The Republican journal., 1903-10-29
SIOUX FALLS WATER WORKS.

A Belfast Man is Secretary of the Board of
Water Commissioners.
VIM. r. Marshall is the secretary of
the Board of Water Commissioners of
Sioux Falls, South Dakota, appointed
to install system of water works to
cost about s25O,OOO, and we are permit
ted to quote as follows from letter to
his father, Hon. VIM. C. Marshall, of
this city:
You asked in a previous letter how
the water works were progressing.
Well. the board has been confronted
with many troubles and obstacles. The
most serious was delay caused by the
original contractors for ditching and
LAYING of pipes abandoning their con-
tract. The new contractor has just got
squared away and is laying about halt
a mile of pipe daily. There are p miles
to get in before the ground freezes, say
Dec. lst to 10th, and he is rushing to
accomplish that by hiring every obtain
able man at s.. 90 per day, using ditch
ing machine-on the principle of
dredger-that digs about 1,200 feet OF
ditch 6 IL feet deep every "A hours. 1t
| is operated day and night.
We let the contract for pumps, $50
600, two weeks ago, and have contracted
for pumping station and the Well sys-
TEN. SO most of the preparatory la
Dor is over and all there is now is gen
eral oversight of the work, receiving
reports from our superintendent OF
construction, paying bills, etc.
| don't think | have told you as to
the source OF our water supply. 1t
comes from drive wells, six inches in
diameter and about 35 feet deep, sunk
or driven on the fiat bottom north of
the town. There are twenty of such
wells. You see that the entire bottom
about four miles wide and extending
northward nearly 100 miles, is simply
the 800" valley proper, or, more cor
rectly speaking, the old river bed when
the Sioux river was big stream. That
bottom, or valley, has four to six feet
of black loan; then comes thirty-foOt
stratum of coarse gravel; then the blue
clay or hard pan. This gravel is water
bearing; that is, the Sioux watershed
drains it's rainfall to this valley and it
settles into the gravel where it is held
up by the impervious blue clay.
A we'll sunken or driven into this
gravel is simply inexhaustible in its
supply, as it has the entire valley and
watershed to back it up. There is real
ly an underlying lake of the depth of
the gravel stratum which acts as a
natural filter, so the water as pumped
out is clear as crystal, cold and pure,
and not in any way contaminated from
decaying vegetable or animal matter
on the surface as is the case with you
| in Belfast.
TO give you an idea of the inexhaus-
tible nature of this water supply, let me
! state that In July we sank two slx-lnch
test wells near the Municipal Electric
Light Station, which is about 2 1-2
miles from the city, north, on the ''bot-
I, TOM" These wells were 32 feet deep
and the water stood in them to the top
of the gravel, or within 4 feet of the
surface. The steam fire engine was
taken up there and its suction coupled
to the top of the wells and run night
and day for three days, pumping $50 gal
Ions a minute or one third OF the aver
age consumption of the city. we use
about a million and a half gallons
daily.) This hard pumping only lower
ed the water seven feet. The last day
the engine was coupled to one well only,
pumping at the same clip, and only
! lowered it 13 feet. That is, this one
we'll was supplying all that fire engine
could pump at its highest rate of speed
and one third the needs OF this city
with no material lowering Of the water
head. Walff, our consulting engineer,
and myself, drove out there at the clos
ing of the test and took the measure
ment. The fire engine was shut down,
and upon measuring again in ten min
utes the well had reflled chuck to the
top, indicating an enormous flow or lake
OF water back of it. AS long as there
is a rainfall in the Sioux valley this
supply of water will be limitless, pure,
and naturally filtered.
| These wells are different from what
you understand wells to be in Maine.
They are what the western country
uses entirely. An eight-inch wrought
iron pipe is driven downward by ma
chine which pumps out the mud or
sand, allowing the pipe to gradually
sink down by its own weight, the pieces
of pipe being coupled together. This
outside pipe is sunk to hard pan or
through the water-bearing gravel.
Then a six-inch casing is put down in
side and the outside pipe pulled out.
Then six-foot Cook strainer is dropped
down inside the six-inch pipe. It is
made of brass with very fine little Sits