The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-10-28
Lannan Organs Falsehoods Con-
corning the Water Supply.
ABSURD CHARGES MADE
ATTACK ON THE PARLEY's CAN
YoN SUPPLY.
Water Wasn't Used at All Last Win
ter and Not In the Spring Until
the Canyon Had Been Thoroughly
Cleaned-Test at Penitentiary
Shows righteousness of Tale.

With the hope of gaining a temporary
political. advantage the organ of the
Lannanites yesterday tried to make ii
appear that the water from one of the
city's sources of supply is so impure
that a. self-respecting canine would be-
come i'll through drinking it. The story
was backed up by photographs, which
| purported to show the causes of the
alleged impurities.
It is as easy to explode this latest
fake of the organ as it has been to ex-
plode those that have preceded it. The
storm starter speaks of buildings, sta
| bles and corrals that have been in Par
| ley's canyon for years almost without
number, as if they were erected since
the last city election. A conclusion is
almost drawn that the Democrats in
the council suggested the erection of
these buildings and supervised their
construction.
Have Been There For Years.
AS matter of fact, some of the
places objected to were in Parley's cam
yon when Salt Lake was but village.
The owners OF them long since acquired
even a Republican council, if elected,
could not gainsay. The present council,
however, inaugurated the system of
buying out these owners. One bit of
land after another has been secured,
and the only reason more purchases
have not been made is because of lack
of funds with which to meet the eX-
pense.
Even if all the organ said were true,
,,1I E IL. IL
be no occasion for alarm among the
people of Salt Lake, for not one drop
of Parley's canyon water have they
used during the last two weeks. Fur
thermore, they did not use a drop of it
last winter, and it wasn't turned into
the mains at all in the spring until all
the refuse matter showed in photo
graphs taken by the city engineer had
been cleared away.
+ Early in the year Mr.. Kelsey filed a
communication with the council, IT.
which he stated that the waters of
Parley's canyon We're being befouled by
dung heaps from corrals that were too
near the waters edge. At this time
the water was not being turned into
the mains, and Superintendent Caine
ordered it kept out until the evil re-
ferred to had been remedied. Seeing
that instant work was necessary the
council appropriated sum of money
to pay the cost of cleaning out the
stream.
Canyon Thoroughly Cleaned.
The superintendent took a force of
men up there and went to work at
once. He kept it up until he was driven
out by high water after emptying the
reservoir at the head of the canyon and
giving it a thorough cleaning up. Sub
sequently, when the water went down,
the work was resumed, until today it Is
the opinion Of the waterworks officials
that the Parley's canyon water is as
pure as that from any other of the
city's sources of supply.
Its only fault is that it becomes roily.
and when this condition appears, as
has lately been the case, it is turned
out of the conduit into an open ditch
and conveyed across the Fort Douglas
reservation into the hole near First
South and Thirteenth East streets,
which was originally intended as a res
ervoir.
That the facts bear out the statement
that this water is pure, is proven by
the records of the state penitentiary.
By a special arrangement with the city
the penitentiary taps the Parleys can
yon conduit and uses that water ex-
clusively, month in and month out, all
the year round. 1t also uses ice gath
cred from the streams of this canyon
When asked last night as to the health
of the prisoners this year, Clerk Stowe
of the prison board, who has charge of
all statistical matters, said it had never
been better.
Clean Bill of Health.
1--WE have not had single case of
typhoid or scarlet fever he went on,
"or any other disease that could in any
way be attributed to the impurity of
our water supply. We use ParIeys
water exclusively, taking it both from
the conduit and the ditch. So far as
we have been able to Judge. it is and
has always been absolutely pure"
This is believed to be a fair test
When the Parleys canyon water was
used in the city during the summer
months it was so mixed with other
water that it would have been a physi-
cal impossibility to tell whether it or
the water from City Creek and Emf
grafton canyons was responsible for
that could be traced to i'm
pure water. AT the penitentiary, on the
other hand, not drop of water has
been used for culinary and other pur-
poses except that from Parley's.
Here, during the year in which the
organ says that that water has been so
foul, the sick list has actually been
shorter than in the years when the
pe1itentiary drew it's supply from other
sources. The single instance is suffi-
Gent to explode the fake without the
additional statement from the water
works superintendent office that very
little Parley's canyon water has been
turned into any of the mains.
The organ, by the way. offers no So
luton of the difficulty it presents. 1t
doesn't even promise that a Republi-
can administration will tear up the pic
tured barns and corrals and throw
them, with their owners, into the
stream. No administration could have
done more than the Democrats have
done. The files of the storm starter will
show that they have left no stone un-
turned looking toward lettering the
conditions. All that could be done has
been done, and the next administration.
which will be Democratic throughout,
viii continue the work.
AWFUL WATER STORY.
TT