacity sufficient to supply a large number of big plants.
Along tinKanalt creek tinwater which supplies Grand Junction. Colo., is said to be impure, and the city is trying to have it condemned. Whichever way the litigation on the subject turns out, the decision will set a prcce dent involving water rights in the State. The water-users along this creek are fighting strenuously the cutting off of their water supply, while the city is equally anxious to gain possession of 3(H) statute inches of water to feed its reservoir. Over 400 water-users have been made respondents. Should the city be sue cessful in the suit, it will mean an abundant supply of fresh mountain water for domestic purposes.
The outbreak of typhoid fever at Jeffersonville. Ky., has been traced to the water from the intake and at the mouth of Beargrass creek. The well water is perfectly wholesome.
Bids have been submitted at Yuba City, Cal., for erecting the tank for the proposed water system, as follows; Hugh McGuire, Marysville, $0,249: Chicago Bridge and Iron Works, Chicago, $5,520; Des Mointes Bridge and Iron company, Iowa, $5,155; Minneapolis Steel and Machinery company, Minneapolis, $5,250; Hyde Harzes company, San Francisco, $6,025; Clarence Swain, lone, $8,41X1. On the laying of the pipe there were two close bids—one from the J. W. Stanley company, of San Francisco, for 18 cents a foot for cast iron and 2% cents a foot for wrought iron; from Heafey & Murphy, of Oakland. Their bid was the same for cast iron; for wrought iron it was 12 cents per foot.
The report of the municipal waterworks system at Pensacola, F”!a., for the first quarter shows no decided profit. The finance committee includes in its report the interest on the investment of $257.(HX), the percentage of wear and tear of the plant, the amount of taxes and licenses that the city would have derived during this period and from which it is now deprived by virtue of owning the properties. After deducting all of this from the receipts, the city is left with a net profit of $781 for the first quarter. Inasmuch as about $3,(XX) was expended during this period in improvements and in extending the service, it is anticipated that when this work is completed and the extra expense ceases, the city will derive considerable profit from the operation of the plant.
