Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-09-04
new WATER PLAN
| GETS UNDER WAY
Alum Distributing Device Is
l.. Put Into Commission
l as First Step.
BY WILLIAM j. WHEATLEY.

BY WILLIAM d. NHEATLE4.
Washingtons worries Of the past
over water supplies and possible
water famines, borne Of knowledge
that its more than three-score year
old supply line from Great Falls had
worked continuously without relief.
are nearing an end, as the work of
putting in commission the new part
of its dual system is going on, to be-
gin the service of water to consumers
about September Is.
When the engineers, the chemists,
the laborers. the inspectors and the
examiners, all standing by watching
each part of the great, new plant,
the ma jor portion of which is included
in the new filtration plant at Conduit
road and the District line, give the
word that the best of water, purined
under the most modern methods yet
devised. is ready for service. 1t Will
be turned into the mains. and half OF
the heavy burden which has been
borne for nearly 80 years by the Nc
MILAN Park plant will be lifted, so
will other burdens borne on the shout
ders OF officials responsible for Wash
ington's water supply, who have had
to keep their eyes glued to the con-
sumption meters during the. heavy
drains of Summer months of the past.
Tunneling Through Rock.
But such a big plant, which has
taken years to build, starting In with
tunneling through rock at Great
Falls, where the intakes are, ana
building immense pipe lines, cannot
be put in commission swiftly. IL
means much more than just turning
the wheels which operate the big
YN1Q r1f
commission gradually, and inspec-
tions made at each stage. and the
water finally examined in the dis
tributing reservoirs to see that 1t
carries health and not sickness 10
the hundreds of thousands who VIII
consume it's supply.
First. under the big tower in the
immense brick building at the Dis
trict line, chemists and engineers
examined the alum distributing de-
vice, which drops the alum down
from the tower, which is filled with
it, to the rushing water passing
through the big main under it. Inc
proper feed must be made to insure
that there is enough of the chemical
supplied to catch and throw to the
bottom all of the suspended matter
In the water.
After the water passes under the
tower. 1t rushes and churns violently
in great mixing basins, running a mao
race around the gigantic baffie plates,
which splash it in all directions. That
part was started yesterday. and tnat
which was passing through was started
for the coagulating basins, in the open,
basins that will appear when fiiled IKE
placid lakes. Here the water runs
through slowly, requiring six hours to
~. af
length of another into which Is passes.
During this operation the suspended
matter is gathered up by the globules
of alum and it goes to the bottom by
its own weight.
Holds 100000 Callers.
It required the whole Of yesterday
to fill these basins. which hold Is 600, 600
gallons Of water, and this morning 1t
will 60 into the filters. Two filters
will be placed In commission today, all
filled with new sand and gravel.
There are twehty in the big house and
gradually as the engineers check up
on each to ascertain that they are
functioning. The only time that the
water is exposed to the open air from
the time it passes into the great in
take at Great Falls until it passes out
Of the spigots In the buildings OF the
consumers is when it is passing
through the coagulating basins.
The water viii be run through the
two filters today. 15,000,000 gallons of
1t, and then 1t win pass to the filtered
water reservoir, which occupies the
space under what, will be the lawn Of
the plan, fronting on Conduit road,
when the plan is dressed up, an opera
ton which already has been started
with the laying Of macadam road,
from Conduit road to the filter house.
Each of the 20 filters has a capacity
of 1900, 900 gallons Of water a day
and it will take two days to fill the
filtered water reservoir. If these
operations work out, and it was ap-
parent yesterday that everything was
working smoothly, one of the great
turbine pumps, Of which there are
nine, capable Of forcing water through
the 4S-inch main at $4,000, 900 gallons
q day, will be started and the first
high reservoir at Reservoir and Ridge
roads will be filed
Chemists to Test.
There chemists will take further
samples, to see that it reaches that
point in as pure a state as it left the
filtered water reservoir. The reservoir
dltQ lIlS pipe tlIlG nave UCGH competed
for about a year, and the tests will be
made to ascertain that there is no
pollution along this line or in the
reservoir. If it is found all right,
then the distribution will be started,
but otherwise. it will be flushed back
into the Georgetown reservoir, at
Reservoir road and Conduit road.
When the First High is ready in
every particular, then the Second High
Reservoir, Fourty-fourth and Van
Ness streets also a 100000 gallon
tank, will be filed. and the same pro.
cess followed until the Third High
Reservoir, which is the old Reno
Reservoir, will receive it's supply.
Under the new system the latter
reservoir will supply the consumers
in the general vicinity Of Brightwood
and Takoma Park, but 1t will be near
the end Of the year before these con-
sumers begin to get water from the
new plant. as the pipe line along
Military road now is in course Of con-
struction, and will not be completed
until near the end of October.
When both plants are operating
that is, the Dalecarlia or new plant
at the District line and the old Nc
MILAN plant-the District of Column
bia will have system that will meet
its demands for water for many years
to come, according to the officials, as
1t has been figured that each plant
will only have to work at half its
capacity.