Waterbury evening Democrat., 1908-12-04

filtration works. and come to the city through the Branch conduits. From these combined sources there could ultimately be secured upwards of thirty million gallons of us fine water as there Is in the world. What this would mean to the future Waterbury you need no one to tell you. l do not think 1t too early to give serious consideration to both these matters securing rights to Bantam river and providing for filtration of all the public water supply, .. Pressure.
 When public spirited persons were urging a public water supply back in the sixties, one of the strong est arguments advanced was the need of a reliable supply for the extin- ! guishment of fires, to be always ready under a strong pressure. The original works on East mountain pro- vided static pressure of 100 pounds per square inch, which of course was gradually diminished by friction in the pipes as the draft increased, ulti- mately falling to seventy or eighty pounds during the hours of heaviest use.
 | When the Branch works were built the static pressure became 120 pounds and since then, due to the great size of the main pipe the press ure in the center has been regularly 1 110 to 115 pounds per square inch. As consequence the water works have always been of the greatest value to the city in the control of fires, especially on the lower ground and on the lines of the larger dis tributing pipes. From the begin ming, however, this usefulness has been restricted by two features, viz, the great differences of elevations, resulting in the reduction in static head, and the use of network of small mains, causing reduction in head due to friction at the very time when the most pressure is wanted. The first difficulty can be overcome only by dividing the city into separate districts, at different elevations. In 1904 laid out the present high ser | near elevation 2S0 (about 140 feet above Center square1 as, could be conveniently arranged. This wrought a great improvement, op the higher | ground, as on Round hill, Burnt hill, the top of Washington hill,. Town tPlot and upper Willow street. Ulti- mately still higher service will have to be provided for and then there will be the low, middle and high ser vices, each with its main supply pipe. ''The other difficulty is very serious one and naturally concerns this association very intimately. Ac- cording to the report of conditions at the close of 1907 there was in the distribution system of the city omit ting the main from the Branch the following percentages of different size mains: @ N
 20 inch 0.63 per cent. s | IS inch 1.64 per cent.
 16 inch .2.1 per cent.
 IA inch* 2S per cent.
 12 inch 12.6 per cent.
 10 inch 4.S2 per cent.
 inch 17.65 per cent.
 | 6 inch 33.6 per cent.
 inch 24.6 per cent. 1 *High service main largely.
 'It is easy to see how this most un- satisfactory condition has arisen. In the beginning district was small and small main was considered large enough for its few houses and one fire hydrant. When an exten- sion was called for it has been laid of the same size. and so on from year to year, until lines. mile long are all of the same small size. Then when attention was called to the lack of capacity it has been said that the money must be used to reach new customers and none could be spared for pulling out old mains and laying larger. From time to time appropri- ationS have been made for enlarge ments, and in connection with addi- tional water supply large mains have gotten into some streets, but these cases have been few and far between. With 24.6 per cent of the whole dis tribution system only inch, 326 per cent inch and 1T.65 per cent $ inch. none of which sizes are large enough to maintain good fire streams when several are needed at once, it must be evident that the system from fire protection standpoint is in poor shape. Fifty-eight per cent of the whole system is of 1 and 6 inch sizes, 76 per cent more than three-quarters, 8 inch or smaller. Less than one-fourth of all the mains l ara laruar fhan S inch O