Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1902-12-23
WATER COMPANY MAKES
A NEW PROPOSITION
CONTINUED From Page one.)

a NEW fROPOSIi ION.
CONTINUED From Page One.)
hydrants, and making total mileage
OF mains in the city of about thirty.
nine miles. This does not include the
mains Or the eleven private hydrants
at and near the packing house which
the company must purchase in case a
new franchise is granted. None of this
new pipe will be smaller than six inch.
es in diameter, and very large por.
ton of it of much larger size. An I'M
predjudiced expert in waterworks will
say that with these additions Ottumwa
Will have better water supply system
OF pipes than any town of which he
+ knows.
Second. The company proposes to
add two new filter tanks and a series
of sedimentation basins which will be
capable of thoroughly settling and fill
teriag 100000 gallons of water per
diem.
There is no other available method
of obtaining water in Ottumwa eX-
cept from the Des Moines river Wa
ter which is obtained from the ground
and which is said TO be clear, is only
clear through filtration, and when the
sand or gravel through which the wa
ter percolates is once filled up with
mud, as it will become when you eX-
haust the water from the ground, there
is no way of washing out the filter,
while with the artificial filters they
can be washed out and boiled every
I. day.
The undersigned has had a great
deal of experience with waterworks,
and in every case where there has been
an attempt made to get water from the
ground, no matter how favorable it
appeared at first sight, it has been a
failure and thousands of dollars have
been wasted and added to the capital
invested, upon which the public will
necessarily be required to pay inter
est, whether the city builds it's works
or a company builds the works.
| take the example of Ottumwa. If
the city builds its own works and in
vests 100000 in attempting to obtain
an underground water supply, it there
by increases the cost of the works just
SO much, and the public has to pay
out of its taxes the interest on the
same and eventually the principal.
If company builds the works and OPP
crates them itself and it is insisted
that 1T shall take an underground
source of supply and it invests $780,
600, it is only reasonable and natural
that it should want to receive the in
terest on that 100000 and to receive
the money back at some time, and the
loss is eventually the loss of the citi.
zens and the taxpayers.
Tho md oreio,od J,,.o,,obf ~ nf+,,p,
wa Captain Edward Ruger, than whom
no more honest and able hydraulic en-
gineer exists in the United States, and
gave him carte blanche to lay out an
A-No. / system of waterworks for the
city, and the proposition which is sub
mitted herewith contains his recon-
mendations.
The new buildings will be attractive
and will be where they will show and
will advertise the place, instead of be-
ing allowed to fall into ruin and pre-
sent the appearance which much of
the West End now presents and which
is certainly very unattractive to the
traveller between Chicago and the
west If your pumping station were
located somewhere where no one ever
saw it, so far as any advertisement of
the place is concerned, it would do you
no good.
So far as the taking of water is
concerned, the company has been at
the expense, by the help of indepen-
dent citizens, of taking water from
where it has been proposed by the
city, and also from the present intake
of the company, and submitting such
samples to the best scientific authori-
ties in Iowa, and the water taken from
the headrace, from the present intake
of the company, is better for domestic
and culinary purposes and for all pur-
poses for which water is used, than
that taken up above the dam There
is a reason for this, in that the water
taken in the head-race has had time
to lose a portion of it's sediment by
dropping to the bottom in the course
of one miles flow from the dam down
to near the pumping station; and that
is one of the methods which are fire.
quently resorted to for the cleansing
of water, to let it flow through an open
cut with very slow current for a
long distance SO that it purifies itself
being subject not only to sedimenta-
I ton but to the sun and the air.
IA uGW IlSu oClfiSS oluIlOA ~ " NC
built whereby the whole of Ottumwa
practically above Second street, will
be supplied by an Independent pump.
ing station, which will raise the pres.
sure to a greater amount than the
main system has. The reason of this
is very easily seen. The city does not
want more pressure than it needs, and
on the lower ground, where the princi-
pal business buildings are, there is no
necessity of having the same number
of pounds pressure at the hydrant as
on Court street.
Again, too great pressure at the
hydrant means liability to break in
everybody's service pipes; it means
that when anybody is connected by
means of meter, when the water is
turned on there is large amount OF
water goes to waste because SO much
more flows through the opening which
is made on account of the greater We
locity.
The Clear Water Basin.
It will occur to anyone that the fl
tiers, running at their regular rate, al
certain times In the day, do not filter
tho water as fast as II ia used while