The herald., 1897-04-20

the water supplied to the city of Los An
geles is, when viewed from a chemical
standpoint, and in my judgment, re-
markably pure when compared with the
water supply of San Francisco and other
large cities.
II can see no reason why the water fur
nished your city should be of other than
the best quality. 1t should not be for
gotten that the food necessary to the life
and growth of baccilI1 are albuminoids,
together with easily oxidizable organic
matter but these are shown by the ana
lysis to be present in comparatively
minute quantities.
'Againg the minimum amount of chlor-
inc obtained. which is the measure of
chloride of sodium, shows conclusively
that the water is not contaminated with
sewerage derived from human sources.
Taking all together and viewed from
a chemical standpoint, this water Is a
poor medium for the development of
bacteria.
1.-The city of Los Angeles may be con-
graduated as having the best of water
of its kind for drinking, household and
industrial purposes"
The infiltration gallery as designed for
the lower source of supply is practically
a duplicate of the Crystal Spring plant,
and consists mainly of two lines of "a
inch pipe parallel to each other, with
open joints, for a distance of approx
ma ately 5000 feet. AS the main supply of
a waterworks system is the keystone Of
the entire structure, and a partial or en-
tire failure of such supply would perad-
.tx,r <1te.u -1rn vn1t ttctn of
fects and results as are being built upon
the same, it ie therefore of the utmost
Importance to know the conditions of
the abundant saturation or scanty sat-
uration of the strata and their ability
to supply continuously; whether these
conditions may change or even alternate
(Which they may with no surface indica-
tions of such results), and whether the
subterranean flow may change or be in
directions entirely at variance with the
surface slopes and flow.
Predictions for an ample supply of
water from given subterranean source
are always extremely hazardous until a
thorough knowledge is obtained of the
geological position, thickness, porosity,
dip and soundness VI the strata; such
thorough knowledge the city has fortu-
nately obtained by the numerous test
wells sunk on the proposed headworks
property, and the results thereby obtain
ed are briefly these:
Results show that the saturation plane
is situated from twelve to twenty feet
above the proposed infiltration gallery:
that the geological position, thickness
and dip of the strata relied upon to fur
nish percolating water, is such that the
proposed gallery will be located beneath
the bed of the Los Angeles river and
within a sand and gravel strata known
as abundant water-bearing, enabling us
thereby to place the gallery, as we'll as its
laterals, in such position as to in
tercept the well-defined contour flow
lines Of the subterranean water cur
rents; that the conditions of the strata
imme diately underlying she bed of the
river are such that after these infiltra-
tion galleries are established, and after
the percolating water has developed its
new and artif1cially guided water ways
towards the gallery, every drop of sur
face water within the Los Angeles river
reaching the immediate vicinity of the
headworks will then. perforce find its
way to the galleries. being. through its
passage through the natural and artifio
cial filter beds, deprived OF most OF its
Injurious organic matter.