The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1888-04-23
WATER SUPPLY.
Suggestions for In
creasing It,
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
In City Creek Canyon Recon-
mended.
METHODS FOR MAKING THEM.
The Chief Merit of the Plan Here
Submitted is in the COns!ruc-
ton OF the lam.
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
METHODS FOR MAKING THEM.

The water question is on top. be-
Iieye, and l have a suggestion would
like to make. Every year at least from
three-fourths to four-ffths of the water
from our main source of supply,
namely, City Creek, flow into the lake
and thus go
UTTERLY TO WASTE.
Now, it is possible to save the greater
norton of this waste water, but
whether the benefit will repay the cost
NAV be another question. At any rate,
new suggestions and ideas can not be
out of place, now that this water prob
lem has Begin to assume very seri-
GUS aspect.
From casual observation, we notice
that, with few exceptions, our noun
tain lakes are reservoirs made by
Nature by dammipg upIthe canyons in
narrow places and thus holding back
the water. One of the best examples of
this kind is lake Alice, in Wyoming
about thirty miles in length, and from
one to five miles in width. At the
lower end of this lake occurred an I'M
mense land slip of the loose material
from the sides of the mountain, filling
ND the canyon below and thus produc-
ing this immense natural reservoir.
Now, in City Creek Canyon there
are several places, where the sides OF
the canyon approach each other and
thus form a somewhat narrow gorge.
These are where
DAMS COULD BE CONSTRUCTED
and by initiating Nature, to some ex-
tent, at small expense. If the dam is
to be made strong, and, of course, no
other kind should be constructed, it
should be made up of huge boulders,
the larger the better, filling up the
canyon. with all the lnterspaces filled
with smaller boulders, cobbles, and
sell.
Now, if some such place as the lower
end of Pleasant Valley were selected,
those immense cliffs of cong omerate
could be blasted off, and rolled aown
into the creek, say, near where some are
found already, at what is called the
Rock Bridge. No work Of transporta-
ton is here necessary, as the hill-Sldes
are so steep that nearly all the bOulders
blasted off, would roll down, by their
own weight, into the creek, and eXcava-
tons could be easily made where neces-
sary, under thsse cliffs, so as to topple
them over into the gorge below.
TIA large ditch were constru ted, so as
to bring the watsr up along the side Of
the mountain, as high as possible above
the place where the work is 10 be doLe,
we would thus secure a force that
would, with proper direction, do all
THE HARD WORK OF MOVING ROCKS.
and debris down into the dam below.
In order to understand what work can
be thus done. one needs only to observe
the effect of a steady stream of water
directed against bank of earth, as in
hydraulic mining in California, where
whole mountains have been washed
away, and it doesn't need any more
than the faith OF grain of mustard seed
to do it, either. The work of eXcavat-
ing under these cliffs, as mentioned
above. could-be done by this force more
cheaplv and effectually than in any
other way, but the main thing
is to get the bed of the canyon
filled up with the largest boul 1ers
possible, wedged in as they would be,
bv the tremendous force acquired in
rolling down hill, from 100 to 800 feet,
so that it would be impossible for any
force Of water behind this wall, to move
it in the least.
There may be many objections to this
plan, but we doubt whether there are
any that can not be very easily over
come. Reservoirs in the canyon would
be regarded as dangerous to the city In
case of breaks, but it would not be very
difficult to wedge up the bed of the
stream, as indicated above, so that it
would be impossible for the water to
carry the dam away, and as the only
way the water could get through,
would be by leakage. Several such
RESERVOIRS MIGHT BE CONSTRUCTED
of smaller size. if necessary, thus re-
moving all apprehension, and still, if
thought advisable, one such dam, the
lowest, of course, might be left unused,
so as to catch all overflow that might
be caused from washes and other
sources.
The danger of filing up from cloud
burst, high water in spring, is more or
less imaginary, as aqueducts could be
constructed around the lake thus
formed, 10 keep out and carry off the
dirt and gravel from heavy rains, ETC.,
and to conduct the waters of the creek
when not running into the reservoir.
OF course, at the bottom and lower end
pipe to drain the lake when necessary,
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