The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1869-09-24
Water Supply.
RICHMOND, September Goth, Isl

feet or head tor 3-lnch main ana lbi 1eet
head for 4-inch main should read, 1880
feet head in eUery one thousand feet, and
l72 feet head in cuery one thousand feet in
length"
With the larger mains recommended it
must not be supposed that the required
head can be obtained by the reservoir pro-
posed by the committee. This can only be
obtained by stand-pipe, elevated tank,
large air-vessel, or direct by machinery.
I continue, now. the further discussion Of
our "water supply"
The third question which l proposed in
my letter of the 7th instant to discuss was
"the impurity of the water"
In entering upon this question, which has
so often been attempted in vain by others,
I acknowledge my inability 10 solve it fully;
as know too we'll, from the experience of
the most eminent engineers, that whatever
plan is proposed to purify the water it can
only be temporary and accomplished on a
large scale at great expense.
In the report submitted to the Council in
1860 by the late City Engineer that gentle
man recommended the construction of two
filtcr-bcds 24G feet in length by $50 feet in
width. The fltering medium he suggested
was sand and gravel Of sufficient quantity
to filter about four and half million gal
Ions of water daily. The cost CT these
" "filtering arrangements" rs he calls them,
he puts down at $4,000 | regret he has
not given his estimate more in detail, and
has omitted entirely to state the cost Of
keeping the filters effective. 1t sesps, in
deed. singular that the Council shonaa have
accepted so mcagre and imperfect report.
The estimate Of cost given in this report
differs very widely from the estimates for
the same in other cities. In St. Louis, in
1866, the proposal of flter-heds was brought
before the Common Council Of that city by
the Board Of Water Commissioners. In
estimating the cost nj such beds, suffi-
cient to filter ten million gallons daily, that
Board set down the interest on the cost of
construction ut $50, 900 per annum, and the
cost of keeping the same in repair at like
amount-mak;n" total cost OF $4,000 per
urnum. The Board gave up the PROPOSE
ton as hopeless.
In the report Of that Board will be found
the opinions of Mr.. John c. Finck and
other eminent engineers.
Mr.. Finck says: II have seen the ar
rangement for fltering in Paris; | saw it
in 1913. 1t Is abandoned nov. It was
found too expensive to replace the gravel,
sand. and other material, required Tor fill
tcring. 1t worked well, and made the wa
ter perfectly clear. am afraid you will
meet the same difficulty that was met with
thcre-thc expense. You may accomplish
what YOU intend. but at such large addi-
tional expense that it is not worth while to
do it."
Mr.. Samuel Gaty, in the same report,
says g. consider iltering the water for
drinking purposes very valuable, but think
it impracticablc OH a large scale
In their later report, dated 2lst Deccm-
Der, 1866, tie same Board say: " Filter
ing- beds have been dispensed with on ac-
count Of the increased expenditure attend
ing their construction, and OF a disposition
on the part OF the commissioners to test
more thoroughly that process before recon-
mcnding the construction Of the costly
works necessary for that purpose"
The water Of the James river is said by
the late City Engineer, in his report Of 1860
to be turbid only four or five days at time.
1t would therefore be much more eXtrava-
CANT and impracticable in us to erect such
costly works than in the inhabitants Of st.
Louis.
There are several other plans in opera
ton which have been found less expensive,
but fear their practicability.
One of the most simple, and at the same
time inexpensive, is the one recently con-
structcd at Binghamton; N. Y. The wa
ter works Of that city are supplied from the
Susquehanna river. Near the banks Of the
river have been dug two wells twenty-five
feet in diameter and twenty-five feet in
depth, with connecting channel. The
wells and the connecting channel between
them ore surrounded by substantial walls
of large stones laid in cement above the
water line. The walls are two feet in
thickness at the bottom of the well and ono
foot and q half at the top. The wall ex-
cludes all surface water, and nothing runs
into the we'll except what comes through
the natural filter in the bottom, that is,
through the banks of the river; and the
water is said to be as pure as spring water
The state of the weather and the condition
of the river has no effect on the water II
the wells, and the supply is inexhaustlble
[ fear, however, that this beautiful, simple
and inexpensive mode of filtering is now in
its virgin purity; that the fltering medium
will become clogged, and the wells be
obliged to be enlarged until they become
long galleries or canals, as in Marselllcs
Toulouse, Lyons, Glasgow, &c. In Lyons
these fltering galleries or wells have had
to be enlarged until now their entire cos'
amounts to $300,O0O, with capacity Of
furnishing only three and q half million
gallons per day. In Glasgow the galleries
or canals parallel to the Clyde have been
necessarily abandoned, and that city is now
furnished with water from Loeb Katrine.
Our Water Committee, in their late re-
port, have strongly advocated their pro
posed reservoir on the ground that 1t vii
supply US with water very nearly, if no
entirely, free from sediment, NTH ht
quality gerry mach improved. 1t will CON
tain, we are informed, 40,000,G00 gallon:
of water: and whereas our consumption a
present is only 100000 gallons daily
with such consumption it will last III
twenty or thirty days for all necessary
purposes.
However much it may precipitate thu
sediment, that it will not improve th'
quality is most singularly, exactly, and
fully shown by the Water Committee on th'
Water Works in st. Louis in their report o
1866. l quote uerbatim: "The question,
they say, that presents itself is, will thi
deterioration Of water not take place in
reservoir from which, with our presen
consumption, one-tpentieh part of the wa
ter will he drawn off daily, and to whicl
one-t,oentseh part of its volume will b
added daily? Or, to bring the question
into simpler form, will one hundred an
sixty-fve million gallons of water, expose,
to the heat and light of the summer sun
retain the good qualities of river water
The influx and efux cannot enter into con