Evening star., 1924-06-12

ice December 5, 1863 1t is a circular
brick tunnel. nine feet in diameter,
conveying the water for the entire
city from a dam at Great Falls. a
distance of nine and one-half miles,
to the Dalecarlia reservoir at the
District line. At this point. the water
is allowed to settle, and then con-
tinues to flow two miles further to
the Georgetown reservoir.
The entire supply for the city then
is taken through the Lydecker tunnel
from Georgetown to the filtration
There the water is lifted by pumps, a
distance of twenty-one feet, to the
filter bed.
The water for the downtown sec
ton flows by gravity, directly from
the filtration plant. i. For ths other
flows to distribution reservoirs, from
which it is pumped to the various
neigh ghborhoods.
For a number of years federal and
District oflciAls have been calling at
tention to the need for a second con-
duit, not only to take care of the
growth of the city, but to relieve the
necessity of depending solely upon
one supply line.
Debated in Congress-.
Only a week ago the Senate and
House were celebrating over how
much they should appropriate for
continuing work on the new conduit
during the next twelve months. The
House allowed only $soe,0ee, while
the Senate voted for $4,000, ,0ee. When
the bill went to conference the con-
ferees compromised on $1,000 e00
which was about twice what the
House had allowed, but a million less
than the Senate was willing to give.
With the sudden growth in popula-
ton during and after the war. the
daily consumption of water has in
creased greatly, and for several
years the repair work on the con-
duit has been difficult to carry on be-
Officials familiar with the water
system, however, say that a break in
the conduit IS not nearly SO serious
and is easier to repair than would
be similar accident in the Lydecker
tunnel.
This latter tunnel also has had to
remain in service with practically no
repair work because of the increased
consumption of water and the fact
that it carries the supply to the FL
tration plant.
1t was pointed out today that the
work of mending the conduit is rem
dered easy by the fact that the water
is not under pressure in coming from
Great Falls. but flows by gravity.
More Help Promised.
When the new water supply prof.
ect is completed, the city will no,
have to rely entirely on the existing
filtration plant at 1st street, since the
plan calls for a supplemental filtra-
tion plant near the Dalecarlia reser-
yoir of the District line in the north
west.
1t is the opinion of persons familiar
with the water system that the old
conduit has held up remarkably well
considering its years of steady use
When plans for the old supply line
were being prepared prior to 1860
the population of Washington and
Georgetown was not much more than
$4,000 inhabitants. Today, the popu-
lation is close to the 100000 mark
giving some idea of the extent to
which the engineers looked ahead in
planning the water system
Fur a number of years past, how
ever, the city has been consuming
close to the daily safe capacity of the
conduit. and efforts have been made
both by officials and local organize
tions to have Congress speed up ap-
preparations for completion of the
new project.
When they heard of the accident
today, Joseph Hook, presi dent of the
Arundel Construction Company, the
firm building the new conduit and
his chief engineer. Joseph Hogan,
rushed here Immediately from Phila-
delphia to meet any emergency that
may arise.