History of the Water Supply of the World / arranged in a comprehensive form from eminent authorities, containing a description of the various methods of water supply, pollution and purification of waters, and sanitary effects, with analyses of potable waters, also geology and water strata of Hamilton county, Ohio, statistics of the Ohio river, proposed water supply of Cincinnati.

by Thomas J. Bell

CONTAMINATION OF WATER SUPPLY.

Boston water has become quite offensive from vegetable fermentation, some say, although others attribute it to dead fish, eels, and animal organisms, and, later, to a green moss. The water tastes, at times, like cucumbers. The present trouble is traced to the new “Sudbury” supply. The older source, Lake Cochituate, is, however, contaminated by drainage from the town of Natick, through Pegan Pond.

Croton water (New York supply) has, at times, suffered from dead fish and decayed leaves.

Hartford, Yonkers, Poughkeepsie, and Albany report the presence of microscopic plants and animals in their water, and these organisms indicate stagnation. “Any undue preponderance of animal or vegetable life lead to the propagation of new forms of life dangerous to health.”

Springfield (Massachusetts) water tastes, at times, like green corn; while Cambridge is contaminated by the drainage of meadows.

Mr. G. W. Carpenter, Superintendent of Albany Water-Works, reports:

“There are two distinct causes (each imparting to the water an odor and taste peculiar to itself) that have affected our reservoirs, at different periods, during the last few years: the one giving to the water the odor and taste of fish, the other imparting to it a musty odor and taste sometimes detected in dead wood. In the former, it is extremely difficult to satisfy consumers that the impurities are not due solely to fish in the reservoir, while in the latter they are equally confident that the reservoirs are little less than stagnant ponds.”

The latter is sometimes exceedingly offensive and similar to sulphuretted hydrogen gas. In 1875 he again reports: “That all impounded waters in this section of the country are liable to become impure; that while the impurities have been traced to lower forms of animal organisms, little is known of the condition that favor their growth; that the germs of the organism probably come from the atmosphere.”

Chicago will be compelled to move her crib further into the lake, now two miles from shore, to get beyond the limits of the Chicago River sewage.

St. Louis, like Cincinnati, has outgrown its water system (established in 1872 at a cost of five millions,) and is obliged to drink muddy water.

Cleveland extended its aqueduct in 1872, 1¼ miles into the lake in order to escape shore water.

Detroit, after considerable discussion, removed their source of supply three miles above the city, and constructed new works in preference to expending more money on the old works.

Rochester, N. Y., expended 4½ millions for bringing the water of Hemlock Lake thirty miles to the city.

Baltimore celebrated only last October the opening of their new aqueduct, conveying the waters of Gunpowder River 7 miles in distance, at a cost of over four millions.

Indianapolis has been compelled to erect new works owing to the contamination of the present source.

CHAPTER III.
PURIFICATION OF WATERS.

The Rivers Pollution Commission of 1874, says, as regards filtration: “No process has yet been devised for cleaning surface water once contaminated with sewage, so as to make it fit for drinking.” Others say it is not safe to trust to dilution, storage, agitation, or filtration for periods of time, for the complete removal from water of disease-producing elements whatever they may be.

Dr. Frankland states:

“I believe the noxious parts in sewage is that which is held in mechanical suspension, not held in solution. I would not say it is impossible to remove it, but no system of filtration will secure its removal. There are only two processes by which it can be effectually removed—one by boiling for a long time, and the other by distillation.”

The methods adopted for filtration of water are:

“1. Infiltration—by intercepting underground currents through natural formations of beds or banks of water-courses.

“2. Filtration—mechanically by artificial beds of sand, gravel, etc., chemically by charcoal, iron, etc.

“3. Subsidence—clarification by deposition; storage reservoirs.

“4. Aeration—spontaneous purification by oxidation.

“5. Covered reservoirs—to prevent atmospheric influences.

“6. Precipitation of carbonates—Clark’s System.”

The infiltration system is resorted to where natural means for permeation are found; the galleries for intercepting the water being constructed in the sand or gravel banks or bed.

The clarification, however, is necessarily restricted, owing to the general high rate of filtration.

Lowell, Mass., has a gallery in the gravel banks of the Merrimack River, 1,300 feet in length, 8 feet by 8 feet, the bottom 8 feet below the river bed. The capacity is six million gallons, and rate of flow 150 gallons per square foot in twenty-four hours.

Lawrence, Mass., has a similar gallery.

Brookline’s (Mass.) gallery is 762 feet in length; 6 feet below the river bed. Rate of flow is 490 feet per square foot.

Newark, N. J., tried the experiment of driven wells. They drove sixty-three-inch tubes 28 feet apart, 40 feet deep, into the bank of the Passaic, three hundred feet from the shore line. The tubes were attached to three lines of suction pipes, and the latter united in one twenty-four-inch main for the supply of their five million pump. As their expectations as to the quality and quantity of water were not realized, a well was substituted.

Columbus, O., has a gallery under the Scioto River, 600 feet in length, with a capacity of eight millions daily.

Toronto, Canada, has a basin excavated in an island of Lake Huron, opposite the city, 13½ feet below low water, and 3,090 feet in length; the rate of flow is 52 imperial gallons per square foot for twenty-four hours.

Lyons, France, has two covered galleries along the banks of the Rhone; the area of bottoms 17,200 square feet; capacity six millions, and rate of flow at lowest stage 100 gallons per square foot.

Toulouse, France, has three covered galleries along the banks of the Garonne River. The last gallery constructed is 1,180 feet long; capacity, two and a half millions; rate of flow, 228 gallons per square foot of bottom area.

Perth, Scotland, has a gallery in an island of the River Tay, 300 feet long, 4 feet wide by 8 feet high, 2½ feet below the surface of the river; rate of flow, 182 gallons per square foot per diem.

Genoa, Italy, has a gallery in the valley of the northern slope of the Mantine Alps, 1,181 feet above the sea level. It is 1,780 feet long, 5 feet wide and 7 to 8 feet high, and extends, in part, beneath the bed of the river Scrivia, transversely from side to side, and in part along the bank. It has a delivery of 6,412 gallons for twenty-four hours per lineal foot.

The city of Glasgow made two failures in attempting to furnish a supply by this system. The first experiment was the construction of a reservoir on the northern bank of the Clyde, below the level of the river. Beneath the bottom of the reservoir was thirty-two-feet cylindrical tunnels made of wedged-shape bricks without mortar. The failure was due to the inability to keep the interstices free from the deposit of impurities. In the second plan, they excavated shallow wells, 10 feet in diameter, 6 feet deep, and 20 feet apart, in the stratum of sand adjacent to the river. The wells were connected by pipes. The scheme was a worse failure than the first one.

It often happens, as in the case of Waltham, Massachusetts, in locating these galleries, that spring water is intercepted in place of the desired water of the flowing stream. The difference in temperature and increased hardness of the spring water, determine the class of water.