Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1913-04-25
PLANS Of SUMMIT
LAKE WATER PLANT
OFFERED BY MAYOR
Municipality Owned Gravity Sys.
tenn Urged by hoffman in Mes
sage to Council.
PROPOSES $4,000 BONDS
IS Per Cent. of Water Users Con.
tract to Purchase From City,
Is Statement.

chlef executive of the city, were pre-
scented 10 an informal meeting of the
| city council in the city engineers Of
flee Wednesday night. in the form of a
message urging the establishment of
a municipality owned water system, the
message expressing a preference for a
gravity over a pumping system.
No action was taken by the council
| further than a general discussion of the
project, and it is possible that an indie.
pendent investigation may be con-
Quoted by that body. The mayors mes
sage in part says:
pursuant to my promise to the peo-
pie of Olympia and yourselves, l have.
] with the assistance of the city engi-
neer since becoming connected with
the city government, endeavored to as
certain all about the water system in
connection with municipal control and
ownership, and have, with that end in
view, divided the whole project into
two distinct divisions-first, a pump
ing plant; second, gravity plant.
"The pumping plant will be cheaper
to build, but will mean an overhead ex-
pense of $4,000 to $4,000 a year greater
than gravity plant. The site for a
reservoir for the pumping plant has
been secured under option, and also the
land for pumping station, and both
can be had for a very moderate price
in the event the council decides on
pumping proposition. The cost of a
pumping plant, reservoir, pumping ma
chinery and pipe lines and all figures
approximately $115,O00, ready to sup.
ply the people with water The gray.
ity water supply system will be more
expensive to install, but once 1t is
built, 1t will maintain itself almost,
there being no fixed overhead charges
outside of little ordinary repair oc-
casionally.
"The only place within q distance of
30 miles where an adequate water sup.
ply of pure water can be had suitable
for gravity system is Summit lake,
Thurston county, Washington. This
lake is the natural center of a water.
shed sufficiently large to furnish wa
ter for city of $4,000 people-eleva.
ton of lake Is $50 feet above city da-
tum. One cubic foot of the surface
~ hA lob ,{ch
gallons every "a hours for four months.
The lake is Is feet deep on the average
and is surrounded on three sides by
hills and mountains 200 to 800 feet
high above the lake. The only outlet
from the lake is by way of overflow
(artificially cut) outlet to the west by
way of Kennedy creek There are two
routes by which we can tap Summit
lake. Route l is by way of Kennedy
creek, which makes wide detour
around the mountains and empties in
to Totten inlet or Oyster bay. This
route shows by actual survey to be 1879
miles long.
"The other route is by way of O.
640-foot-long tunnel by way of Schneid-
er's Prairie creek. This route is only
1913 miles long. The right of way
will cost the city nothing. All proper
ty owners with one exception have al
ready expressed their willingness to
give the city the right to lay its pipe
line, and the county has promised to
let us use the county road free of
charge for this purpose. The reser-
voir site will be $50 feet above the
bench mark at Fourth and Main
streets, situate between here and Mud
bay, and will cost the city, together
with necessary right of way, only $500,
or the city can have the whole 100
acres of which the reservoir is part for
$4,000.
"By way of tunnel route we can sup
ply the city with 100000 gallons Of
water, which will give each man, wom-
an and child in the whole city over 200
gallons a day consumption, and reach
the distribution center, corner Fourth
and Main streets. city, everything COM
plete, for $99,670. Approximately ST.
900 could be deducted from this
amount by substituting Pinch pipe
for 14-inch pipe. upon which latter size
all calculations are based.
by way of Kennedy creek we sup
ply the same amount of water for the
sum of $95,726, as shown by the city
engineers report and estimate. The
quality Of the water has been pro-
nounced by the best bacteriologist of
the state Of Washington, from samples
submitted to him out of different parts
Of the lake, as absolutely pure.
1.-THE borrowing capacity of the city
of Olympia, based on the last official as
sessment Is a little over $4,000, and