Bonners Ferry herald. [volume] (Bonners Ferry, Idaho) 1904-current, 1916-11-28
PURE WATER PUTS
TYPHOID TO ROUT
Cities Which Have Improved
Their Supply Have Reduced
Death Rate.
Big SUMS ARE Being SPENT
More Than a Billion Dollars Now In
vested In Plants Owned by
Larger Cities, Says Uncle
Sam.

That the people of the United States
are spending larger sums every year
to obtain a pure water supply and that
the obtaining of such supply by the
operation of publication plants is con-
quering typhoid fever in the larger |
cities of the country are among the in
teresting facts brought out by Uncle |
Sam in a recent bulletin.
The bulletin also shows that a great |
majority of the larger cities of the
country now own their own water
supply systems. OF the 204 cities hav-
ing more than 10000 inhabitants in
the fiscal year 1914-15, 1855, or 76 per
cent, owned their water systems. Sew
enty-three of these cities were operat-
ing publication plants in that year
and of this number 81 had either built
or improved and enlarged their plants
since 1903.
During this same period" contin-
ues the bulletin, "there has been
throughout the country a remarkable
decrease in the death rate due to ty-
phoid fever. Although this decrease
has taken place in both urban and
rural localities, it is noteworthy that
in most of the large cities which have
recently built or improved and en-
larged their publication plants the de-
cline has been greater-in some cases
very much greater-than the average
decline elsewhere. For example, in
Cleveland the typhoid death rate fell
from Ill per 100000 population in
1903 to 81 in 1914; in Philadelphia,
from 1928 to 49, in Pittsburgh from
1927 to Is; in Cincinnati, from 42.2
to 81; in Chicago, from 32.5 to 6.6;
in st. Louis, from 52.6 to II; in Wash
ington, from 4S.5 to 11.9; in Minneap-
oils, from AL to 1875, and in New
York, from III to SO.
Filtration Dates Back to 1929.
'The history of the publication of
water for public use dates from 1929,
when some filter beds were used in
connection with the water supply of
London, England; but the discovery
that slow sand filtration not only re-
moved inorganic matter, turbidity,
color, state, odor, etc.-acting merely
as a strainer-but also removed near
ly all the bacteria, was not made until
about sixty years later.
1.-THE first publication plant con.
structed in the United States was put
in operation in Washington, d. c., in
1853. This was of the Sediments
ton" type, which depends upon the
force of gravity to carry down anC
| he -sI&
plants were installed in Louisville
KY, in 1879; Council Bluffs, Ia. il
= 1888; Dallas, Tex, in 1889, and Omaha
Neb., and Oshkosh, Wis., in 1890.
"In 1900 a plant for the publication
of water by chemical sterilization wa.
built at Mobile, Ala. This process con
sists in the addition to the water O.
various chemicals which either kill tn,
bacteria or make it possible to remov,
them by subsistence or filtration. From
1905 to 1914, inclusive, chemical ster
ilization plants were built in 40 othe
cities of over 10000, and at presen
time more than half of the municipal
ly owned water-supply systems havin
publication plants are using this meth
4 ton with one or more of the othe
B processes.
s "Of the 70 cities employing purifica
8 ton systems, 60 obtain their waite
supply, wholly or in part. from river
q and other streams, IL from lakes, an
q one-I.incOln, Neb.-from wells.
Cost of Wster-SuppIy Plants.
q taTho err-oxui N colfoft11da For. tho mi
} ity and adequacy of the water suppl
is further indicated by the very col
siderable increase which has take
place during recent years in til
a amount invested In municipal waite
d supply plants. The total capital il
vested in these plants in 1904, in III
105 cities of over 10000 which owne
Up either wholly or in part, and operate
er their water systems, and for whiC
Is data are available, was in round nun
ne bers, $513,000,000, representing a p'
o. capita investment of approximate
es 500. In the fiscal year 1914-15 Il
number of such cities owning the
plants had increased to 1876, the tot
investment to SLOT, 100000, and Il
1T per capita investment to approximat
IT. ly $3S. The increase in the per CAPT
he investment during the IL years thu
ne amounted to 81 per cent.
ng "While 1t is, of course, quite fri
'p- that an adequate supply of pure wat
vi can be provided for one city at a f
MT less per capita cost than for anothe
Ter by reason of differences in the co
nd struction problems involved or in Il
At nature of the sources from which Il
ne water Is obtained. the fact of priu
lie significance brought out by the repo
- is that an efficient system is now I
garded by most cities as an econom
necessity and hence is acquired, I
CARELESS of the cost"