Waterbury evening Democrat., 1908-10-02
nERINC'S REPORT
ueIsg Sought For By CIiIzens
 luierssied in Waler.

The mention of Rudolph Herring s name In yesterdays issue of the Democrat created demand for the report prepared by him on the wa- ter question in 1892. It was printed at the time and is still in possession of people who make 1t point to save such documents. It is a pam phlet of 40 pages and contains a lot Of valuable information about the water sheds of this city and nearby towns, but 1t does not treat the Branch district, consequently the report is not much use for the pur- pose of comparison, but 1t Is inter- esting just the same if for nothing else than to show how far an emi- nent engineer can get away from the facts. In 1892 MT Herring said: The construction of the Mad river reservoir will furnish, together with the East Mountain supply, S,21O,OOO gallons. per day, or the es- timated consumption for 1899, and the limit would be reached in that year. If the following were drA one. After constructing the Mad river reservoir, the Lindley brook, if added, would furnish total sup ply to the city of 3,SS2,00O gallons, the estimated supply for 1905. If instead of Lindley brook the Chest nut hill reservoir be added to the Mad river, the city would be sup. piled safely until 1909. Lastly, all three watersheds will furnish, to- gether with the East Mountain sup ply, 5,460,000 gallons daily, the es- tlmated consumption for the year 1916. The total cost of this com bined project is $595,5S0, or $780, 3o7 per million gallons daily deliv- cred to the city"
 Now if MT Herring was right Wa terbury must be wasting water at the rate of several million gallons daily. He puts the estimated con- sumption for 1916, eight years hence, at 546,000 daily, while at the present time the consumption Is much greater than that. This year the average daily consumption from the Branch amounts to about 6,000,- 900 and 750,000 from East Moun- tain. In justice to MT Herring per- haps 1t ought to be said that prob- ably he confined his computations to domestic use and the installation of meters, in which case his conclu- sions might be as accurate as such figures can be made. About half the water used here is applied to commercial purposes and a good share of the rest of 1t is wasted. Tn fha m luaA n could tell in 1892 that our factories, many of which were modern struc- lures at that time, would have grown to be the mammoth institutions which We know them to be to-day, each requiring almost good sized reservoir for it's own use. and not having that they look to the city to meet the demand, and the intention is to make the reservoir equal to the emergency of that or any other kind that may be made upon them.
 The principal point of interest in what MT Herring unearthed on this matter--and We have quoted but a very small portion of lt---is that as- suming what he did say was true have conditions changed since, have all the water sheds or any of them been acquired by others, and If so what would it cost the city to get hold of them over and above MT Hering's estimate.
 If 1t could be shown that things are substantially the same in the eastern section as they were when Rudolph Herring and the late Father Duggan making up the town about the opportunities. splendid opportun- ities open to the people in the Mad river and it's tributaries, 1t would pay to utilize them now, even though the Branch project should be acted upon favorably, for the city will want more water than 1t can ex- pect to find in Morris and Litchfield.