Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-10-09
PURE WATER.
IT MUST BE TAKEN FROM THE ORIGINAL
FOUNTAIN HEAD.
The Springs That Supply the Sacramento
River-When and Where Pollution
is Commenced.

EDS RECORD UNION beg to offer few
suggestions about the water we drink, and
may drink in the future, in this city. 1t is
probably not generally known that mile
or more below Sisson, Siskiyou county, the
Sacramento river has its starting point.
Following the railroad track below Sisson
one may be able to go to the place where
the springs issue from the mountain side
at various localities, and the streams are
sufficiently large each to turn a fair-sized
turbine, and enough power could be util-
lied to light up the town of Sisson, railroad
station, saw mills, etc., and probably power
to spare for some industries. Nearer the
railroad track, or higher up the bank. there
are oozing out of the mountain side, be-
tween the roots of large trees, the water
known as the Iron Springs" tits strongly
impregnated with the usual stringent taste
of iron, which, upon coming in contact
with the oxygen of the air, undergoes a
higher stage of oxidation, leaving or in
crustating the ground and rocks with fer
ric oxide, or the hydrate of the same, being
somewhat like iron rust.
The property belongs to Mr.. Sisson, an
old resident, and the locality through
which the stream flows is a splendid site to
build some sort of sanitarium, where peo-
pie who are cooped up in large cities will
gain an appetite that will surprise them
when they drink the waters, inhale the
pure air and have sufficient exercise or out
door life. To gain strong and healthy
appetite, of all the places the writer ever
visited, none equals Sisson, but whether
this can be said of other persons soiourn-
ing there is at present not known. Ii this
city ever desires to procure pure water, I'M
contaminated, this is the spot to bottle it
up in pipes and let it flow, by its own
gravitation, where wanted in the valley
To the writer, no doubt is entertained that
these powerful springs do not come from
the glaciers or snow on Mount Shasta,
which is right behind, but large valley
near by.
To keep this water in its purity it is alb
solutely necessary that it be taken up at
the very opening of the mountain side for
If it flows only a mile, or approaches Sisson,
1t becomes already oefiled, for all the drain
age of the swampy locality, or the marshy,
turf-like soil and the town flows into it
from bitches, and cannot be prevented, as
water naturally must run down the hill.
As the river flows in confined condition,
and as the track of the railroad follows it,
ohN tuC eOoilo anu are
wherever the track is laid, there cannot be
any remedy devised, short of a miracle, to
prevent the waste water from flowing into
the river. 1t must be clear then that the
towns above Redding as they increase in
population and add to manufacturing in
dustries, particularly such work as reduc.
ing pulp from wood, for the production of
white printing paper, are sure to increase
the obnoxious products not desirable in
good and wholesome drinking water.
The general idea that once prevailed,
that water will purify the longer it runs,
ought to be taken up with some caution.
While of course agitation (which here sig
miles oxidation), when organic matter is
taken into consideration, must play an i'm
portant part, yet inorganic substances,
when brought against the most violent gale
OF the ocean, would not decompose the
chlorine compounds known generally as
common cooking salt. If these compounds
are present in the water derived from or
ganic life imam or beast), there is no pre-
clpitant or reagent in the water, unless
specially prepared by man, to remove
them. The liquid as charged will there
fore how to the ocean as charged, and. by
S%he way, make-even so far as our taste
and desire for water extends-a more pre-
terable drinking water, despite its impurity,
for the very simple reason that we never
drank absolutely pure water
1t will be obvious, then, that every spring
issuing from the mountain side must be
tapped or cooped up by piping to our doors
II we want pure water. JOHN EITEL.