The daily gazette., 1879-01-31
Pure Water.

MIR. EDITOR The Hon. Alexander II
Stephens said, when lie WAS interropa-
ted on the money question, ave want
good money and plenty oft" AID that
Is what the people want, good water and
plenty OF II and to be sure of both we
must stay where we are, at the lower
level MI Editor, the more think and
talk to my neighbors, on this subject of
moving our pumping apparatus, the
more II appears to me to be wrong. l
bad a conversation with an old gentle
man, to-day, who has been business
man here for over fifty years and such
men as these their opinions are worth
something. "Why," said he, "it is an out
.age," ana went on to say that when the
reservoir was done that was to be an end
of the water question for at least twenty
years.
Now for few thoughts on the water
rights that this new project will disturb
The mill owners said to Inc the other
day when l was out there "that they
owned the water rights on that side, and
expected that 1t would be allowed to
come down and not be turned off in any
other way or used for any other purpose
that would deprive them Of ii. They
Will sell out II the city wants to buy, but
no water rights to dispose Of The south
SIDE is divided into seven wafer rights,
the city owning three, leaving four that
belong to other parties; and from the
manner they talk they will attend to their
rights when they are infringed upon.
From the conversation had with the
millers l have come to the conclusion
that 1t is doubtful whether the city has
or or. can get the power ,"a p to t., take e
at any other place than at the 10 wer
level, for it is an established fact that
water courses cannot be changed, either
in part or in whole. The stat ons where
the water Is or may be used are thirteen,
leaving out the city's rights. Now, ii
We take the figures of the committee for
water damages In places in their report,
whicn amount to s2,28l.25 as a base to
figure from. This will make the thr-
teen places named amount to Sl4 1913 O6.
This is quite an item, but the mill own
| ers below will, in my opinion, show
| much higher hgures than these, for they
say these water rights are worth more
| than those above, having nearly double
the fall.
This would be nice amount to pay
per annum for 5000 900 gallons of water
per day, and As we increase the gallons
of water, the increase Of damages will
20 up at the same rate.
IL is said this new water departure
from below to above was lro lgnt about
by meeting of bus!n rs men; i sup
pose called together by the Water Com
mittee. The mistake the committee
| made was that they did not invite the
Brandywine millers and a respectable
| mum Der Of the tax payers, Il mean the
solid men of the town, / am satisfied
that the committee would have made "a
d ffereut report, for "ln the multitude of
| counsel there is WISDOM" and from the
| look of their report it showed that the
Information they got was much on one
side.
| don't want to impute anything wrong
to any person who was there; but were
not some of them Interested IN said re-
| mUval? and We know that interested
men are always highest in their notious.
We have no thought in our mind that
| the water committee had anything in
their minds but to do what was right;a
| If could be made to believe tuat the
said report is correct, aS they think it Isl;
| that S2,0O2 per annum would be saved,
and purer water obtained, i would not
write one more word againts the re-
moval; but there are 50 many objections.
First, we have less water up there, than
we have now secoud, it is not as pure
As it is at the lower station, for running
purifies 1t; third, the cost no man can
tell, for my own part, l think it will be
enormous; fourth, 10 move from GER
tainty to an uncertainty Is one OF the
things we ought not to speculate in, es-
pecially when we have q large debt
already, with prospect Of 1t being still
larger, without this additional one, hunt.
ing for PURE WATER.