Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1903-03-16
Toniaht's Mass Meeting at City Hall

Tonight at 7.30 o'clock, a mass
meeting will be held at City Hall to
consider the questions brought to the
front by the Water District bill intro
duced into the Legislature, last week.
This embraces:
LIST. A source of supply other than
the Kennebec river.
End. The question of municipal
ownership of our local water works.
1t would be we'll in considering the
general subject to keep these two
propositions distinct.
There has been no difference of opin-
ion regarding the desirability of bet
ter source of supply than is afforded
by the river The conditions existing the
present winter have emphasized this
and the officials of the Augusta Water
Company frankly concede it. There is
probably no better water for general
purposes than is found in the Kenne-
bee river when it leaves Moosehead
lake. and even here at Augusta, after
receiving TIE SEW cld5C vi I'Iiioiie'lii;
Scion, Arson, Madison, Skowhegan,
Norridgewock, Fairfield and Water
VILE. it is Il vastly better water than
| can be secured from the lower Andres
coggin OF the Penobscot. The weight
of scientific authority is against the
use of large streams or rivers into
| which sewerage empties as source of
water supply. In many places, how
ever. the objections to such sources of
supply have been largely overcome by
modern methods of filtration. A lake
| or pond supply is, however, more de-
| Srable when it is practicable to secure
| it. In the summer season the sunlight
and air act to a large extent as a dis
| infectant. but when a river is sealed by
| ice during the winter season, these
agencies are unable to operate, and
| the danger of infection is consequently
! greatly increased. The past winter,
typhoid has existed to greater or less
extent in the communities north of us.
| particularly in the city of Waterville
| which, while it does not take its water
supply from the Kennebec river, does
discharge it's sewerage there. Where
care is taken for thorough dis
| infection in the care of ty-
phod patients, the danger of contagion
| t1n be reduced to a minimum or elimi-
mated altogether, but where no such
care is taken the sewage from infected
houses becomes a source of pollution
empty into. These are matters which
can be successfully dealt with only at
their source. The officials of the Au-
gusta Water Company have fully APP
preciated existing conditions and have
considered various other sources of
supply with a view to action when the
frost went out of the ground. They
| have not only conceded the desirability
| of another source of supply; but they
| announce, elsewhere in this issue, that
| they offer no objection whatever to the
bill proposing the sale of their prop
| erty and franchises to the Augusta
Water District; and give their consent
| to the passage of the bill.
Undoubtedly the general tendency of
the times, here and elsewhere, is in the
direction of municipal control of public
utilities. Action of this kind, however,
should come as a result of careful con-
sideration and Investigation, and with
clear appreciation of everything in
volved. The motive to be kept in sight
should be the best welfare of all the
people. and not a desire to deal unfair
ly or in narrow spirit with any vest
cd interest.
The contract which the city has had
with the Water Company has been a
favorable one, and the rates charged
for service have not been eXorbitant as
compared with those charged in other
communities. A water system owned
by municipality may be content to
earn enough to meet the interest on its
bonds, but one built by private capital
is q purely business enterprise, and is
expected to pay reasonable dividends
on its stock. This accounts in part
for the difference in rates that usually
exists between private and municipal
water systems although, not infre- |
quently, such differences rest in part
upon annual appropriations from the |
public treasury
1t is evident that a strong sentiment |
exists in Augusta at the present time !
for a different source of supply than
the river, and also for municipal |
ownership of our water system, and |