Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1898-02-05

Mr.. Driver Admits thai The Supply Is Entirely
Cut of.
He is, HOWEVER, BORING NEW WELLS.
Flow Even II He should strike An
other strata of vapor.

The supply OF natural gas for this
city has ceased to be supply Altogether
and has become an unsatisfactory, un-
certain and indefinite quantity.
Mr.. II. L. Driver of the Natural Gas
company, in an interview with a
News representative today, snid
Yes; the flow at the wells has stopped
that is. so far as turning any gas'into
the mains is concerned. The little that
IL fnding its way into the pipes Is so
little as to amount to nothing. I, of
course, feel as badly about 1t as any
body and perhaps worse. but ] don't
Intend to commit suicide. am driving
more wells and expect to strike new
flow OF gas today. l know the gas is
there"
But you expected to strike 1t yester-
day, didn't your" interrupted the inter-
viewer
Yes: I did"
And the day before?"
Eyes"
And for the past ten days or two
weeks?"
Yes, l know, but we'll get to It after
awhile. All we need 10 time and
money"
In the meantime the distributing
company Is being put to great expense
and the consumers to much annoyance.
The company Is. however, endeavoring
TO the best of its ability to supply the
deficiency, and Is supplying the mixed
and manufactured article at the natur-
al product price, which is about four
times less. How long It can afford to
do this or will do 1t Is not known.
General Manager Campbell, of the
Union Light and Power company, In
discussing the matter today said In the
presence of Mr.. Driver, who asserted
to the correctness of the statement,
that for the past nintey days there had
peeh no dii1erence or opinion between
his company and Mr.. Drivers COM
pany as to the amount of gas supplied.
Sometimes the natural product had
reached 100000 cubic feet In twenty
four hours. Then. again, It would be
reduced until the flow would cease al
together. the condition that obtains
now. This fluctuation has been so
marked as to make the average for the
whole period only about $4,000 feet
day, where the guarantee called for the
delivery of from 100000 to 100000 feet.
In answer to the question as to
whether there was leakage In the
mains or distributing 1aterals, Mr.. Dri-
yer declared that there was not: that
he himself was getting tired of that
sort OF talk and II was sucfiilent to
say that his own meter at the wells
and that of the company in this city
had for the past three months prac>
tically registered the same amount The
trouble. Mr.. Driver continued. was in
his wells clogging up. II they did
not do so he could guarantee all the
gas necessary. But no sooner is q good
flow. struck than the pipes I'LL up, thus
rendering II necessary to drive new
wells all of the time. This work, too
has been more frequent and expensiy e
OF late than ever before. Still Mr.
Driver thinks that had he
got started to driving new
wells earlier in the fall conditions
would have been different from
what they now are. The excessive cold
weather, he thinks. has had something
TO do with the stoppage, too. From
-FOUR to five open and free flowing wells
are required constantly to supply the
mains for this city. Now all are closed
or practically so. producing scarcely
enough gas to run the engine used in
boring new wells
Manager Campbell. in speaking fur
ther upon the matter, said that
for three months they had
been operating mainly on
their own product and on Mr.. Drivers
belief that new flows would be struck.
but the flows were not found and Mr.,
Drivers belief did not possess sufficient
illumination and heat producin-- power
10 satisfy their patrons. This fact is
good naturally admitted by Mr.. Driver
VINO says he has been getting alont.
nicely with the Union Light and Power
people. only he has been unable to sun
ply them all the gas they want.