Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-01-05
LACK OF WAITE R
Complaints Are Received Daily by
the Commissioners.
TIE DAILY WASTE THE MAIN CAUSE
Meters to Regulate the Supply for
Commercial Purposes.
VIEWS OF THE OFFICIALS

VIEWS OF THE OFFICIALS
II
The waste Of Potomac water has be-
come such an important factor in the sup
ply that the Commissioners are seriously
considering thss adytsability of introducing
water meters 7
1t has practically been decided to make
a start July fext. when water rents are
due. At first It Isl proposed to make the
use Of meters obligatory where water Is
used for commercial purposes, as for ex-
ample, by livery stables, boilers, hotels
and manufactures Of various kinds.
After this has been tried the question
Of the extension of the meter system to
private houses will be considered. There
has been proposition to give a certain
amount free, from twenty-five to thirty
gallons a day, on the present system to
householders and charge for all over that
amount used. ....
The meter system, however, has its
drawbacks. and Capt. Pow ell thinks 1t
will be difficult to operate them here, be-
cause of the condition Of the Potomac
| water, which contains a good deal of sedi-
ment, which will MT only. clog up the
meters, but cut the valves
There Is regulation I'm force, however,
which gives the Commissioners power. to.
compel the use Of meters. Some time ago
| an effort was made to compel their use
by hotels, but the Commissioners had to
recede from their position.
For several months the engineer depart
| ment has been testing water meters Of
various patterns with the ultimate inten-
ton of buying a large number of them
putting a meter in a private house will be
SIS for 3-4-inch supply pipe. An inch and
| a half supply pipe for livery stables would
cost $50, and a hotel meter with a two-inch
meters are to be put in at the cost of the
water users at wholesale prices.
Opposition Expected.
The Commissioners expect a big fight, in
fact, as one of them facetiously remarked
1T will be worse than the question of
contagious hospital site''
There are many arguments against the
| obligatory use of meters in municipalities.
Scientists do not believe in limiting the use
of water They regard water as very
good thing to be used by the people. When
| the people are restricted, especially the
poorer classes who need 1t most, 1t con-
duces. it is claimed. to bad sanitary con-
ditions. People will be prone to neglect
cleanliness when they have to pay for 1t.
1t is believed that it will be a long time
before there is a general system of meters
in private houses. The one object of the
Commissioners Is to curtail the enormous
waste Of water, and they propose to do
their utmost in this regard.
The Lack of Water. :
what is the matter with the water sup
ply? Why Is 1t that houses on the high
levels cannot get water above the second
fioor?"
These are momentous questions these
days, and the Commissioners are being i'm
portuned daily for satisfactory answers
which will increase the supply and give
householders on the high levels more wa
ter. -.,.,-.... ... -,..,,,, ....s
Since the cold weather set in the list of
complaints in this respect has increased
tenfold, and there is a general cry all over
the city for more water. There are several
reasons why the supply is not sufficient to
meet the demand. In the first place. the
supplying reservoir is not large enough, and
then, again, the waste during the past few
weeks has been enormous. This has been
due to the fact that householders, to keep
their pipes froM freezing have allowed the
water to run.
"a Ina recent lettereto the Commissioners
complainant suggested that If the Commits
sioners would only stop the extension Of
the water mains into the county. where
they were of no practical benefit, there
would be no trouble experienced in getting
water on the high levels. 1t is well known
that during the past year the engineer de-
partment has laid a number of water mains
into the county,. and while the District has
been put to practically no expense (the cost
of the mains being in all cases borne by the
abutting property owners), yet the water
which has been turned into these mains
somewhat affects the general supply;
A prominent official Of the water depart
ment in discussing the situation today said
that the conditions were practically the
same regarding the supply of water as
they were before the forty -eight-fnch main
was laid, which at the time was believed
would settle the supply question Tor many
years to come. But the constantly grow
ing suburbs and the water mains laid to
dftion that had not been looked for, and
the result is that at the present time there
Is not, by many millions of gallons, SUI
ficient supply Of water for the District
There are many people who believe that
the Commissioners have erred in allowing
this unrestricted extension Of the water
mains.
Col. ElliOt's Views.
According to Col. Elliot, who has charge
of the Washington aqueduct it would seem
that the supply Of water is gr"Leiy him
dered by the accumulation Of sediment,
and In his arguments before the House
committee on appropriations he urged that
an item OF $4,000 for cleaning out the con-
duit be allowed, which, he said, is about
one-fourth filled with sediment, and which
interferes with the delivery OF water. ne
also said in plain terms that the aqueduct
was in danger, but that he would rather
run the risk of that for another year than
not get the money for cleaning out the
mittee that his desire for many years had
been to raise the dam at the Great Falls
for increasing the water supply.
Last year." he said, there was a great
deficiency and the people could not get
water in their bath rooms-neXt summer 1t
will be worse" Continuing, he said: 1.-The
dam at Great Falls is 14S feet above the
level of the water at the Navy Yard. The
top of the conduit is circular arch nine
feet high This conduit is not filled up now
at Great Falls by two feet. The effect of
the raising of that dam would be to make
the water flow faster and give more veloc-
ity. The water will run two feet second
faster, and it will increase the supply D.
OOOOOO gallons of water per day. The Ly-
decker tunnel would mot give any more
water to the city until we raise that DAM
because it must flow in before it can
flow out We take 1t all out now. We will
get more water by raising the DAM"
In reply to a question If he could at the
same time get an increased supply, he said
ives, and stated that the Potomac river
had "a supply of 7oo,Ooo0oO gallons day.
and that the total cost of raising the dam
would be about $125,OOO and it would take
one year to do the work. In reply to
question if the raising Of the dam would
stop the water supply, he replied that 1t