Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1885-05-20
SOME CONSIDERATIONS FOR LOCAL
THOUGHT AND ACTION.

In looking about for a new source of
water supply, the public has become
strongly impressed with the feasibility OF
using water from bored wells east of the
city. So far as is now known, the water
from these wells is absolutely pure 1t is
certainly apparently so. But we should
endeavor to ascertain precisely the feeding
supply Of these wells
1t is assumed by the general public that
even surface water filtrating through many
feet Of porous soil becomes purified. But
this is an error. DIR. Frankland's investi-
cations show that even after the most
careful liberation, sewage water cannot be
considered safe. However pure water
may appear to the eye" he adds and
however agreeable to the palate, it may
yet contain animal organisms of danger
Gus type" DR.. c. f. Chandler investi-
gated the matter in connection with bored
wells in Manhattan Island numbering be
tween sixty and seventy and vary ing in
depth from 26 to 1000 feet, and he con-
cluded that the water from none of them
could be free from danger if drank
before being boiled For the geological
formation of the island precludes the pos
sibility Of the water coming in from be
yond its borders The water of the island
is therefore only filtered surface water,
and however clear it may be, it is always
in danger Of containing disease germs
which cannot be filtered out Of the SOIL
The conclusion is a settled one among
sanitary scientists that water poisoned
with the soakage from soils charged with
sewage and excremental matters will com
municate diseases Of the most fatal char
acter, and this fact is referred to in the
recent paper of Or. C. w. Chancellor
Secretary of the State Board of Health of
Maryland, replying TO Colonel George +.
Waring on the question of irrigation as 4
process for purifying water. Water for do
mestic uses, should not be open to even the
suspicion of being filtered surface water, or
liable to any future sewage contamination.
If, then, pcrcolation through many feet
of soil Of surface water having the drain
age OF stables farm yards, and streams that
are themselves the avenues for the carriage
of sewage does not purify it, what shall
be said Of the waters of stream being fit
for domestic uses, which, like the Ameri-
can and the Sacramento, small Streams at
their best, receive all manner Of sewage
filth Immediately above city drawing its
supply from such streams? So. too. what
must be the assurance of the absence of
the poison Of decaying vegetation and OF
animal matter, in water brought long dis
tanccs in bitches Of porous earth trayersing
settled country? Or, what must be She
assurance Of purity Of water from bored
wells that may be supplied only by soa,ags
from such streams?
These are very important questions and
should be considered with perfect impair
tialitv, and without particle of enthusi
assn in favor of this, that or the other
scheme. There are two systems Of water
supply which may be accepted as ALSO
lutely safe. One which, by strong piping
brings to city water from a source above
The reach of contamination and is thus not
susceptible to degeneracy en- route. An
other, that raises the supply from such a
depth and through soil of such character
as to fix the genesis of the supply in a far
distant, upper and pure source.
When, in 1880 the UNION be-
gan the inquiry into the bored-weil sup
plies on the east of the city, the belief ex-