Press and daily Dakotaian. (Yankton, Dakota Territory [S.D.]) 1880-1889, 1889-02-28
THE AQUEDUCT TUNNEL
The joint Committee Submits Its
Report to the Senate.
A SHAM FROM END TO END.
There Is Scarcely a Foot In the Whole
Tunnel that Is Not Defective-The
Inspectors Guilty of Gross No
elect of Duty.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 27. = The long
looked for report of the joirt committee
on the aqueduct was presented to the
senate by Senator Ednlunds. The re-
port is voluminous and is accompanied
by testimony and by the report of the
committee of experts which, under
direction of the committee, says that it
appears from the report of experts and
from the testimony taken to be beyond
all question that substantially the whole
and every part of the lining Of the tun-
mel is absolutely and enormously de-
~fective; that there is not ten feet of the
lining where the packing is not want
ing. The committee has go Just
grounds to believe from the evidence
that either Maj. Lydocker or Lieut..
Townsend was guilty of any corrupt
practices or had any personal knowl-
edge of them; but that they, with the
chief inspector must have been guilty
of great negligence ofduty, for it seems
impossible to conceive that the sham
work could have gone on without being
discovered if any of the engineers con
nected with the work or the inspectors
had done their duty. The committee
thinks it would cost 5000, 600 to put the
tunnel in the condition in which it
should be.
The report criticises the original plan
of the work and says if it had been sub
mitted to the board of engineers at the
time the work was undertaken it would
never have been adopted. The fact that
so great an amount of money has been
expended, the committee says, does not
furnish the ground for spending more.
The committee does not favor spending
any more money on this tunnel, and
thinks for the present it should be left
in the condition in which it is. The
committee, therefore, reports an amend
ment intended TO be reported to the de.
ficiency bill, appropriating $40, 900 fol-
the survey of a line for a substantial
surface gravity conduit from the pres
ent distributing reservoir above George
town to n new reservoir in the city of
Washington to be made by the chief
of engineers under the direction of the
secretary OF war. This survey, when
made, shall be reported to congress, to.
getler with detailed plans and draw,
ings, showing it's location, character
and statement of the length of time re.
CURED for its construction, with a de
tailed estimate of the cost, including
lahu udIjuSeS anu all OuneF tniHgS per-
tanning thereto for the informa.
ton of congress: one-half of the APP
preparation to be paid out of
the United States treasury and one
half by the District of Columbia. The
plans suggested by the committee for
the present is the laying of a forty
eight inch castiron pipe from the dis
trisatingg resers aast~.ard fiirt,tigi
Georgetown, connecting with the higher
level service pipes of the city, which
will furnish an additional supply of
water OF 90, 000. 009 gallons per day at an
elevation of 49, feet above the Potomac
river, and 10000, 900 per day at an ele-
walton of t41 feet. Col. Casey, chief of
engineers, estimates the cost at S524,417,
and believes the main can be put in use
in twelve months from the signing oil
the contracts for the pipe.