The Wilmingtonian., 1884-06-21
A PLEA FOR PURE WATER.

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Water Commission or no Water Commis-
sion there is one thing certain that this
community is entitled to supply of pure
drinking water, instead OF the filthy stuff
we have been compelled to drink of late
When THE WILMINeToNIAN nearly year
ago exhaustively commented on the numer-
GUS pollutions of the water supply, and
showed by microscopic Investigation the
filthy and easily removable origin of many
of the impurities there was a sort of vague
understanding that something should be
done, but the warm weather has come round
again and finds the supply of water more
than at any previous period. If the present
standard is maintained we may look for a
destructive outbreak of typhoid fever and
zymotic diseases as surely as the. sun shines
on the polluted aid fostering mass " hich is
stored up in the Cool Sprng Reservoir for
the consumption Of our people.
Is it possible that political exigencies can
be put forward as a reason why City Council
will do nothing in the matter? IL Mr.. Coyle
watching Mr.. McIntire and Mr.. McIntire
Mr.. Coyle? Is it a question of individual
emolument or a question of the public health,
which the philosopher has defiLed as the
supreme law?
The simple fact is that the water supply
of this city is disgrace to the community.
The water is foul to the eye, offensive in smell,
nauseous in taste. Under our own observa-
tion it has been pumped up into the reser-
voir when colored inky black by the filth
from the Augustine Paper Mills, which the
negligence of the authorities permitted to
be cast into the Brandywine directly above
the intake of the South Long Race. This
foul matter had been lying in a putrid state
| for weeks and months before it was thus
poured into the stream. On Sunday last,
| when the waters of the Brandywine were
rendered turbid by freshet after Thurs
days rain, the supply in the South Long
Race was taken from it and pumped directly
into the Reservoir. The water was so foul
that it resembled nothing so much as pea
soup or the scourings of a beer-vat On
| Monday sample from the hydrant at THE
WILMINeToNIAN Office was received into
clean glass gallon jar. 1t was absolutely
| Opaque, SO that objects at the bottom of abe
| jar could not be seen. On standing,i it depos-
tied large quantity of brown and black
sediment, while the lighter organic matter
in suspsnsion still rendered tire iiquid per-
ceptibly turbid and milky.
1t will of course be said that filtration will
get rid of the evil. But the community
should not be expected to pay twice for pure
water. The water should be delivered in a
state fit for domestic consumption. In all
well-regulated communities the Water
Department provides subsistence tanks and
fltering beds before attempting to pump
the water into the reservoirs. But in VIII
mington it seems to be established that the
chief object of a water supply is to provide
men with offices, and that the health and
convenience of the consumers are minor con-
siderations.
Nothing encourages temperance and
sobrety among the people more thar a plen-
tiful supply Of good drinking water. Moth
ing is more conducive to the establishment
of taste for alcoholic liquors than inability
to procure pure water. And in the present
torrid season it is especially necessary, in
the interests of health, of comfort, of good
order and of decency that our water supply
should be freed from the disgusting impuri-
ties which now defile it.