The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-07-02
BIRMINGHAM DRINKS PUREST OF WATER No City in the Union Has
 Better SCIENTIFICALLY ANAlYZEO Water Furnished for Drinking and Cooking Purposes Is Entirely Free
 From lmpurities-A Visit
 to the Filtration Plant.
SCIENTIFICALLY ANALYZED
BY SEYMOUR RANSOM.

l BY SEYMOUR RANSOM.
 The water furnished the people of this city by the Birmingham Water Works company is, from the aesthetic and sani- tary point of view, as acceptable as that provided the people of any other | city in the union.
 That fact will be brought home with convincing force to anyone who makes an examination of the Birmingham l Water Works company's plants; the Ca- haba pumping station and the North Bir- mingham pumping station.
 Within the last two years, the Birm- ingham Water Works company has eX- pended three hundred thousand dollars in perfecting these two plants to in sure for the people of Birmingham the dearest and purest water possible. This has been done by the company in order to secure for this city what was until two years ago, a greatly needed reform, namely to safeguard the people against the peril of diseases which spring from l impure water.
 The company has accomplished both these purposes, and accomplished them so successfully that the people of Br-
  rest assured that the water used for drinking and cooking purposes is unex- celled by that of any other city in the | country
 1 It has been recently rumored in Brm- ingham that a number of cases of ty- phoid fever reported here were due pos sibly to the fact that the water pro- 1 Vided the city by the Birmingham Water 1 Works company was not as pure as it l might be. Ill order to ascertain whether i or not these rumors have any founda- 1 ton in fact q representative of The | Age Herald yesterday drove out to the Cahaba Altering plant five miles south of | the city and carefully examined the whole 1 situation. The results of his investga- 1 ton are presented herewith, in order | that the people of this city may under | stand the conditions precisely as they 1 are and in order that they may be as- | sured that the water supplied them by ] the Birmingham Water Works company | is in no sense responsible for the break | ing out of any form of diseases here In fact, 1t is no exaggeration to state | that if pure water enhances the nealIh- | fitness of a city this community is no | small debtor to the Birmingham Water Works company. as that corporation has taken every precaution to insure its patrons against even the slightest im- purity in the water supplied them from its plant.
 The Altering plants, at both Cahaba and North Birmingham, are of the most modern. up-to-date. comprehensive and scientific make. They embody the latest Improvements in what has come to be known the necessary science of water purificaton. This science has grown remarkably important in the last decade t1 the world. With the growth of the mod ern city, and the firm insistance that it's sanitary condition be improved, great at tention has been given to the question of pure water. By reason of this fact, schools of technology on this continent and In Europe have been graduatsX edu- eating men skilled in this work and well qualified to carry it forward successfully
 Realizing the importance of this trend. of public thought the country realize the Birmingham Water Works com. pany has risen to the full measure of its responsibility to the people here and has erected two filter plants that insure for the people of this city immunity from disease, as far as immunity can be in- sured by human agency. The two filter plants supply maximum of twenty million gallons per day for the sonsum- CTS of the Birmingham district; the Ca
 
 the North Birmingham plant five million. At the Cahaba pumping station there are thirty filters. At the North Birmingham plant there are ten. Each plant is sup piled with equipments, identical in kind, and differing only in magnitude. In as much as this is true 1t will be sufficient for the purposes of this article to bring to public attention the plant near the Cahaba river
 If you will drive out the Twenty-s.xth street road to Red mountain, and on over the Columbiana road for four or five miles through one of the prettiest stretches of country in the Birmingham, district, you will come upon the Cahaba filter plant of the Birmingham Water Works company. It is nestled in valley, with hills near by, and you approach, riding out from Birmingham, you will see first the filter plant, with the filtered water basin on the right. and in the dis tanee the companys reservoir. The filter plant is in charge of Mir c. P NibeclSer, a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology situated at Boston. He has charge of the water analyses, and he thoroughly understands the work In re- sponse to request from the Age Herald s representative Mir. NbeclSer permitted him to examine the water plant, and to ascer- i tain exactly what precautions are used to insure pure water for Birmingham The results of this examination are herewith presented
 The water used by the Birmingham Wa ter Works company comes from the Ca haba river. It is brought three miles across country and empties into the reser- voir just south of the filter plant In this reservoir there are two basins. av, eragng a depth of thirty feet. The water, when it empties into the first reservoir, is exceedingly muddy, coming as it does fresh from the Cahaba river. In passing from the first basin of the reservoir to the second, it comes through a purifca- tion process. and is made appreciably