The Coconino sun., 1927-04-15
FACTS ABOUT FLAGSTAFFvS
WATER SYSTEM
Address by City Engineer Frank Goodman
at Flagstaff Rotary Club on April 5

Flagstaff's water system has sew
eral outstanding features not found
elsewhere in the United States. And
it has only been during our water
shortage, at intervals during the past
couple of years that / have learned
that so few of our people know very
much about the system.
Flagstaff has the largest per capita
storage of any city in the United
States.
Our water, where it enters the pipe
line, is the coldest, having a ternpefa-
ture of 38 degrees, just six above
freezing.
It is the purest, 1898 per cent, and
the fall from the collection sump to
the reservoirs, over 1000 feet, is be-
ieved to be the greatest. rt
TO those of you who have not in
spected our weir and meter houses, it
may be of interest to know something
Of the records the city keeps Of the
water supply and consumption.
You all know how our supply is
collected at the headworks. You
know how the pipes run from the dif-
ferent springs to the collection sunap
at the Jack Smith cabin, and how the
water is carried through the new con-
crete line to the weir house just above
the reservoirs.
In the little concrete weir house are
constructed walls and chambers so
that the velocity of the water coming
out Of the pipe can be reduced before
the water passes over the measuring
device called the weir. The weir con-
sists of notch or ssV'' cut in a piece
of iron, the notch being a 80 degree
angle. The piece of iron is set in the
concrete wall. Toone side Of the weir
and on the approach side is the float
| chamber, so constructed that a part
| of the water flows through it and
maintains the same level as the main
body. In this float chamber is placed
d metal float which is adjusted to a
| clockWork mechanism above the floor,
so that when the water in the float
chamber is level with the bottom ,,f
the weir, the pencil on the recording
machine will read exactly zero. Then,
as the water raises or lowers over the
/ weir the pencil records the amount On
| the chart, which is operated by d
seven-day clock. These charts al'e
printed to an accurate scale both fer
| time and elevation, and are marked
! for each two-hundredths Of foot and
to noon, Saturday to Saturday Our
charts are changed each Saturday
morning at nine o'clock.
! A daily record is also kept of the
/ depths of the reservoirs with the con-
tents of each.
4 After the water reaches the reseT-
voirs that doesn't end the records, for
/ master meter has been installed Oh
the flow line to the city. This gives
/ the hourly consumption Of water
passing that point. This master met
! er Is a, very important part Of the
operation OF the system, for it gives Il
! check against the individual meters
of the whole system and also would
serve to check against any possible
leaks In the flow line between the resi-
ervoirs and the meter.
Along about the 18th of February,
as most Of you know, our water situa-
| tion looked very bad, so it was del
1 cided to dig trenches in the snow
along the bottom of several Of the
canyons leading into Schulz canyon
! We took 10 men and dug over twel
| miles of these trenches and in a few
days the snow began to melt and hes
been melting ever since. Practically
all Of the water we have been receiv-
ing has come from the south slopes
of the mountain and out Of Schulz
canyon.
The old reservoir was full Sunday
morning, March 9th, and at noon the
same day the flow was turned into
| the new reservoir.
/ Today, we had ~ feet On Al 400, 900
gallons in the old, and "a feet or A.
250, 900 gallons in the new reservoir,
i And by Thursday noon, next, we ex-
pect to have the new one full, when
/ the flow will be turned back into the
old one again, until it is full. This
will give US storage Of 100 million
gallons.
We have a vast amount of snow in
the inner basin at the springs, which