The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1899-01-08


"slickens'' to clog and obstruct filter
beds.
To now urge an investigation of sand
filtration by the Chamber Of Commerce
means delay, procrastination, putting
off and further confusion of the public
mind. In the meantime on the plea of
necessity the officials will go on pur-
chasing more costly machinery and To-
eating it with relation to the present
source Of water supply, thus the more
securely fastening an incubus upon the
backs Of the people.
Sacramento has been investigating
for twenty-six years and has not adj
vanced a peg. except to prove that the
east side subterranean supply is ample,
clear, pure and economic. This river
filtration fad was before the city in the
far past It was up again two years ago
and an Engineer" was paraded around
the city by the then President Of the
could filter the river water by the ten
million gallon lots for song or so. But
all these schemes when examined into
have faded away.
The Chamber Of Commerce has not
money enough and will not have to
properly and thoroughly investigate
sand filtration. To give it the exami-
nation necessary by a competent COM
mittee would require travel and vista
tons costing months of time and many
thousands of dollars. The best that
books written upon the subject, and
the reports of cities where filtration IS
successful Them would come the ques-
ton: Are such systems applicable un-
der conditions existing at Sacramento"
That can be answered by no engineer
without personal inspection. survey
measurement, estimate, ETC., after a
long and laborious inquiry on the
ground, including research into the
whole history Of low water and flood
conditions, sources of supply and con-
tamination now and prospective, etc.
But suppose we consider the adoption
of filtration feasible. How will we work
it out? Where has the city land, or
where can it get it for location Of filter
galleries, to which the waters OF the
two rivers must be conveyed at lowest
stages; land so located as to enable us
to have the. necessary underdrain? But
if land is procurable at the right place,
since our high and low water stages
are so wide apart, will it be possible to
feed the filters except by lifting the water
into them by one set of machinery, they
being set upon stills. so to speak, for
the purposes in view, while another set
is employed in pumping into the mains
thus doubling the present cost for me-
chanical power? 1t will be conceded
that the filters could never be set so
deep as to receive river water in this
city by gravity when the low water
stages prevail. If the water is, how
ever, taken out far up stream to be
conveyed to the filters then we abandon
the Sacramento River, rely wholly
upon the American, and incur an addi-
tionaI cost that will be enormous for
piping alone.
But we know all about the driven
wells. We know nearly enough what
it will cost to sink them. We know
that THE same kind of machinery which
lifts and forces water from the rivers
into the pipe lines can be employed for
such offices on the east side, from the
wells and into the right end of the pipe
lines, whereas now the water is injected
into the wrong end Of the system OF
mains-a fact confessed by all and one
that involves a heavy cost to the tax
payers.
If new pumping machinery is to be
purchased and new mains laid, and it
is conceded that these things are neces-
sary, let us place the new machinery on
the east side and use the clear, pure
water we know we have, and mean
while the Chamber of Commerce and
the Trustees can go on investigating
sand bed filtration until they are gray
and leave the task as heritage to their
children, and sums sufficient besides to
carry it on in the far future.
We do not speak in derision, but in
sober earnest. Not one figure in the
August report is given of the cost Of
sand filtration. The committee did not
venture upon that ground. They knew
very well that it meant to deal with
figures representing millions Of dollars.
The nearest they came to it was IN
citing Lawrence, Mass. city Of one
third greater population than Sacra-
mento, as having adopted with success
the sand filtration plan. But alongside
of that citation, as we have said, they
twice the size Of Sacramento, which
with equal success has adopted the
driven well system.
Our situation is novel; there is no
parallel for it. There is no existing fill
tration plant that can be taken as an
example of the possible here. In fact,
no engineer who has ever examined
our situation has even suggested that
sand filtration with our streams loaded
as they are, and our low lying condi-
ton being what it is, would be sue
cessful here except at cost too mon
strous to consider amounting to mill
ions of dollars and being in fact pro-
hibitory.