MUNICIPAL WATERWORKS
Municipal Waterworks [From Public Ownership] EXPERIENCE is said to be the best teacher. The history and experience of American municipalities for the the last 138 years has proven conclusively...
...3. PnWic Comfort and Convenience...
...WATER softening is perhaps the most important of these treatments...
...And here are some of the reasons why: 1. PHblic Health...
...But...
...Water for the individual and for the community should be pure, soft, free from unpleasant taste, odors, color and sediment...
...Long experience has proven that private enterprise cannot be depended upon to supply such service—it costs too much and cuts in too heavily upon their private profit...
...Every housewife knows the great advantage and convenience of soft water...
...Here, again, experience has proven that private enterprise fails to supply the needed service...
...Such service is certain to be more and more In demand until it becomes universal...
...Industries will not build factories where there is inadequate fire protection and insurance companies charge higher rates where such protection is lacking...
...Disastrous fires oc-curing in many of our cities in earlier years were one of the chief causes of the trend to municipal ownership...
...The same may be said of equipment for sedimentation, aeri-ation and other processes to make the water supply more palatable and acceptable...
...Some is soft, some hard, some is roily, some has an unpleasant taste or odor...
...The most recent development that calls for an adequate water supply in order to give the community the greatest comfort of all is air conditioning and cooling...
...The protection of homes, factories and plants as well as the lives of the people requires a very high standard of fire protection at all times...
...Statistics for 78 of our principal cities shows that deaths from typhoid have been reduced to one-twenthieth of the rate 25 years ago — from 20.54 per 100.000 of population in 1910 to .94 in 1936...
...The danger of typhoid epidemics from impure water supplies has been almost completely wiped out by municipal systems...
...Sprinkling and, in some cities and sections, irrigation may also be mentioned as public needs and comforts that are most likely to be supplied adequately by municipally owned projects...
...Where any or all of these conditions prevail it is necessary to "treat" the water in one way or another to make it acceptable...
...Municipally owned systems are chiefly responsible for this re-V.arkable showing...
...Such water is seldom found in natural sources...
...Hard" water makes washing difficult and requires great quantities of soap...
...So that any city that hopes to attract industries should plan to provide a soft water supply...
...This requires large quantities of water which can best be assured through municipal ownership...
...The installation o: a water softening plant by the city of Springfield resulted in an estimated saving of $60,000 a year—nearly $1 per capita...
...in addition to the inconvenience of hard water in domestic uses, hard water is bad for certain commercial uses such as hotels, etc., clogs hot water heaters, injures boilers and otherwise seriously cripples industrial processes...
...2. Public Safety...
...The history and experience of American municipalities for the the last 138 years has proven conclusively that municipal ownership in the field of waterworks is best...
...Practically all of our modern water softening installations have been made in municipally owned plants...
Vol. 10 • March 1940 • No. 13
