The Minneapolis journal., 1901-12-31
SAVED MUCH WATER
The Years Efforts of City Water
Department Toward Economy.
PER CAPITA CONSUMPTION SO GAL
The Total Number of Gallons Pumued
at All stations Was 6,594,-
All, ,465.

The city water department made un-
| usual efforts this year to reduce the per
| capita consumption of water and met with
| very satisfactory results. According TO
the figures just put out by the department,
the average daily consumption for the
year for each person, on basis of 210, 600
population, was eighty eight gallons, a de-
| crease of five gallons from last year and
the lowestper capita consumption in many
years.
The vigilance of the deartment to re-
duce all waste to the minimum, coupled
with the increased use of water meters,
is mainly responsible for the above re-
suits, which are the more notable from
the fact that last summer was one of the
hottest and driest known in long series
OF years, necessitating a, much greater
use of water than ordinary for street and
lawn sprinkling. The water officials be-
lleVe that with the same vigilance to pre-
vent waste continued and with the more
general introduction Of water meters into
business and manufacturing concerns and
private houses, the water consumption per
capita can be reduced still more in the
coming years.
The total number of gallons of water
! pumped this year from all three stations
is 6,594 All ,465, a decrease of 268, 1923, 745
| gallons from last years figures, or daily
decrease of 736,230 gallons. The average
daily consumption was 5000, $50 gallons,
the smallest in six years.
1t is noticeable that larger percentage
than usual of the water pumped
this year came from the West Side sta
ton. The increase over last years figures
was l30, OOO, 900 gallons, result due to the
long dry spell of last summer and mop
perfume break downs of the North Side
pumps. On the other hand, it is crafty
ing to note that there was tremendous
falling off in the amount of water coming
from the East Side station, where the
water IS vastly worse than that taken
from the West Side station. The East
Side station pumped but 8,243, 500 gallons
this year, against 61,27S 800 gallons in
1900. The former amount represents only
ABOUT thirty-siX hours run. The figures
for the West Side station for the two
years are 1,O00,817 300 gallons for 1901 and
$40, $4,000 gallons for 1900, and for the
North Side station, 1855, $50, ,O45 and 5,931, y
111,4OO gallons, respectively
In comparing the per capita consump-
t1on in Minneapolis with that of other
cities, it would be only fair to Minneapo-
lis to deduct fully 10 per cent from the
| total on account of pumping ''slippage -
| While the pump registers show the above
! amount, the wear on the plungers is so
great, owing to the large amount of sand
pumped with the water, that notFm
than 80 per cent of the water ever gets
to the consumer. With the completion of
! the new Northeast station, where verti-
cal pumps will be used, it is believed that
this slippage item will be reduced to prac-
ucally nothing, and the expectation is,
therefore, that then the per capita con-
sumption will show still farther de-
crease.
There were 1,125 water meters put in
during this year, making the total number
or meters now in use $40, or a meter to
every 312 water users. Nearly every new
modern house is equipped with a meter
at the time 1t is built and hundreds of
other house owners have been brought of
late to see the financial wisdom of having
their water measured. The water de-
partment officials say that saw
ing of from 25 to so cent in
the cost of water to the con-
sumer can be effected by the use of
meters, and they encourage the move
ment in every possible way from the fact
that it prevents waste. 1t is a
matter of regret, however, that
in the older buildings, where the
plumbing is old-fashioned and more
or less defective and the waste con-
sequently greater, but few meters are in
use. The register of the department has
the power to arbitrarily put in a water
meter where in his judgment the condi-
tions call urgently for it, but the city
must pay for the meter, and in actual
practice 1t has seldom been done.
Register Moody reports receipts aggre-
eating $3.50, 900 in his department during
the year, about $4,000 more than last
year. On the score of disbursements the
figures are $3O5,OO0 for this year, against
5000, 900 in 1900, the difference being ex-
planned by the larger expenditures for
permanent improvements. There were
1,235 water connections made during the
year, bringing the total up to 21,299.