Omaha daily bee., 1909-04-29
To the Citizens of Omaha:

Although public attacks on the Omaha Water Company with
regard to the quality of water it furnishes have already been met
with an action for libel a public answer seems needed in order to
reassure the community rs well as in justice to the company.
While every spring, as everyone knows, the water of the Mis-
souri, River becomes especially turbid and the removal of discolor-
alton becomes difficult, no harm to the health of consumers has
ever been known to result. The charges to the contrary are not
only malicious and unfounded, but they have far more effect than
damage to the water company, for they inevitably damage the
city. 1t may please newspapers, for political ends, to spread re-
ports that the water supplied to Omaha is impure, but they should
at least make sure of their facts, instead of publishing false state
ments one day which they have to disclaim the next.
The facts are, as shown by honest investigation, that the
water now supplied by the. Omaha Water Company is not, and
never has been, detrimental to the health Of those who use it.
In 1905, in the annual report of the Omaha Board of Health,
for the year 1904, DR.. Ralph, Commissioner of Health, said:
81 believe it goes without saying that the water in use is bet
ter than in the majority of other cities. This fact has been proven
so many times both by chemical and psychological analysis thatit
cannot be doubted. / have had an analysis of the city water made
at four different times in the past year. In January, February,
june and December. The water being taken from the intake at
the river, the settling basin and from faucets in the central part
of the city In each case, in the language Of the ARCHAEOLOGICAL
list, st lis pure and wholesome and compares favorably with
water anywhere in the country, and is incapable of causing dis
ease. This much cannot be said of the average wells of Omaha.
and when it is possible l condemn them, having condemned fifteen
wells in the past year. -Four of the latter were furnishing water
for four of the largest office buildings of the city, claiming econ
omy as the reason
The water that the company now furnishes is the same it fur
nlouCu " 1OOf dhuL III oduc Iudb II HdS all dlOu& Dc6n IulSuL
At times there is discoloration and it must necessarily be so, and
even if that could be prevented, it would be at a cost for the en-
largement of the plant, which the company is under no duty to
make and could not be expected to, as the city on the first of July
will owe the company about $550O00 for hydrant rentals, includ-
ing interest, and it is unnecessary to say to any person of inteli-
gence that with this large sum of money owing to the company it
is not in q position to make any expensive improvements. The
water board In 1906 might have accepted the offer made them by
the board of directors and allowed another main to be laid from
Florence to the city, instead of ignoring the offer altogether, but
preferred, for its own purposes, to let the matter drift, to the
injury of the city.
In March, 1909, in accordance with my instructions to Mr..
Fairfield, to have the water analysed by the very best experts in
the country, samples of the water taken from the intake at Flor
ence and Burt street and from the basins were sent to Professor
Smith, of the Beoit Sanitary Laboratory, who is understood to be
an unsurpassed specialist in this kind of work, and | publish here
with his conclusions and analysis;
Beloit Sanitary Laboratory,
Beloit, Wis, March 80, 1909.
E. NJ. Fairfield, Gen. Mgr.
Omaha Water Company, Omaha, Neb.
Dear SIR
l am in receipt of yours of the Goth inst. and by express yes
terday the two samples of water which l have today completed
the analysis of. The details of the examinations you will find on
the sheet hereto attached which l used instead of the separate
sheets, so you could easily see the differences.
The samples as received were Opaque from the suspended
matters, so that after some study of them | concluded to make two
separate analysis, one to show the actual condition of the water as
received and the other the quality after thorough removal of all
sediment. In order to do this, each sample was filtered through
a heavy quadruple paper which was washed as clean as possible.