The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-03-18
hogs AND POSIES
OF LAKE MERGED.
SUTRO'S SKIRMISH FIRING HAS
DEVELOPED A BIG WATER
SUPPLY WAR.
RIDE OF THE HEALTH BOARD.
THE MAYOR TALKS AGAIN AND
WILL Now FIGHT IT Our TO
THE END.

San FranclscoS water supply IS again a
question of the day, and the controversy
between the municipality and the Spring
Valley company is rapidly approaching a
climax.
The Spring Valley people have taken up
| the gage of battle and are denouncing
Sutro and defending the practice of drink
| ing water. Members of the Board of
Health are inclined to be hostile to the
Mayor and to speak indulgently of Spring
| Valley water. Now expert chemists and
| psychologists are working away producing
reports that will supply ammunition to
both sides. The reports will be along in a
few days and interesting proceedings in
the Board of Health are imminent.
| Lake MERGED is now the definite fighting
point. 1t is SO pretty a spot that trouble
about it seems pity. The lake holds two
and a half billion gallons and its normal
daily supply is three and a half million
gallons. The 200 acres about it owned by
the company are arranged in gentle slopes,
and as it is all wholly unused, every square
rod now blazes with profusion of rioting
wild flowers.
The Spring Valley Company played an
inning yesterday by taking four members
of the Board of Health, Professor David
son, G. E. Grunsky, two newspaper men
| ana TWO or JnrG6 OUQ6rS out JDrOugn the
peoples and daisies to the lakes and pumps
and away around by Colma to where Mr..
Sutro found the hogs wallowing in Spring
Valley water. President Charles Webb
Howard and Chief Engineer Hermann
Schussler represented the company. The
party got wet inside and outside.
| Just inside the county line and little
south of Ingleside the party found the
magnificent pumps and then looked at the
water. A little duck went under, and then
one looked one and two miles to see a sign
OF life. Only flower petals seemed able to
| Speck the surface.
81 wanted these gentlemen to see the
worst there is" said Mr.. Howard.
"And what is the worst?"
"The muddy water"
The water itself did rather suggest the
Missouri River. Narcissus would never
have fallen in love on those pretty banks.
| Four rockaways wheeled through sand and
posies around to the pointed head of the
lake where nearly all the running surface
water comes in. a small stream was un-
ostentatiously contributing few brownish
miners inches. Across the point was
| lever
Now you see this point of the lake con-
stitutes settling reservoir" explained Mr..
Schussler. Here the muddy water drops
most of its detritus, and as it runs over
| this dam 1t is not nearly SO muddy, though
it is still somewhat muddy now. This is
only in winter. In summer no water
| comes in"
Mr.. Schussler further explained that the
MERGED supply had not been used for over
| two months since it became real muddy
| The supply was used as one supplementary
! to that from Pilarcitos for the Western Adj
| dltlon only at any time. Then the fact
should be understood that between 80 and
80 per cent of the water of Lake MERGED
came through the sandy hills and by sub
| terranean courses along strata of hard
| pan. 1t was thus perfectly filtered into
purity, whatever the pollution of the sur
face where it started. Even if the small
| percentage of surface-water were impure
the percentage of impurity would become
very small in the big lake.
DIR. Regensburger said that water of that
! degree of muddiness, even if it were being
sent to the city, would be offensive only to
the sight and not unhealthful on account
of its mere muddiness. "All told, we have
| as fine water supply as there is in the
| world - said the doctor
DR.. Keeney said that there were un-
| doubtedly bacteria in the water, as there
are in waters everywhere, but that typhoid
fever germs were the only ones to fear, and
no signs of any had appeared.
Professor Davidson Indignantly secuted
| the idea of the water being bad and told of
some reservoirs he had visited near Lon
don, where the filters were cleaned every
few weeks and all but the filters sold for
rich fertilizers.
An hour later the party looked down on
the gulch carrying the little stream from
spur near Colma about mile above the
head of the lake and just outside the COM
pany's big reservation.
There's the hog ranch" said Schussler,
pointing to few acres, most of which was
freshly plowed and which surrounded
dirty-looking home. Down where the
creek ran was a fine place for hogs, but
IL A 80
farther up was another dirty-looking nest
of small buildings and pen imprisoning
five porkers within few feet of the little
stream. The creek certainly drained the
hogpen. Another gulch branched upward
into the hills to the west, displaying on its
side a dairy and some similar signs of
bucolic industry. How far this surface
| drainage in winter, when water runs, pol
| lutes Lake MERGED, is matter for debate.
Neither Mr.. Howard or Mr.. Sutro made
any positive denials of the undesirability
at least of such things in that place.
If Mr.. Sutro had any complaint to make
why didn't he make it to me, instead of
popping it into the papers?" said Mr..
| Howard.
Mr.. Schussler also objected to this way
of doing such things, and intimated that
at times when Spring Valley water is
might be valuable for its filth were
always anxious to cinch the company. 1t
was announced that the hogman was about
to move for some reason or other.
1--WE admit that this is rather bad, but
we are steadily and quietly trying to con-
| troll our watersheds, was the most definite
thing that Mr.. Schussler could contribute
to the discussion of the hog ranch
! He made the interesting announcement.
however, that the company would un-
| doubtedly very soon do what he wanted it
to do, viz: get wholly rid of the surface
water by turning it into the ocean through
a great cement tunnel 1000 feet long and
supplement the subterranean supply with
a few artesian wells.
"There is one thing, this howl has
wholly stopped our buying land on this
watershed, he declared.
Mr.. Howard and Drs. Keeney and Long
got in whack at the Mayor by letting out
the information that the analysis by DIR.
Price, which he presented to the board a
week ago, had just been discovered to be
nearly three years old, fact which Sutro
didn't mention.
DR.. Spencer has made an analysis for
| the hoard and tho Mauor holJe AZ ro.,~,,.l