Waterbury evening Democrat., 1908-12-04
CRY FOR WATER
Engineer Cairns Thinks We Ouuhi io Control Bantam.

on The water oupply peiole the Waterbury Business Mems associa- tion at the Abadagasset club Hast night. He said ......
 "The whole problem of public water supply resolves itself into quality, quantity and pressuress,
 Quality of course comes first, but sometimes Is too easily considered satisfied. The tracing of typhoid fever in many instances to contam- mated water, sometimes responsible for serious epidemics, has shown the necessity of greater attention to this matter of quality. Storage in large basins for some time, especial ly when such basins have be
 thoroughly stripped and freed from vegetation, has been proved to con- tribute largely to the elimination Of pathogenic germs. Consequently the argument for large reservoirs, whe the supply is from surface streams. as a protection against shortage in dry seasons, is being supplemented by the very important fact of great CT security against disease. This move toward purer water, however, free from germs inimical to health, free from turbidity, unpleasant tastes and odors, is not to be satis- fled until all surface supplies, be- sides being safe-guarded on the gathering grounds and in the reser- voirs, are subjected to scientific H. tration. Then and not until then will surface supplies be absolutely satisfactory.
 ''In the German empire filtration of surface supplies has become all most universal South Norwalk. Lawrence, Mass, Albany, N, Y. and many other places have filtered their supply for years. Springfield, Mass, is spending millions on a new sup ply which is to be delivered in a state of purity. In New Haven there has recently been put Into operation a first-class slow sand filter which treats all the water from Lake Whit ney. Among the plans for the vast works for additional water supply for New York, which contemI
 a daily flow of 500 million gallons a day from the Catskills, is plant for Altering every drop through sand. Within very short time no city will be considered as having done its duty by its citizens, no city will be regarded as an attractive place of residence unless the potable water is hygienically pure ana wholesome. -7A@ta
 Quantity from surface supplies depends on the amount of rainfall. on the area of the watershed and on the extent of the storage. The geo. logical formation in this region is such that springs have little meaning as effecting the total yield of the watershed. There is no foundation for thinking that they bring to the surface any water except such as has fallen in rain within short distance. The most they indicate is that there Is some storage in the ground, so reducing a little the amount of arti- ficial storage to be provided.
 Uncertainty of Deep Walls.
 "All the water .aon "a x Watershe ed comes from the clouds. Some evap- , orates, some is absorbed by vegeta- tion, some runs off over the surface or percolates through the ground. so sooner or later reaching the streams. By keeping records of the rainfall and measuring the streams the yield of watershed is determin~ ed. It varies not only with the amount of rainfall and area of Wa tershed but also with the character of the surface, the amount of forest and other vegetation, and slope of the ground and very markedly with the distribution of the rains.
 "The amount of storage required to secure a given daily supply to the city can be approximately determin- ed by the use of published tables, the result of statistics gathered in other places. But we are beginning to be able to figure better for our own local conditions from our own statistics, of which I have now set extending back twelve years. As the greatest interest attaches to the driest years the present painful ex- sperience of drought will yield most . valuable data for future guidance, '"
 Here MT Cairns showed a table which illustrated first, that the pro- posed two billion gallon reservoir is not too large for the watershed, 1t filling easily in such winter as last. and, second, that it is not larger than is absolutely needed to support a daily draft of ten million gallons through such an autumn as this.
 ''It is a reasonable expectation as to the future," he continued, that Waterbury will have a population of 100000 by the year 1920, and that it will rapidly increase in the fol- lowing years. It is also a fact that as a city grows in size and with the increase in sanitary uses for water the per capita consumption increases.
 "In order not to have reservoir construction always in hand, and to properly utilize reservoir sites, it is necessary to plan new works of sui ficient size to meet probable condi- tions ten or fifteen years in the fu- ture. To build such works will take several years. so that at present the problem is to obtain works capable of sustaining a daily draft of ten million gallons. Anything less than this will be inadequate, unsatisfac- tory and. moreover, in the end more expensive.
 There is no known way of securing this quantity of water for Waterbury so well as by adding to the storage at the West Branch and the accepted plan now is to build very large dam just above the present Wigwam, and so create reservoir of upward of two billion gallons.
 "It does not seem to me advisable