The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1899-12-17
WATER WASTE.

The question of water thievery has
become a grave one in New York City.
The water supply there is no more than
adequate to the immediate demand.
and the city is looking in many direc-
tons for increase of her supply so as to
have a large surplus at command when
wanted. Some of the propositions have
gone so far as to suggest the piping
of water from Lake Erie. the whole
length Of, the State. the pipe lines to
empty into the Croton reservoirs.
In the meantime New York discov-
ers once more that an alarming per-
centage of water supplied to the city
is wasted, and the. engineers class this
waste as stealing. And so it is; will
full water waste is theft. 1t is an in
direct way Of stealing from the tax
payers, and this is especially true where
all the water used has to be lifted and
none of it comes by gravitation.
While in this city there has In the
last few years been considerable dill
gence in searching out water waste, yet
it is understood that engineers have
water waste goes on in Sacramento to
a great extent, and that we use more
gallons of water per day than is rea-
sonable or necessary. Whenever the
stated to skilled engineer familiar
with the study of water supplies he
invariably expresses disbelief, and when
the figures are verified, he expresses
the opinion that we indulge in unreal
sonable water waste At least that
we use 1t recklessly. .sM
Assuming that our supply Is on the
average-summer excess and winter
non-use being taken into account-6,-
600, 600 gallons. Then on the basis Of
35. 900 population, our use is practically
Isl gallons per head. But that Is ex-
cessive use, even when the liberal irri-
cation Of lawns and gardens is taken
into account and street sprinkling is
added. Both are factors in Eastern
use also. but not to such an extent as
with Us, because We have no summer
rains and longer season of dry wealth.
er. Still the figure is excessive. If
New York can serve herself we'll, as
she did for years on from sixty-nine to
ninety gallons, we should not consume
nearly two and half times as much
There is a possible erroneous calcua-
ton In the Sacramento instance in the
amount claimed to be used 1t is pos
sible that the slippage is far greater
than is generally supposed. But even
that considered it would seem that our
use involves great waste.
New York's water waste at one time
became so great that Commissioner
Campbell undertook the heroic task of
hunting it out and reducing it. He
managed in five years to bring the
water use from 91.2 gallons per head
to Il gallons. His successor, follow
ing his methods, in the next four years
brought it down to 800, but under the
Commissioner who followed him the
consumption ran up to 1873 simply be-
cause he had no scientific training as
an engineer, and little in the science of
municipal management The next
Commissioner, however, qualified him.
self and succeeded in reducing the con-
sumption to So
There it stood for some years. but
now it has advanced greatly, as it has
been doing for some time, and once
more the question Of reducing waste is
agitating the inhabitants OF the great
city, for the consumption has now
reached the figure 124.5 gallons per
head The engineers report that ones
third Of all this water distributed in
the city is doing no one any good whats
ever-it is actual and useless waste.
The waste in New York, says Engine r
Cross. in Municipal Engineering" to
actually irnperiiing the safety OF the
city, because It precIudes storage or
reserve supply for emergency use. Two
things therefore New, York Is now