Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1916-08-24
THE WATER SUPPLY.
Report of the Sanitary Condition
Thereof.
Madison, Wis, August IA, 1915.

Madison, Wis, August IA, 1915.
Mayor and Common Council, Mineral
Point, Wis:
Gentlemen-I visited your city on
August 18th for the purpose Of examin-
ing the present water supply, the pro-
posed improvements to it, and to inves-
tigate the question whether it would be
sanitary and safe supply when i'm
proved. In company with your city
officials I visited the site of the present
wells and it's surroundings and also
visited the principal parts Of your city,
to examine into the character and
amount Of the drainage and the dispos-
al of the sewage. I found that one of
the present wells was open at the top,
around the suction pipe at point 6
inches above the bottom of the old
pumping station, and that surface wat
er had run into it. This we'll was
cased to a depth Of possibly AZ #. and
the surface Of the rock was at a depth
of possibly 20 #. This we'll is supposed
to be $50 it. deep, and ten inches in di
ameter and has furnished the supply
for the city for the past 6 years. The
other we'll which had not been used
very much in recent years was origin
ally drilled in the bottom Of an old
stone reservoir which has since been
ic IN
ameter and 139 #. deep. It is cased in
to rock and the casing has been sur
rounded at different times with con-
crete about 20 inches in diameter.
I understand that according TO recent
tests the water supply has shown to be
polluted. This pollution may have
come from the fact that the wells, or at
least one of them, have been open at
the top, or it may be that pollution
from below seeped into the we'll where
the casing enters the rock.
[ note that the geological formations
in your vicinity are the Galena and
Trenton limestones, which out crops in
the ledge east Of the pumping station.
These limestones are underlaid with
St. Peters sandstone from which you
secure your water supply. The St.
Peters sandstone has no definite thick
ness, but varies anywhere from moth
ing to over 800 feet, and in your
vicinity probably has thickness of 300
feet. It's surface is also somewhat.
irregular as on the West side of the
valley in which the Railroad is located,
this stone out crops some 20 tt. above
the level of the valley, whereas on the
east side where the pumping station is
located it is not even seen in the bottom
of the old quarry.
[ learned from my inspection about
the city that the sewage of the city is
disposed of by means of cess pools and
other sanitary appliances which dis
charge into old mining shafts, drifts,
old wells and crevices in the rock. It
seems to have been the practice to dig
down into the ground until large
crevice is found, and then connect the
sewer with this crevice and if it did not
prove Of sufficient capacity, later on
another crevice was found. This
practice evidently has been going on
for good many years so that the
underground strata has become grossly
polluted.
This opinion is somewhat borne out
by the fact that the small streams flow
ing down couple of small valleys,
shows evidences of pollution. Also the
the Government spring appears to me
to be polluted, and the water in the
Jerusalem we'll tastes to me as though
it was polluted. On the east side Of
the valley there are not as many
evidences of pollution Of the under
ground strata as on the West side, but
| did notice that the city quarry which
has been abondoned is grossly polluted
on the surface of the bed rock and that
there are many crevices into which this
pollution could readily be carried dur
ing heavy rain. Also the pit Of the
cooling tower directly east of the city
pumping station, if not water tight,
could easily pollute the underground
water, as the water is used over and
over again and must become more or
less polluted.
| notice that although there must be
large volumes of polluted water dis
charged into the rock every day from
the plumbing in the city, there is not
a great deal of evidence on the sur
face, of the water flowing into the
creek from this source, therefore it
must soak into rock and disappear I'M
it is doubtful if much of
this pollution gets into the sandstone,