The Dalles daily chronicle. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1890-1948, 1891-04-18
WATER WORKS MISREPRESEN-
TATTONS ANSWERED.

When Mr.. Michel says he Favored
bonding the city for ,000'' the
CHRONICLE accepts the statement cum
granO satio. Why then did he get mad
over the result of the election and why is
it that he was the only man who voted
folded ticket. Ten of the eleven who
voted against bonding the city are
known. Who is the other one unless it
be the man who voted the folded ballot?
When Mr.. Michel says 1890, 900 were
sent out of the city," he is inaccurate.
The sum is not 500, 900 and it did not all
go out of the city. Of course the money
paid for the old water plant and the
new piping went out of the city butt
Hitchcock & Frasier paid out between
$4,000 and $40, 900 in wages, the greater
portion of which was spent here. These
contractors brought twenty men with
them. Before ten days had passed only
six of the twenty was in their employ.
Since then they have employed those
who applied for work and these were
nearly all from this city. Besides this
they assure the writer that every dol
lars worth of material and supplies that
could be bought here were so bought.
Would the pumping system have done
any better? Mr.. Michel harps on the
E'old V flume" and draining a mill
pond" Who told him that the V fume
and mill pond were ever intended to be
the permanent ssource of supply? The
brother has fought the gravity system so
long that he has not been admitted into
its secrets. Let him know then that the
V hume and the mill pond are only
temporary expedients and that long be-
fore the hume has rotted away The
Dalles will have ceased to use it as
source of supply. The city has abund-
ant means that can be made available
and within two years from now it is
fully expected the supply pipe will be
extended up the Mill creek valley above
every possible contamination, and Dog
river, which the city absolutely controls
and owns will be turned into it and both
the hume and ''mill pond" abandoned
forever. But the supply ''drains a mill
pond, and lumber, logs and wood will
float down it twelve hours a day." No
it won't. They will only float ten hours,
and then for fourteen hours the flume
will supply the reservoirs with water
without stick of wood to defile it. The
water will be turned in at night and will
be as pure, as it runs down the flume, as
any water on earth, and when the sys-
tenn is completed the flume will be
abandoned, and the mill pond as WELL
What Mr.. Michel will do then God only
knows.
But "the old mains won't stand the
pressure" This reminds us of another
thing Mr.. Michel never knew. The
works are SO constructed that the pres
sure can be increased or reduced at
pleasure, and the supply taken from
either the upper or lower reservoir or
both. AS to the bursting of the old
pipes, the CHRONICLE knows as
much as the Times Mountaineer and
neither knows anything. The fewer
prophesies Mr.. Michel makes the less
he will have to take back. If the pipes
should not burst what shall we think of
his foresight?
AS to riparian ownership of Mill creek
The Dalles is the largest owner, and, as
we have said the only owner of Dog
river which alone is sufficient to supply
city of 10000 inhabitants. AS to the
danger of the water supply falling short
during fire, it may be said that the
new reservoir has capacity of 2, 400, 600
gallons, the lower one ought to hold
100000 gallons and thus the city will
have nearly or quite three million
gallons ready for any emergency, OF
enough to supply a city of 5000 inhabi-
tants with 100 gallons of water per day
to each inhabitant for the space of ten
days. This quantity would put out a
very considerable fire, before being ex-
hausted.
Mr.. Michel says, ''the lowest esti-
mate for the pumping system was $1O1,-
218.46 This was for the system that
proposed to take the water from the
Columbia below the outlet of every
sewer in the city. Above the city the
cost was estimated at $115, ,702.SS anG
the annual running expenses for 50,0Ot
gallons day, including interest $14,
1882. Mr.. Michel says the ''annua
taxi is 1922, for the lower estimate
but he dishonesty concealed the fac
that there was an annual item of inter
est in the estimate from which he quoted
which alone amounted to So ,073 ,0S which
would make the annual "tax" $l2, ,195. .Os