The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-09-12
NEW YORK ID DRINK
 CATSK|LL WATERS Greatest Engineering Enter
 prise Ever Undertaken AT COST OF S162,OOO,OOO Present croton Supply Gives New York City sse,ooo,ooo Gallons
 DalIy-New catskiII Supply
 Means 5oo,ooo,ooo a Day.
From the Century Magazine.

From the Century Magazine.
 Catskill mountain water, gathered from brooks that have been fed by melting snows and copious rains, and have tum- bled over rocky slopes into the streams of the mountain valleys, will in few years be served to the inhabitants of New York city The project ranks as the greatest municipal water supply enterprise ever undertaken, and as an engineering work is probably second only to the Panama canal The need of the water is much greater than is realized by a majority of the citizens or by the guardians of their interests.
 Nothing can so quickly and completely disorganize the complex activities of modern community as a shortage of suit able water; no single agency can so rap idly spread disease and death as a pollut- ed water supply. For several years New York has been using more water than it's sources of supply can safely be depended upon to furnish in a series of dry years, such as have occurred within the memory of men who have scarcely reached mid dle age. Continuing years of abundant TalIIdu nave udSkoQ lH6 udIlBeT tO WHlGH engineers have repeatedly called atten- ton.
 In 1905 as the result of a movement promoted by civic bodies in the days of Mayor Van Wyck and Mayor Low, bill was introduced into the legislature, on the initiative of Mayor Mcclellan, which, be- coming a law, enabled the city to start new systems of water supply that, with ha al 6u iCftr ant ,nrtru should ultimately give New York the best and largest water supply ever known
 As thousands of water-wise Ameri- cans know, New York city Cold New York') has used Croton river water for more than two generations. Simi- larly from the Ridgewood system of wells, streams and reservoirs, Brook lyn has drawn it's supply, often scanty. Approximately five hundred million gal Ions of water are consumed by the metropolis every day, a stream which would flow hip deep between the build ings in Fifth avenues fashionable sh coping district at comfortable walking pace. For every man, woman and child this allows a daily average of 125 gallons. Or. to put it still an other way, for all domestic. manufac- turing and public purposes New York uses every day water which weighs bout eight times as much as It's popu- lation.
 Compared with the 1So, 14O, 200. 22O and S20 gallons used every day for every person In several large American cities, New York's allowance Is mod crate, especially when one recalls the character of business and the meth ods of living which prevail in the metrop- oils. Liberal, even lavish, domestic use of water Is not waste. The very neces- sities of life demand that there sh ould be maximum supply, in order to pro- vide for the average demand for the individual. The word "waste' should be properly interpreted. It's use in writing about water supply has been unfortunate, for it has been employed both tech nically and popularly to characterize quite different conditions in the economy of water. To let a dozen glassfuls flow from faucet in order to get one cool draft Is nat waste so long as this>is the least expensive way to get one cool draft is not waste so permit water to flow from the faucets through the cold winter nights is not waste, so long as this is the least ex- pensive way to protect one's plumbing fixtures.
 To allow even large volumes of water to spill over the lowest dam of water shed is In no sense waste when the city has already taken from the stream all
 
 occasional discharges of this sort would cost more than to get the same quantity of water, of equal Or better quality, from another stream. Doubtless, some water Is carelessly or wantonly wasted in New York city, but not nearly so much as some persona assume. Waste should be discouraged and curtailed, but waste of water can no more be wholly prevented than the waste of energy and time. But if all the waste which 1t would be req sonably practicable to stop ceased, New York would still require more water works to provide beyond peradventure for present needs and future growth.
 Croton River drains into New Yorks reservoirs the water of s60 square miles of forest and farm, and can safely fur nish about s3e0OO,O00 gallons daily Two aQueducts, one 84 miles long, built in 1S42, and having a daily capacity of Sf000,000 gallons, and the other 32 miles long, built in 1891, and having capacity of 3O9,000,O00 gallons, bring this water to the city. To procure 5o0,00O,0OO gallons of Catskill mountain water daily, over 600 square miles of mountain and meadow will be brought under tribute, several large reser- voirs created, and an aqueduct 92 miles long built, with many miles of conduits within the city limits.
 The extent of these existing and pro- posed works is not readily to be compre- hended, even when reduced to the com mon money measure. For the portion of the Catskill works needed to bring into the city every day unfailingly 500 million gallons an expenditure of $162 100000 is estimated. But these disbursements will be spread over many years. and the bur- den will not fall heavily, except for possi- ble temporary difficulties in raising ready money for construction payments. In- deed. the cost of water for every person will be on the average less than 1 cent per day. Furthermore, these water works, we'll managed, will not only pay interest on the investment and cost of operation. but in a relatively few years will pay the capital cost It is reason able to believe that the works will be as permanent as those of Rome.