The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-11-09

A fourth source of supply exists in ! the natural springs and small stream l lets which flow into Mill river on both l sides of it between Whitney dam and 1 Willow street. These are all specified in MT Amrhyn's report, and after care ful investigation he estimates the total flow from them every twenty-four hours at the present time to be not less than 66,780 gallons, or S,019,000 gal Ions in one hundred and twenty days. In a very dry season the flow would doubtless be less, but the diminutlon would be gradual and would not be ap- preciable until the season were some what advanced; so that in the dryest summer these springs would largely offset the total loss by evaporation, and in average seasons would very nearly counteract it. We may fairly presume that the summer flow of these springs
 in dry weather would be at least one
 half of their flow in an average sea-
 son, or say, four million gallons.
 Conceding therefore the correctness
 of the suggestion by the chamber of
 commerce committee that very little
 water now wastes over the Whitney
 dam during three or four months of
 the year." and even assuming that no
 water at all should go over it during
 these months, we may nevert heless
 safely rely on the following quantities
 of water from other sources to offset
 the total loss by evaporation; such to-
 tai loss as we have seen being estima-
 ted at 20,41S,750 gallons, viz:
 t.,Fo T
 lonts; leakages at Whitney dam, 46, ,65O,
 900 gallons; one water wheel four days,
 14,00000O gallons; steam pump, one
 hundred days, 100000 gallons; springs
 and streamlets. sixty days, 4,0O0,0 1000 gal
 Ions; total, 77,1S5,0O0 gallons.
 The above estimates of supply are
 extremely conservative and far below
 the quantities of water that may be ex-
 pected except in seasons of extraordi-
 nary drought There can therefore be no doubt whatever that so far as evap- oration is concerned the lake would al-
 ways be full and overflowing even in season much dryer than that of 1900.
 Should the apparently impossible con tingency ever occur, however, that it should fall to an objectionable level, without available fresh water supply, it would be practicable by means of suitable gates to raise it five or six inches by flushing with tide water, without materially impairing its char acter as fresh water lake; and even if it should be necessary to repeat this operation once or twice in the same season, this would be far less objection l.Ja IT., ,.;, II tide water lake from twenty inches to two feet twice a day.
 The losses to the lake by soakage and leakage remain to be considered.
 What these losses will actually amount to in any given case can only be ascertained by experience but its relative amount can in this instance be conjectured with reasonable probabili- ty in view of the situation and charac- ter of the proposed lake.
 It will be observed that the reference by the committee of the chamber of commerce in their report already re- ferred to, to the probable loss to the lake by leakage, related to a lake raised several feet above the tide water level and above the level of the surrounding springs. It is therefore inapplcable to the ca-e of lake to be created by ex- cavation entirely below the level of the | tide and the springs The effect of such construction will be that there | would be no flooding of the sand and | gravel deposits referred to in that re- port especially as the banks of the lake formed by the excavated material | Ir1o 1,1x ,,ct1 1sa,,n Ia distance from these deposits
 It will be seen too that being below | the spring level the natural drainage i would be into the lake, not out of 1t, and also that twice day the tide will rise as high as the level of the lake, .hus giving a counter pressure on the outside of the dam at its outlet. The bottom and sides of the lake moreover will be of meadow mud which is almost mpervious to flow of water. All ,hese circumstances should reduce the oss by soakage and leakage to min mum, and in view of the great excess ,f supply which seems assured, 1t is certain that they would not ,ppreciably affect the level of the lake lnder any conditions.
 Your committee are therefore clearly ,f the opinion that it will be perfectly easible to maintain a fresh water lake fifty acres in extent and five feet deep tt the foot of East Rock, even in the lryest seasons, and that in average easons, such a lake would show CO., ,ious and continuous outflow For this eason, if there were no others, they would recommend that a fresh water ake be constructed, if any; but as ad- litional reasons they would call atten- ion to the serious objections which xist against a tide water lake if de- igned to be of an ornamental charac- CT and for popular use in boating, ,athing and skating. As the proposed ake is desired in part as g substitute or Lake Whitney as popular resort, he importance of these objections is he more obvious.
 The suggestion made by the State Board of Health as to the danger of un- anitary conditions arising from shal- ow tide water lake have been already eferred to, but the objections to such
 lake formed by excavation and not sss than five feet deep are hardly less 
 First. As suggested by the State 'oard of Health, ''it would be a point f primary importance to provide that he shores of the lake on every side be recipitous in form and that no extent / ]