The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1896-01-23
FOR A PURE WATER SUPPLY.
PROF. TAYLOR OF THE UNIVER-
SITY TAKES ISSUE WITH
"HEALTH."
FILTRATION ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL
Citizen of Austin at This Time, as
1t Is of Vital Importance to
Our Future.
To the Editor of The Statesman:

| To the Editor of The Statesman:
In your issue of January Health"
urges the city authorities to take some
action toward securing pure water sup
| ply. l heartily join in this request, as
will every sane man in the city. "Health"
says: But it may be asked why, in u
matter involving such stupendous results
the health, and very lives of our citi-
zens-should anything be left to doubt?
| That the lake waters, in the original
state contain the germs of disease in
the form of infntesimal bacilli, is I'M
questionable" | reterate the question,
why should anything be left to doubt?
| But the statement that the lake waters
| contain organic (disease-producing)
germs is news to me- l should like to
| know who discovered disease-producing
germs in the water. An important state
ment of this kind should carry with it
not only the name of the man who dis
| covered the pathogenic germs, but also
the name of the writer. Professor Nor
| man of the University of Texas exam
ined these waters at my request in Oc-
tober and he found plenty of organisms
of the germs micro-coccus, but he stated
in his report that these were harmless,
and / so stated in my public lecture. No
trace of pathOgenic germs was found.
There was no objection to the waters
from meteorological standpoint.
The chemical analysis showed more
organic matter than drinking water
should contain. BY comparing this anal
ysis with such standards as Nichols and
Hazen it can be readily seen why l said
that most authorities would condemn it.
Health" says there is but one way by
which we can secure pure, sweet and
sparkling water and that is by the cree
ton of Il reservoir. A reservoir per Sc
must possess some remarkable powers of
publication if such a statement is war
ranted. 1t removes turbidity by settling,
but what addition facilities has it for
eliminating all the ills that water is heir
to that are not possessed by the river
itself? A reservoir is Il valuable ad-
junct to a water supply system, but it is
simply an adjunct and should be regard
ed as such. The function of Il storage
reservoir is to conserve the supply of
water and render an average hourly sup
ply to the reservoir available for much
larger supply for certain busy hours dur
| ing the day. Its function is one of guam
| tity rather than quality, and publication
| is incidental.
| can not acknowledge the weightiness
| of the reasoning that a reservoir is need
| ed because it will complete the system"
| l have heard this argument often, but |
never regarded it seriously. l have no
objection to a reservoir provided it has a
filter attachment, but reservoir simply
to complete ''the system" reminds me of
lost his tail. The system of all systems
is pure water. l do not know what the
original definition of 'the system" meant,
but the common sense definition (as to
water supply means pure water, and
nothing but pure water. If filter is not
used and if the bacteria are present in
the river water they will be pumped with
the water into the reservoir. The organ
ic matter is the natural food of the micro
organisms and as long as this matter is
plentiful there is no chance of death by
starvation. Then if organic mat
ter is supplied to the reservoir the same
old high carnival goes on as in the river.
l am as much opposed to the "costly
experiment of a huge tiltering plant
as Health" can possibly be. No SAM
tary engineer would recommend such Il
system. But l refer most respectfully to
my former suggestion, namely, that the
spring water be reinforced by filter wells
or filter gallery, and then this filtered
water drawn from the power house
spring and wells can be supplied to our
citizens directly or by the aid of reser-
voir of moderate capacity. This water
would all be filtered through natural soil
that generally gives better results than
artificial filters. The city should have
the flow of the power house spring ac-
curately estimated by long series of
measurements. If the water is to be used
it is the part of wisdom to know the
amount of water we can rely on.
Again Health" says: wherever the
hltering system has been tried it has
proven a failure, and of the many cities
which at one time or another adopted it
there is not one to my knowledge but
which, after Il fair test, has been COM
PEELED to abandon it. Wherever
the filter system has been tried in COM
munities where the daily consumption
of water exceeded, say, 100000 gallons,
it has proven an abject and eggregious |
failure" Then Thomas Carlisle's state
ment that the English people are mostly |
fools is a verify, for London has been |
using the filtered water of the Thames |
and Lea for several generations. Chol- |
era broke out in 1866 in distant part |
of London that was for time during |
repairs) using unfiltered water, and was,
except for few cases, restricted to this |
section. London is constantly increas-
ing its filter. as can be seen from the |