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.