St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1892-07-15
RESULT OF OBSERVATION.
What Gen. Grant and Mayor VIM
StOn Saw.

SCOn odWs
The tour of inspection along the<Mis-
sissippi made by Assistant Secretary of
War Grant and Mayor Winston, will no
doubt result in demand upon every
body to stop using the river as dump
ing place, especially above the falls.
The river above the steel arch bridge as
far as the pumping station was found to
be i'll bad condition, and it was readily
seen how the irregularities in the rise
and fall of the water occurred. The
river, in fact, is in such a condition that
should the flood of 1881 be repeated,
nothing on earth could prevent meal
culable damage to property. During
the recent freshets and high water, the
boom company and various lumber
channel with piles, driven in to
| protect their logs from being driven
away. In the vicinity of Twentieth
avenue no nth for instance, the channel
is choked with piles and other break
waters. These in connection with saw
dust. dirt and city refuse matter have
conduced to narrow the channel and
prevent the water to flow in its natural
and proper course. Engineer de la
Barre, of the Minneapolis Mill company,
says that SO far no damage has been
OOuOs UuC hCoN uOOu WOui0 CduSC d
| chaotic state of affairs III the mill Sec
| ton. There was less than one half the
water this spring that caused so much
| damage in 1881, but the river and lakes
| are IN good condition for the very
same state of things. Water will find
| its level and flood. with the river in
| its present state, would sweep every
| thing before it.
With the amount of logs at present in
the river, together with the SaWdust
and other refuse matter, and should the
system of encroaching OH the channel
continue, Engineer de la Barre said
that something less than flood would
choke up the canals, waterways and
sluiceS, and the mills would be forced
| to shut down. The mill company has
no authority below line from the gas
works across to the university, and it
! matters not to the concern what is
dumped in beyond their line. 1t is
above the falls, however, where the in
| discriminate encroaching on the channel
| is raising such trouble. The company
has no grievance against any one COM
| pany or person, but it objects to the
| practice as generally followed along the
| bank.
Engineer Cappelen, of the city depart
ment, in speaking about the matter yes
| terday, said:
The way we noticed that the channel
was being gradually filled up was by
| the water works at the pumping sta
ton and the steel arch bridge. The ordi-
nary low water level at the bridge is 81
feet. and, allowing 3 feet. 81 feet at the
| pumping station. On the same basis
the high water level is 81 feet at the
bridge and 100 feet at the station Well,
on May 26, during the high water, the
level at the bridge was S9.S2, and at the
pumping station 1927. After deduct
ing the three feet already allowed for a
difference, you see the discrepancy was
nearly 51a feet. Of course, this demon
strated at once that something was
wrong. The river is now getting back
to its normal condition, and OH July 12
the. level at the bridge was 1921 feet.
and at the pumping station S9.40, diff
ference of only S.19. This shows con-
clusively that there is unknown dan
ger with the channel in its present con-
dition, should a flood come.