Buffalo takes its supply from a pier in Niagara River, and is conducted through a tunnel 22½ feet below the river bottom. The system is pumping and reservoir distribution with Holly plan for fire purposes and supply of higher levels. At the pumping station there are two Worthingtons—one of 10 million and the other of 15 million capacity—and a condensing beam engine of 8 million capacity. A third Worthington is now in course of erection. There are three Holly pumps, one of 1½ millions; one of 2½ millions; and one of 6 millions capacity, which take their supply from the face main 20 feet below the reservoir, and pump directly into the mains. The statistics for 1880 are: population, 155,137; miles of pipe, 102; daily consumption, 16½ million gallons; water-takers, 9,099. The original cost of the works was $400,000. Present value 3 million dollars, outstanding bonds $2,950,000.
Washington is supplied from the Potomac River by diverting the waters at Great Falls 17 miles above the city, by a dam of cut masonry with rip-rap backing. Its top is 148 feet above tide level at Washington. The water is conducted through a brick aqueduct 9 feet in diameter, with a grade of 0.75 feet per mile. The reservoir at Powder Mill Branch (made by damming the stream), has a water surface of 50 acres, with a capacity of 176 million gallons. The expectation that the Potomac water, which is frequently very muddy, would have time to settle in this reservoir before being drawn from its outlet was not realized in consequence of the turbidity of drainage water collected by the reservoir itself; a connecting conduit was therefore built in 1864 to supply direct from Potomac River, during freshets, in Powder Mill Branch.
The high levels of Georgetown or those more than 90 feet above tide level, are supplied by pumping and reservoir distribution. The reservoir is a hemispherical brick structure, 120 feet in diameter, and 220 feet above tide.
The statistics for 1880 are: population, 147,307; miles of pipe, 175; daily consumption of water, 26 million gallons; number of taps, 17,000. Cost of aqueduct and its maintenance to June 30, 1880, was 3.8 million dollars, and for water mains, 1.7 millions.
Louisville.—The Louisville Water Company was chartered in 1854, and in 1856 the city subscribed to the capital stock to the amount of $550,000. The supply is taken from the Ohio River, 1½ miles above the city limits. The intake is 300 feet from shore, 50 feet in diameter, made of a crib of timber filled in with stone, the mouth of the inlet being 5 by 12 feet, and set 1 foot below lowest stage of water. By 1865 the inlet pipe was half full of silt; in order to clean it a well was sunk over the pipe, 105 feet from its end, the pipe cut, and then cleaned out. In 1877 the pipe was again cleansed. Anchor ice has given them much trouble. There are two Cornish beam engines which deliver the water through a wrought-iron stand pipe, 48 inches in diameter and 132 feet high, into a reservoir of earth embankments, 141 feet above low water, and 3,650 feet from the works. The water surface of this reservoir is 178 by 374 feet. The new reservoir on Crescent Hill is 175 feet above low water, and 2½ miles from stand-pipe. It has a capacity of 100 millions. Notwithstanding extraordinary care having been taken in the foundations of this reservoir, leaks and slips occurred soon after it was filled.
The statistics for 1880 are: Population, 123,645; miles of pipe, 110; daily consumption of water, 5½ million gallons; number of meters, 201; hydraulic elevators. 50; value of the works—construction, $800,000; enlargements, $2,400,000; total, 3.2 million dollars.
San Francisco is supplied by the Spring Valley Water Company from three sources. One from Lobos Creek, 4 miles from the city, where the water is gathered after slow percolation through sand, and conducted through 23,700 feet of wood and masonry aqueduct to the pumping-works (at zero datum of city level) at Point Black. These engines raise the water into two reservoirs on Russian Hill, respectively 396 feet and 139 feet above city datum. The ordinary yield of the source is 2¼ millions daily. Another source is from the mountains of San Mateo County, 15 miles from San Francisco, where a dam was built in 1864, 640 feet long, 26 feet wide on top, 95 feet high, with slopes 2¾ and 2½ to 1 foot. A puddle-trench is sunk 26 feet below the natural surface to the rock. After the reservoir was full, a leak appeared at one end of the dam caused by an unsound rock. While the reservoir was full a shaft was sunk 80 feet deep to the point, and the rock removed and replaced with puddle. This reservoir is 46 feet deep, and has a capacity of 1,083 million gallons, with a water surface of 692 feet above the sea. The water is conducted 13 miles, through a flume partly of 30-inch wrought-iron pipe, to Lagunda Honda Reservoir, 377 feet above the sea, with a capacity of 33 million gallons.
The third supply is brought from the water-shed of Lock’s Creek, 2.75 square miles in area, and 505 feet above tide. This water is conveyed 17.42 miles to St. Andres Reservoir through wrought-iron pipes and tunnels lined with solid masonry.
The St. Andres Reservoir has a capacity of 7,000 million gallons, and is formed by an earth dam 640 feet long, 25 feet wide on the top, and 93 feet high, with a puddle-trench 47 feet more to the rock. The cost of the works to 1875 was $8,746,928.12. Amount paid on dividends to stockholders $4,701,562.18.
The population in 1880 was 233,956, and daily consumption of water 17 millions.