St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1882-07-22
BOGUE FALIA WATER.


met in Committee of the Whole
last Monday, to consider the cues
ten Of granting the right of way
through the city, to lay mains, etc,
to ,he St. Tammany Waterworks
Company, and it was decided to
appoint committee of two, rep
resenting the city and the Board Of
Health, to investigate the character
Of the water of the Bogue Faia, its
drainage, etc. AS might be ex-
pected, the new company meets
with considerable opposition from
those interested in the New Orleans
Waterworks Company. This COM
pany is . rich and powerful one
in fact, it is one of the strongest
links in the chain of rings under
which the city is grooming at pres
ent. But if the company is strong,
the Mississippi mud soup which it
serves to the people, under the
name of fresh water. is much
stronger. AS an evidence of the
feeling Of the Council in the mat
ter of granting a charter to the new
company, we quote as follows from
the proceedings of Mondays meet
ing:
When The matter was taken up,
Mr. Delamore suggested that mas
much as there was an important
legal question involved, it would
perhaps be better to refer the mat
ter to the City Attorney, for him to
say whether the city could, under
the statutes, grant any rights to
the new company. He said, in
giving title to the company now
operating in this city, the State, in
the fifth section of the act, had
given it the exclusive right to fur
nish water to the city, and an ordi-
nance granting any such right to
another company woula be in vio-
lation of this law. The city had
guaranteed this in the title when
the purchase was made.
Mr.. Mealy said that aside from
the legal questions involved. there
was one of sanitation. He had
heard that the river from which
this company intended to draw its
supply at certain seasons of the
year was in a very unhealthy con-
dition. In fact, that it was not fit
to drink. Now, he couldn't say
how true this was, but whether it
vas true or not, the City Council
eught. to act-1ith. cal the
matter. He wanted the water of
the Bogue Falia to be analysed
first, to find out its properties, and
this at the expense of the company
asking for the grant. Gov. Penn
suggested that nobody need take
the water after it was brought here
if they did not want to, when Mr..
Mealy replied that the Council did
not want bad water here at all, if it
was bad.
SO far as Mr.. Delamore's sug-
gestion is concerned, it is perhaps
true that the city has granted the
New Orleans Waterworks Company
the exclusive privilege of supplying
that city with water. But the
feature of such a con-
tract is direct violation of the
law, according to the new Consti-
tuition, which provides that $40
monopoly or exclusive privilege
shall exist in this State"
Article 155 of the new Constitu-
ion provides that ''no ex post faeto
aw, nor any law impairing the Oh
igation of contracts, shall be pass
ID, 2cr vested rights be Invested.
lnless for purposes of public utility,
md for adequate compensation pre-
'iously made" The question of
New Orleans with pure
mo healthy water being one of
public utility" does not conflict
With the above act, but is rather
by it. and we do not see
low the City Council can justly re-
use to grant the right CT way to
my company organized for that
purpose.