New Britain herald., 1924-07-10
HATCH DESCRIBES WATER DEPT. NEEDS
Tells ROtarlans OI Expansions
 That Must Be Carried Out

Plans for enIarging ihs shu'lIe
 Meadow reservoir and the discovery
 Of leaks in the water system through
 out the city were included in an inr | teresting address on the New Britain
 water system hy W, L. Hatch, chair
 man of the vster board al The rsgu- lar meeting of the Rotary club today
 Afr, HaieAs address was as fol-
 lows
 "I |iaNe heen asked 10 give you some Idea Of the problems that the water department is up against in the handling of rhe water works,
 "There is no one article Of food or drink as necessary 10 human existence as water, Without water Tn consider able quantities the digestive juices are not seereted in sufficient quantities, Large quantities Of water may be tak- sn with meals with no harmful ef- fleets, Drinking water also allays the pain Of hunger and in all eases VIC can better go without food than wa- ter. Tn all this water is just water, eral. No material difference results, unless the water is distasteful or cons tains some contamination.
 Tt Is the endeayor Of the water department to provide for the city Of New Britain a sufficient supply Of pure water and to so guard the sources of supply that fl shall be at all times free from contamination, and agreeable to the taste,
 Not only must we provide for years of natural rainfall but for succession Of dry years. In order to be assured that the water Is safe 10 drink VIC have in the past had it an- alyzed at frequent intervals. and have recently arranged with the city board of health to analyze specimens each day so that fl any contamination should enter the supply we may know of 1t at once. This practice seldom prevails in the smaller cities, but is universal in the large places, in fact, is in force in Hartford. Springfield and New Haven. and our board feels that no reasonable effort to fully protect the health of the community should be neglected. For this reason a DOT ton of the supply is being treated with chlorine and it Is the expecta- ton that in time a sand filter will be constructed so that all of the water can be filtered as is now being done very generally.
 Our water supply of New Britain is and has always been of excellent quality and of sufficient quantity to supply the population of the city, ex cept possibly in the event of suc- cession of two or three very dry years. | For several years the board has seen | the necessity of adding to our supply | in order to provide for the growth of the city Surveys have been made | and tentative plans prepared for the | works that will add very consider able amount to the supply.
 Wells At Whites Bridge
 "Something over four years ago, | New Britain was faced with the neces- sity of promptly increasing its water supply. Allen Hazen was appointed our consulting engineer at that time, and was asked to advise the water department as to the best course to pursue. Owing to the fact that 1t was to store large quantities of water at Whigville, it was finally de- tern1ined to consider the boring of wells near Whites Bridge with the idea of utilizing as much water in this area as possible, by means Of wells and a pumping station to pump water into a pipe leading from the Whigville reservoir, the Shuttle Mea- dow reservoir, the high service reser- voir and the city distribution system. Conditions seemed to be favorable for a ground water supply at this point. There were brooks on each side of this site, and borings indicated clean white coarse grained sand and gravel of kind that would yield freely to proper wells.
 "One of the most serious difficulties in getting ground water supplies, is that the sand from which the water must be taken is too fine. The fric- ion of the water in passing through fine sand to the wells is too great, and he water comes too slowly. The bor- ngs showed this sand to be admir- ,bly adapted to yield water. This was he character of the soil for 30 to 40