The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1907-03-30
SUPPLY Of
CITY WATER
The Kind of Water Fit
to Drink
INVESTIGATIONS ARE MADE
AN EXAMINATION OF THE PoTo.
MAC AND ITS TRIBUTARIES
SOMETHING ABOUT THE Nj.
TRIES AND THE NITRATEs IN
THE WATER COOLER.

Washington, March 3O.-The results
of study which ought, so experts
say, to be made in every populated
river valley in the United States have
lately been added to the collections Of
the United States geological survey
These are the outgrowth of an invest
igation, chemical and bacteriologicaI
OF the condition of the water in the
Potomac river and it's tributaries. It
was made by Raymond Outwater, a
student at the George Washington
university, in satisfaction of require
ments for the degree of master of
science, and its figures and conclu-
sior1s were judged to be so important
that when. the attention of eminent
governmental biologists was called to
them a proposal was made for incor-
porating them in the archives of the
survey
Such was the thoroughness, in fact,
with which the investigation was con-
Quoted by Mr.. Outwater that no other
American river, 1t is authoritatively
stated, is now so well known from the
standpoint of the chemist and the
sanitary engineer as is the Potomac.
The example, furthermore, of this
study is likely to influence other Am
erican cities whose health depends
upon the condition of the water that
flows to them from distant springs
and streams. More than half of AM
terican municipalities still draw their
drinking water from rivers at their
a nd rxfth he xNla
systems of filtration, the danger
from typhoid and other water borne
diseases is ever present. Even those
places which do not depend directly
upon adjacent streams for their water
supply are necessarily affected by the
meteorological condition of the nearby
streams. Diseases, for example, are
frequently conveyed in milk, the COW
having been affected by drinking
water from a polluted source So that
the aims and methods pursued by the
young scientist of the George Wash
ington university, whose untimely
death in February, 1907, interrupted
very promising career, are likely to
be followed by experts in many Ann
erican cities. &C.," t oU1afl
One main point in Mr.. Outwater's
Investigation was that instead of sim
ply discovering from analyses of
water taken from taps at the city
that the river water contains such and
such elements, some of which are i'm
furious to health, he personally Wis
| tied every part of the river valley
above the city, obtaining specimens
of the water at various points on the
main stream, and particularly below
the different manufacturing towns Of
the district where the effects of hui
man pollution deserved particular at
tention. With the cooperation of the
Baltimore & Ohio railroad, which fur
nished free transportation, the invest
igator was enabled to become ac-
quainted with the whole Potomac in
way that it has never been known
before.
This plan of study is one which was
Suggested by Prof. Charles e. Munroe,
dean of the faculty of graduate studies
of the George Washington university,
who for more than ten years past has
urged a systematic and scientific eX-
animation of the washington water
supply and of the whole Potomac
River valley. This survey of the
watershed, in accordance with the
methods of field study, is something
tquite different from the Investigations,
Comprehensive and thorough as far as
they go, Of the water supplies Of the
New England states and of the Illinois
river in relation to the Chicago drain
Iage canal The value of the results,
as embodied in Mr.. Outwater's thesis,
furnishes a specific illustration Of the
4 aHe of
Washington for advanced research
under the direction of eminent men
| of science-opportun which, with
the future endowment of George
Washington university now contem-
plated, Will make the national capital
the greatest educational center in
North America.
| In the midst of it's technicalities,
Mr.. Outwater's thesis serves to convey
| great deal of information about run
i ming water, with which most Ameri-
cans are unfamiliar. Probably most
\ Of us have been brought up on the
idea that running water purifies itself.
| This student of the George Washing
ton university, who tested examples of
the water of the river and It's many
tributaries from very wide area, ar
i rived at the following conclusions:
/ while 1t is evident that pollution oc-
ours at many points, especially on the
tributaries. and that evidences of this
| pollution can. in most instances still
be seen after the water has entered
| the main stream, yet the water does
mot seem to be more polluted at Great
| Falls than it does at many points up
| the river and on the tributaries, and
at the same time it has not been radi-
i cally purified during its flow"
The popular notion certainly is that
as a river tumbles along over its rocky
| or sandy he'd the oxygen from the air