Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-02-25
A WORLD PROBL EN-
To Furnish Cities With Ade-
quate Water Supply.
NO THRILLING MATTER
CONDITIONS IN EUROPE EVEN
WORSE THAN HERE.
Daily Consumption Per Capita - New
York Hard Put to TIN
Other Towns.
NO THRILLING MATTER

Other Towns.
| Written for The Evening Star.
Ask the average resident of big city
what is the most pressing municipal prob
Iem and in all likelihood he will answer,
| Rapid transit" Put the same question
to prominent city official, and almost GER
tainly his reply will be. Water"
That city is the exception today which Is
not face to face with the serious problem
| of water supply; and quite few there are
! that have solved the enigma of transporta-
ton. Even cities seemingly ideally located
do not escape it, Chicago, with a great
| fresh water lake to draw from, had 10
spend millions not so long ago on a drain
age canal to carry the city's sewage
| southwestward into the Illinois and Mis-
| sissippi rivers, in order to keep the waters
of Lake Michigan free of pollution. When
she had done this, Chicago thought the
| water problem was solved, but st. Louis
| promptly objected to having her source of
| water supply possibly contaminated in this
| manner, and began fighting the improve
ment in court, and Chicago is awaiting the
| outcome with fear and trembling.
| Philadelphia, with two big rivers to draw
| from, the Delaware and the Schuylkill,
| finds the waters of both Shock!ngly polluted
| py the towns situated ABOVE Der on the
| rivers, and now she is spending something
! like twenty millions of dollars on huge sand
| filtration plants, in the hope that this i'm
| proVement will put stop to the ravages
| of typhoid that frequently sweep the city.
| Cleveland, to get away from sewage-con-
| taminated water, has lately been compelled
| to go farther out toward the center of
Lake Erie; and as the city grows the in
| take Will undoubtedly have to be carried
| out still farther This has been the ex-
| perience of all the great lake cities, sit
| uated though they are with the finest fresh
water source in the world at their very
| doors.
Run over the list of American cities and
| there is scarcely one that can be mention
| ed which is not deep in the task of attempt
| Ing to solve water problem or, once nav
| ing solved It, is waging an incessant battle
| to keep the supply uncontaminated, con-
| dition that results only from eternal vigi-
| lance and the expenditure of hundreds of
| thousands of dollars annually.
Worldwide Problem.
But the water problem is not local to
| America. 1t is worldwide. Bad as it is
| here in many localities, it is even worse in
| the crowded centers of Europe.
| Paris does not dare to drink the water
of the Seine which is used for industrial
and street purposes only, and has gone into
| the mountains for table water Now this
| supply, with the growth of the city, is be-
| coming too small and Paris is face to face
with Inc question:: w mere snail we turn
now; shall we at last have to come to
| filtered Seine water?" And Paris, knowing
| the fearful state of the Seine, sickens at
| the stomach at thought of such a con-
| tingency. Yet In all probability Paris will
have to come to filtered Seine water; the
| other cities and towns about her have
gobbled up all the mountain water sources
| near and far, and every stream and river
of the plains reeks with the sewage of
the towns and cities along Its course.
The same condition prevails in the rivers
of England, and they are so interlocked by
canals that the sewage of the hundreds OF
cities situated along their banks is distrib-
uted with equal impartfality among the va
rious water courses. AS a result, Manches-
| ter has had to go to the lochs of Scotland
| for water, and has spent millions thereby.
! London, until recently in the grasp Of pri
vate water monopolies, which have been
| bought out by the corporation is seriously
| considering the plan of going all the way
| to Wales for a decent tumbler of water, at
| a cost of a round hundred millions of dol
| lars. AS for Glasgow. in the land Of lochs,
| it has been compelled to spend more MIL
| lions than it ever dreamed of putting into
municipal transit in order to insure itself a
sweet water supply.
Per Capita Consumption.
To what state these European cities
would be brought over water if their resi-
dents insisted on consuming as much water
as the average resident of an American city
adelphia the daily consumption per capita
averages 236 gallons; in Chicago, $50; in
New York 125; in Brooklyn, 80. A Lon
| doner is allowed only 40 gallons daily; a
Partisan, 81 and the citizen OF Berlin,
which has the best of all continental water
systems, holds the per capita consumption
down to so gallons.
That is the almost unheard-of European
municipality which does not turn or the
| flow of water into houses a good portion
of the day, the argument being that there
are only certain hours of the day when
water Is really essential to well being; for
| example around meal time and for the Sat
| urday night Tubing. If Manchester, for
| instance, were to let It's residents draw
| freely upon the water supply twenty-four
hours a day Manchester knows full well
that her present system, installed at an
| enormous cost would be altogether made
| uuate and would have to be doubled. to say
| the least and this could scarcely be done
without an infringement upon the rights or
| other corporations or individuals.
In this country the problem of obtaining
| additional or new sources of water supply
| for cities is greatly aggravated in the more
| populous sections such as the middle states,
| by the circumstance that no one city can
| secure more water without, so to speak,
| tramping on the toes of some other city oi
| town, or gripping various industries 10 the
point of destruction.
New York's Supply.
| New York city, which is casting around
| for a supplemental water supply, and
knows that it will have to spend 100000
| coo or more to get it, finds itself hampered
| in this fashion.
The metropolis has the power of emf
| nent domain and right of condemna-
| ton, and 1t got its present source
of water supply in this fashion, con,
| demning thousands of acres of land
| along the watersheds of the Croton, Bronx
| and Byram rivers wipng out hundreds Of
| farms, scores of villages and towns, and
| numerous manufacturing industries depend
ent on the water power furnished by these
| streams. When it became apparent several
years ago that the present water supply
| would not be sufficient to tide the city over
| a dry season, and the authorities began
| considering plans for condemning more
watersheds, the people of Duchess county
| began an agitation against such proceed
| ing, declaring that it would wreak untold
misery on the community by destroying the
| factories which the smaller towns in the
| interior depended for existence. But New
| York went ahead with her plans, with the
result that last year the Duchess county
| people got a bill put through the state leg
| islature forbidding the city to take water
| from the watersheds of the county, on the