Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1906-02-06
LETTER FROM EX-SUPT. A. v.
GEARHART.

that don't sound right to me and as
SO much has been said and as yet no
definite results attained in the
water works question, that although
one "Butinski" more OF less may
not bring the matter any closer to
a finish, it will tend to keep the
matter under consideration and
bring to public notice the private
opinions of various people.
We all know the condition of the
water, but as to the cause and
remedy, as Mr.. Parcher says, "peo-
pie Of great and small winds scat
ter like an old rusty gun" We all
know what we want and the ques-
ton to be settled is, how to get
what we want at the least possible
expense.
Twenty years ago we wanted a
supply Of water for city of eight
or nine thousand inhabitants; we
dug well at a convenient point on
the banks of the Wisconsin river.
This well was 40 feet across and
30 feet deep the bottom of this well
being Is feet below the water in the
river. The well was walled up
solidly and no water was allowed to
enter it at the top or sides but all
came from the bottom. We had
water, lots of water and good water.
People coming to our city from
near and far made remarks on the
excellent quality of our water.
The city has grown, the water
mains were extended and more
water was necessary to fill the
mains and supply the demand (and
waste Seasons vary and the
supply of water in the soil natural
ly varies with the seasons and al
though for number of years the
supply was sufficient, it soon be-
came apparent that we must have
more water, a larger source of
supply to draw on in case of fire
and more for domestic purposes.
This matter came to a head dur
ing my administration as superin-
tendent of water works It was
argued then that inasmuch as such
a great quantity of water was
necessary in such a comparatively
short time that our well was too
small to admit of a sufficient
amount of water getting into it
from the surrounding soil in a
sufficient short time. Wise heads
therefore determined that in order
to get more water we must enlarge
our territory and extend excava-
ton sufficiently to permit the water
getting to US freely. This we did
by means of the Glitch" What
happened then? We had an abun-
dance of water, and good water.
1t is good water now when taken at
the well or pumping station. The
dirt and sediment we people get
down town don't come direct from
the well or ditch, but is an &C
emulation of twenty years. Per
haps it has been more prevalent
the past few years than ever before
which is very natural that it should
be.
Some of it was in the water
mains and pipes nineteen years ago,
considerable of it was there fifteen
years ago and still more has accum-
ulated the past ten years because
we have forced more water into the
pipes and consequently more sedi-
ment has been deposited and now
we get taste of this accumulation.
It is no doubt safe to say that
during the past twenty years as
much water has come out of that
little hole in the ground as is now
in the Wisconsin river between
Wausau and Mosinee, where did the
water come from, the river? not
necessarily. Was it surface water?
Directly, NO; indirectly, yes. Every
drop of water that was pumped
from that well previous to putting
in the Glitch" came into that well
from point or points fifteen feet
below the bed of the river. 1t
came from the surrounding soil,
not necessarily from the river, any
more than the surrounding country
and before entering that well it
must necessarily filter itself
through hundreds of yards of sand
and gravel and consequently was
absolutely pure so far as water
goes.
There are different qualities of
what we call pure water; water
that we think is absolutely pure in
one place is vastly different from
water that is pronounced absolute
ly pure in another locality, the diff
ference being its possession of diff
ferent mineral or vegetable quail
ties. / once heard of a man that
became independently wealthy by
placing metallic substance, (old tin
cans, etc. in the path of a stream
of water that was pumped from a
copper mine. The copper was in
the water in a soluble form and
adhered to the old metals. Similar
to this is our Wausau water. The
coil fbrn,nl u-h,-l