The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1888-08-12
THINK 1T OVER.
THE HERALD,
Salt Lake City

How would it do to give a private
company the right to lay mains in the
streets and sell water to the inhabitants
OF Salt Lake? Let Us follow this ques-
ton with the explanation that The
HERALD does not favor the suggestion.
We ask the question merely for the
purpose Of setting people to thinking,
and ascertaining how the proposition
will strike them. 1t is generally con
fessed that the city is in @ deplorable
situation regarding water. So far as
home uses are concerned, there is
plenty where there is connection with
the mains. But the mains extend only
to a comparatively small poruCn OF the
city. Beyond the waterworks system
there is greater or less scarcity OF water
for domestic use. The water in the
bitches is unfit for use, and unless the
wells are of the flowing kind which
draw their supply from below the depth
to which the seepage reaches, it will
hardly De claimed that well water is as
pure and paiatable as it might be.
But the trouble comes from the scar
city of water for irrigation. II is in.
possible 10 arrive ar the amount of
direct loss which the city Will suffer this
season by reason OF the short water
supply. Trees are dying IN every direc-
ton; lawns a,e drying up; gardens
are yielding only half crops-au on &C
count OF the lack of water.
The barter aad purchase recently
made by the City Council, by which the
city will obtain a portion Of ParIey's
Canyon Creek, will help matters not at
all this year, and Little, if any, here
after. It Will get water 20 a higher
point than before reached, but it has
already reduced, as it Is likely to con-
tinue to reduce, the supply lower down. |
1t doesn't give the city more water, but
simply puts water where 1t has not |
hitherto been.
1t is asserted by members Of the Coun
ell that with this exchange and the at
tendant expenses which it involves,
the city has gone as far as it can go;
that it has practically reached the limit
of its borrowing power, and from
necessity must stop spending money
for increasing the water supply, having
no more to spend in that direction.
This is plain statement of the case,
without any exaggeration. 1t doesn't
present very reassuring outlook. On
the contrary, the future is discourage
ing, presenting, as it does, picture of
dry bitches, whitening and dead trees
and shrubbery, burnt and non-produc-
tive gardens and dusty streets. 1t is
said that this is an extraordinary sea-
son, and we may not experience an
other so dry for quarter of century.
This is true enough, and at the same
time We may have a dozen just such
years in succession. Like the white
man in the opinion of the Indian, the
seasons are mighty uncertain"
will not be said that private enter
prise and private capital cannot get
water. There is plenty of water to be
had enough to wash the city into the
lake. To obtain it requires only cash
snd enterprise. A company which had
the right 10 sell water in the city would
soon have the water here to sell, and
have it in such quantities as people
were willing to buy and pay for. If
consumers wanted Big Cottonwood and
would pay for it, Big Cottonwood would
be brought here and sold. If that was
not enough, Mill Creek, Little Cotton
wood, or Utah Lake itself would be
added.
Bear in mind, THE HERALD is not ad
vocating the giving of the franchise re-
ferred to to a private company. We
are merely remarking that if private
company had the franchise, a good
many people whose lawns, and gardens
and shade trees are going to death and
decay would see that their property
and their pleasure were not destroyed
for want of water.