“4th. The available resources of these water-sheds are now used for feeding the Miami Canal, from which a number of mill-owners secure their power, whose rights must be protected.
“5th. The insufficient elevation of the sources for securing a fair hydrostatic water pressure, and their extreme distance, causing loss of head by long conduit, and enormous cost for construction, for conveying unwholesome water.”
RIPARIAN RIGHTS.
The compensation to millers by the Manchester and Liverpool Water-Works was fixed by Parliament at one third of the available rain-fall. Nearly one-half of the present capacity of the Glasgow supply is used by mill-owners.
On this subject John W. Erwin, resident engineer of the Ohio State Board of Public Works, says:
“The riparian right of water-users are great, and could not be purchased for $2,000,000. The water for this purpose can not be spared. The canal is fed as far as Middletown, by a feeder from Mad River. At Middletown we feed it from the Miami, which furnishes its supply of water to Cincinnati, a distance of forty-four miles. The Middletown Hydraulic Company have owned their rights since 1808, long before the canal was constructed; and when the canal was built there was no surrender of such right, merely common consent to the use of the water, but since that time more than double the amount of water is used than was contemplated.
“By taking water to Cincinnati from the river, you injure the power supplied by the river at all points between Middletown and Cincinnati, and you would find great objections raised by users of power along the canal. The power derived from the canal is the life-blood of the town of Middletown, and of the mills along its banks—at Excello, Woodsdale, Rockdale, Hamilton, Rialto, Port Union, Crescentville, Lockland, and other places. The mills have large interests, and would not surrender their rights without a struggle.
“A large portion of the water of the Miami, and at the present time we might say half the volume of the water of the river is carried into Cincinnati by the canal. This is more than was ever contemplated, and is destined to injure the water-power of the river itself.”
The abandonment of the canal in the city, will no doubt be accomplished within a short time, when provisions should be made to provide a better use for this surplus water than turning it into Millcreek.
Monthly and annual quantity of water from rain and snow reduced to water, in inches and hundredths, at Cincinnati, Ohio. Latitude 39° 6′ north, longitude 84° 29′ west.