The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1882-09-05
II II Not Possible to Furnish the City
with Clearer Water?

Time has demonstrated the wisdom OF
the City Council In purchasing the steam
pump. For nearly twelve months It has
been. il not the sole, certainly the main re-
lance OF the city, and without II we would
have been this summer subjected TO such
"famine" as we had last year. II has
already paid for Itself, and yet has been so
moderately used that 1t Is q more valuable
piece OF property now than when 1t was
first set in motion.
With or without the new pump-housc
the pumping capacity Is now ample, and
thousands OF people have been longingly
looking for some experiment in the way OF
giving us clearer water. There were two
basins constructed in the new reservoir,
and for several reasons; but chiefly that
while river water was heavy with mud, wa
ter might be allowed to fall from the pumps
and settle in one basin while the city was
temporarily supplied from the other basin,
supposed to be filled with better water.
For years il was declared that the pumping
capacity was not sufficient to permit fair
test to be made in this direction. No such
reason can be urged now; and yet no sys-
tematic experiment has yet been made, or
il made, the results have not been given to
the public.
We are aware that careful experiments
show that II you allow very muddy James
river water two months for subsistence, it
will not even in all that time become per-
Jectly clear.
Nothing that can be done at the reservoir
will make the water perfectly clear. Nor
is that hoped for, much less expected.
But every housekeeper knows that in
forty-e;ght hours the muddiest water left
standing will become greatly improved in
color, ana the deposit made will form a
thick and repulsivc coating on the bottom
OF the vessel which contains the water.
Two or three days for subsistence given the
water in the. reservoir would improve it
very much.
II Will probably be urged that to draw
from one basin for two or three days will
so lower the "head" that many houses in
elevated localities will get no water at all,
and that the thing to do is TO construct a
subsistence lake on reservoir. Well, all
that may or may not be so, but the people
have the right, and, ii we know their
opinion, do insist that before any additional
expenditure is even limited at for the re-
mote future, that carefuly-made and a
carefully-recorded series OF tests shall be
made to ascertain what can be done to i'm
prove the character OF the present water
supply by The application OF means now at
our disposal.
1t viii moi DO to say that the thing has
been tried and will not work. When,
where, and how was it tried:
Ii the Committee on Water will deter
mine tomake these teStS-if they willweish
the suggestions of scientific gentlemen in
and ont OF the city-they may be able TO
accomplish great good. Ii they prove a
failure, having been made il an honest
spirit OF inquiry, the people will then, and
not until then, be satisfied that the scheme
is impractcable. Whether they succeed
or fail, the Dispatch will gladly give the
results to the public, to the end that q long
mooted question may be settled and one
step at least be recorded in the direction Of
obtaining, while the river is muddy, water
that looks more like water and less like
mud