Los Angeles herald., 1909-10-22
PASADENA PLANNING
REAL WATER SYSTEM
EXPERT ENGINEER WILL MAKE
REPORT SOON
Los Angeles Man Retained to Tell
Crown City solons What They
OUGHT to Do to Gain
Supply
Especial to The Herald.l

PASADENA, Oct 21.-Mayor Earley
and the city council today fired the
opening gun in the campaign Tor
municipal water supply for Pasadena
In special cession this morning lne
council engaged a Los Angeles con-
sulting engineer, A. Il. SonueIresseE'
at S25 a day to make complete re-
mort on a modern distributing system
and on additional sources of water sup.
ply. Chief Engineer Mulhouand OF
the Owens river aqueduct furnished
the city with approximate costs OF Sc
curing water from the owens river
project, and this also will be taken
into consideration by the mayor and
couneilmen.
The action of the city authorities to-
day is all important in view of the fact
that the men who so strenuously
fought the acquisition of municipal
water when the matter came up for a
vote last year stated that, while they
favored the city owning its water sup
ply, they did not agree on the manner
in which the adherents of municipal
water had gone about the matter'
They suggested a thorough investiga-
tion of water plants and other sources
of supply. and this is the first step
that the mayor is taking in the cam
paign this year.
The meeting this morning was brief
and to the point Mayor Farley eX-
plained that the reason he recommend
ed a Los Angeles engineer to under
take the estimating was because he
desired a disinterested opinion, and
not because there were not engineers
in this city thoroughly capable OF
handling the task.
In his statement to the city council
Mayor Farley said the city needed a
complete system. but that it would
not be necessary to build it all at
once. ''What we want" he said, 'ts
a complete plan to work to, so that as
fast as changes are desirable the plan
may be fulfilled by putting pipes of
the size and the kind selected for the
street. We also wish reservoirs to be
designated, and We want information
as to how the present. plans may be
utilized with satisfactory results until
a new system can be put into opera
ton"
Mayor Farley stated that he had
taken up with Engineer Mulholland
the Owens river project and the pos
sibility of the city obtaining water
from this supply. The cost, as rough
ly estimated by the engineer, would
be about ST. 100000 for constructing a
pipe line that the water would have
to be taken from a point eighteen or
twenty miles in a conduit on an air
lilG 1IOill L doelAlGllci- llllS NOLQulL
would pass through a tunnel three and
a half miles in length, which would
cost about $40 a foot. The fall would
be about $50 feet, and for that the
conduit would have to begin twenty
miles away at point 1850 feet in
height.
Councilman Cattell asked if a per-
manent right to Owens river water
could be purchased, to which the
mayor replied that it could by two
thirds vote of the people of Los An
geles.
The mayor stated that Engineer
Mulholland had stated that in his
opinion the proper thing for the city
to DO was to buy out the present wa
ter systems provided they could be
purchased at a reasonable figure. This
would remove opposition and the city
would also acquire a distributing sys-
TEN. Mayor Farley stated his belief
that the prices asked by the local wa
ter companies was reasonable and that
he would welcome the opinion of the
consulting engineer. He also said that
he hoped for good results, as the en-
gineer selected would be fair and i'm
partial, not having been in any way
mixed up in the squabbles the city
had endured while bringing the water
question up for vote.
Mr. Mulholland will assist Engineer
Sonderregger, and much of the clerical
work will also be done in the office of
the city engineer. 1t is expected that
the time consumed in preparing the
report will be only about ten days
when the work Is once started