The morning news., 1897-02-10
WHAT BECOMES OF THE WATER
ONE HALE OF sAVANNAH's DAILY
SUPPLY UNACCOUNTED FOR.

The Water Commission to Find Out
What Becomes of Something Over
3,OOO,OOO of the 6,OOO,OOO Gallons
Pumped Daily at the WOrks-Tbe
Condition of the Mains to BE Look
ed IntO-EcOnOmy in the Mancg-
ment of the Water Works Depart
ment and the Necessity For an
Ample Water supply Important
Questions.
The people Of Savannah must be the
greatest water drinkers on the globe. The
records Of the water works show that
there is pumped on an average Of at least
100 gallons of water per capita daily for
every man. woman and child in the city.
The question is what they do with it.
They certainly do not use it all, and, this
being agred to- the next question is what
becomes of it. The population Of the city
is $1,000. The daily pumpage at the wa
ter works is 100000 to $4,000 gallons, oc-
casionally rising as high as 100000 gall
Ions for several days in succession dur
ing spells of severe cold weather. The
question is, how much of this is waste?
Chairman Dixon of the water commits
porter how much water he thought the
people of Savannah actually consumed.
He replied that this would be a difficult
calculation, as there are a good many peo-
pie in Savannah who never drink water.
Then Savannah's population contains
large percentage of those who consistently
practice economy in their use of this fluid.
For drinking purposes, he thought the
population of Savannah consumes some
where between a quart and a gallon each
daily. For daily ablutiOns, he thought
five to ten gallons per capita, including all
the population, would be a fair allowance.
Making a liberal allowance for household
purposes, he thought that twenty-five gal
Ions per capita would cover the consump-
ton. With population of 65,0OO, consum-
ing twenty-five gallons daily, the total
daily consumption would be only 1625
900 gallons For 5000 horses and other an
imals, each averaging twenty-five gal
Ions daily, would be an additional 125,-
900 gallons, or a total of 1,750000 gallons
used and consumed by all the living crea-
lures in the city. At the low daily pump
age of 100000 gallons per day, this would
leave 4,2500OJ gallons to be accounted for.
Savannah is not a manufact turing com
munity, and 1000 600 gallons daily for man
utacturing purposes would be a liberal
allowance. Flushing sewers and sewer
traps requires a large amount of water,
but hardly anything like the 3,2J0O00 gal
Ions daily remaining to be accounted for.
This brings up the subject of leakage.
Mr. Dixon said he had read with inter-
est the editorial in the Morning News
of the views of Col. George f. Waring,
the sanitary engineer of New York City
on this subject, and his statement of the
reduction of the daily pumpage of the city
of Liverpool from per capita of 100 gal
f, Ions daily 20 a per capita of Nl2 gallons.
Il intend to bring this to the attention
of the water commission" " said Mr.. Dix
on. I'VE have never regarded leakage
"a m at or sfFsne
are not very far below the surface and
when pipe breaks this fact is at once
made evident by the condition of the soil
above the break. 1t may be that il is
only the larger breakswhich show in this
way and that there IS considerable leak
| age from numerous small breaks. I think
| the commission will institute an investi-
| cation for the purpose of discovering
| if there is any serious loss from leak
/ age. If we can keep up the pressure
! and pump less water by stopping the
| leaks it would be much more economical
! TO do so than to go to the expense of dig
| ging more wells and pumping larger
quantity of water when it is not needed" ="
| Mr.. Dixon's attention was called to
| the fact. that there were evidences of a
| considerable loss of water from some
source on Gwinnett street, near the water
| works.
THAT is from the pipe leading from
| the Springfield well to the works" said
/ Mr. Dixon. when this well was con-
/ nected with the works last summer. clay
! instead of iron pipe was used in order
/ to reduce the expense. The strongest
clay pipe we could secure was used but
! several breaks have occurred, the pressure
/ from the SDr ngfield well being very
| strong. This loss occurs before the water
| reaches the works and is not included
! in the amount of pumpage."
! Numbers of pipes all over the city which
| burst during the recent freeze are still
| leaking and this accounts for the loss of
! a large amount of water just at the pres
| ent time. The water commission realizes
the necessity for an ordinance requiring
/ the iU U,mediate repair of all leaks in pipes
| and the matter will be brought before
council probably at its next meeting.