Omaha daily bee., 1883-05-17
THE SEWERS AGAIN.
City Engineer Rosewater Presents
His compliments to Com
missioner Corlise.

To the Editor Of The Pee;
My attention has been called to q
communication Of County Commits.
sioner Corliss addressed by himself as
a citizen to himself az an official, de-
clsrlng the entire storm water sewer
system Of Omaha q failure, and more
particularly the North Omaha sewer.
Mr.. Corllss informs Commissioner
Corliss that while he Is no engineer he
know VS. a 4-foot sewer can not drain GO
acres, and that therefore to drain
], 200 acres it takes a sewer of at least
twenty times Its capacity. Consider
irg that the large W Of London,
with Its 700 square miles, are only 10
feet, and those Paris no larger, and
that the largest sewer In the world,
costin several millions, though yet In
complete Is only % feet In diameter
and had a national government to
build It, the magnitude Of Mr.. Cor
llss' conception of sewerage can be per.
ceived.
Mr.. C~orliss' Idea Of the duties and
responsibilities Of a county commits.
sioner are expanded In the same ratio
with his Views OH the sewerage ques-
ton. He evidently thinks that the
commissioners representing q county
precinct should not only regu.
late the affairs Of the county
but the entire city as well.
Granger Corliss has seen too many
dams and manure piles In the country
to take any notice Of them In the city,
otherwlse he might have noticed be-
fore the storm q very deep and large
accumulation of water south of the
high embankment at 28sh and Far.
nam street, and also at oath and Ciss
streets. He might also have seer very
extensive manure piles alongthe street
car barns Oh the south branch of the
North Omaha creek. Were he not a
granger he might have stopped to fig
ure and ascertained that these two
ponds held from two to three millions
gallons each, and these manure piles
held many tons of manure. OF course
Dir. Corliss not being an engineer
could not put q bushel into o peck nor
strike upon the idea that possibly
the breaking loose Of one or both Of
these dams from their elevated posi-.
ton, thus letting loose from three to
five millions of gallons to rush head
long In n body down to the sewer
already running nearly full, and In
Its mad career unable to get sudden
admission to the sewer, tear over the
narrow bank and roll into the old
channel only to be chit cked Temporal
lily at the brick wall of Woodman's
building stretched across the pathway
of the waters course. OF course not!
Yet strange to say the people living at
Twenty. eighth and Farnam street,
where the higher pond was located,
holding over $500, COO gallons, state
that such a break did occur between
3 and 4 O'Clock In the morning of that
terrible storm, and frightened them
and their horses ln..the barns, to which
the water leaped.
The followed banks of the creek at
the street car barns tell with voice.
less speech that they caved In for q
length of nearly 100 feet, depositing
all their treasure In the mad waters of
the creek below.
No, MIR. Corliss Ia o granger, other
wise he could not have been inapired
with 90 brilliant q conception of the
entire sewer system of Omaha In so
short a time. If Mr.. Corliss or his
amanuensis had inquired and COM
pared the records of storm waters that
fell that night and the previous and
subsequent storm, they might have
learned to be at least q little more
moderate In their exaggerstion of
sewer capacities.
The U. S. signal service record,
which, after careful investigation, l
am convinced Is correct, shows that on
the previous storm the rainfall was
2 $1,000 inches In tour hours. On
that night the sewer carried all the
water without trouble, and Mr.. Wood.
man stated was only about three
fourths full at 1t discharging end.
Now, on the night Of the sO.called
large storm the signal record shows
only a total of 2 400 inches In four
hours, or half an inch less than the
previous one, and q trife less than that
Of last Sunday morning. There may
have been a difference, as the signal
officer states, for an interval
of half Or one hour of these
four In an uneven discharge
of the water which fell. Admitting
such to have been the case, who In the
face Of the fact that less water actual.
ly fell In the four hours of rain on the
night of May 9Th than before, even II
most Of 1t came down In one hour,
but q granger or q preiudiced mind
could make so exaggerated aCharge
that the sewer had not 1.20 or Ito
or 1-3 or even of the necessary
capacity,
Mr.. Corliss says the oldest inhabit.
ants say they have high water marks
that are four feet above those of the
last storm. I will not dispute 1t but
who dare say that the creek bed of ten
years ago hes not been lowered and
widened several feet by constant wssh
since that time, and hence with q
deeper and wider channel It Is rsason.
able TO say the same storms that raised
the creekto the old water marks would
do 30 now. Further than this, who
will dispute that a sewer can not carry
more water when completed and re-
ceiving the drainage at every dis
tributed point than when forced to re-
| ceiye elmost all the water of the whole