Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-08-18
THE PROBLEM SOLVED.
WELLS WOULD FURNISH THE soUTHsIpE
FRESH WATER.

Opinions Of Leading Physicians on mr..
schueider's Pian-It is Pronounced nm
Effective Way Out OF the Present Di.
lemma-A suggestion to the City.
The plan proposed by Mr.. Jacob
Schneider, of the Southside, to supply the
citizens with water by artesian wells, seems
to have jumped at once into popularity. In
talking to two of the best known physicians
of the Southside last night DISPATCH re-
porter was informed that pure water could
be furnished in this way. DR.. NJ. A. Arm
holt said he had always used we'll water
until the Monongahela Water Company was
formed. when he was induced to fill up his
we'll. He added:
have always maintained that water from
an ordinary well is impure, but 1 believe it
would not be any more SO than the water we
now GET The water coming through the
ground would be filtered and purified to some
extent, because the earth itself is a purifier,
and the water would be infinitely better than
what comes down the channel of the Mononga-
hela, carrying with it all sorts of organic and
impure matters. But wells sunk to q depth of
100 or 125 feet, through a rock into the sand and
cased tightly, would undoubtedly prove
source of reasonably pure water, and if the
citizens of my neighDorhood want to expert
ment on a well, will be the first to put my
name down for pro rata share of the cost.
DR.. Mundorff said it was strange that
when an investigation is made there is
always high tide in the river. He added:
We never have such stage as there is now
during epidemics of typhoid fever. The Mo-
nongahela river has been demonstrated by re-
contain too much impurity to be healthy
fluid for drinking purposes. The fact is made
clearer by the presence of recurring epidem-
les of typhoid and other diseases on the South
side
The extension of the 1n1uent pipe to the
center of the channel has enabled us to obtain
a supply that is less contaminated by the Beck's
run contribu tions, and 1 unhesitatingly as
sert that the decrease in the amount OF typhoid
fever is due to this and the further fact that
large number of the Southside citizens have
abandoned the use of the Monongahela river
water for drinking purposes entirely.
The population of the Southside, or at least
that portion Of it found along the nam streets,
find themselves impelled to use impure water
or purchase water brought from a distance,
and are compelled as public necessity to
adopt some means that will deliver them from
their present dilemma. Mr.. Schneider's plan
is worthy OF consideration. 1t is practically
the artesan well system, and to make it answer
the purposes in view-that of affording a sup
ply of fresh water-it will be necessary, as he
suggests, to sink the wells to q considerable
depth in order to get beneath, not
but also the lowest depth at which
surface and sewage could possibly
contaminate the wells. The wells should be
cased. and the casing should be of kind that
would not corrode and destroy the taste of the
water. Artesian wells have in various portions
of the country afforded an effective solution Of
the mooted contaminated water question, and
geologists could soon tell whether the plan
would be feasible here.
While the city very properly looks after the
intellectual and physical welfare of citizens. it
is strange it will not interest itself in the MAIN
tenance of public health, without which public
parks and libraries are of little avail. The best
investment the city could make now would be
the appropriation of not only SIC, 900, but S100-
600, to needed sanitary reforms. 1t is a ques-
tion of the value Of human life weighed in the
balances against the value of stocks and COR
poraCons.