present the same to the board of health of Fort Plain, that they may take the necessary steps to ensure a pure water supply. SCHENECTADY, N. Y., June 30, 1900 P. E. FARNUM, President Port Jervis water company, Port Jervis, N. Y.: Dear Sir-I beg to report that agreeable to your request and to the instructions from the secretary of the State Board of Health, I have examined the site of the proposed new reservoir selected by your company for the storage of an additional water supply, with reference to the means to be taken to render the reservoir suitable as to potability and purity of the water stored. My examination was made on April 21st of the present year shortly after the spring run-off of melted snow and spring rains had occurred, in fact while there still remained some frost in the wetter portions. The location in question is some four miles from the village of Port Jervis, in a northwesterly direction, and at an altitude of some 600 feet above the general level of the land in the village. The drainage area tributary to the reservoir was stated to me by your engineer, Irving Righter, to be about five square miles. The acreage proposed to be covered by the reservoir, if built at the higher of the two flow-lines considered, is about 75 acres. With this flow-line the greatest depth of water when full will be 30 feet. One-half of the reservoir area will have between 20 and 25 feet depth and one-quarter will have between 15 and 20 feet depth. The average slope of the ground at the flow-line will be from 1:6 to 1:8, so that each foot in depth which the water recedes below the flow-line a strip of bottom area from six feet to eight feet in width all around the reservoir will be exposed. The soil covering the reservoir site is a rather stiff clay forming a yellow loam where it has been longest culti vated. In the bottom and along the axis of the stream the clay is a close blue clay with a very shallow black loam covering it. At the eastern and southeastern sides of the reservoir site, where the land has not been cultivated and is still in either timber or brush, the top soil for from two to 10 inches in depth is a black wood muck. The water which I saw in the stream flowing through this reservoir site was very clear, but had a strong brownish-green color. As there had been a rain a day or so, and as some timber and brush had been cut on the drainage area during the past year, it is not improbable that the color of the water originated in the decaying vegetation incident to the cutting. Concerning the steps to be taken to prevent the water from being colored and enriched with organic matter from the humus in the soil, the effort should be made to remove as much of this humus as possible before the reservoir is filled. On the timber and brush portions above referred to the only sufficient means will be the entire removal of the black muck wherever it is found by scraping and hauling to a considerable distance above the flow-line. On this portion also the roots, stumps and logs, as well as the brush, should be either burned or hauled outside the flow-line. Stumps which are below the lowest probable draught line may safely be left, as they will not decay materially. I have already recommended to you while at Port Jervis that the entire reservoir site which can be cultivated should be sown with a crop of grain of the variety that will most strongly deplete the soil of its humus. Probably buckwheat or drilled corn would be the most effective grain available, and its value would more than pay the cost of the work. After the crop is removed the entire area which can be reached with plows should be deeply subsoiled in order that the richer part of the loam shall be turned under and covered as deeply as possible with a covering of clay from the subsoil. Before this subsoiling is done the top soil, or at least the upper and richer layers of it, should be stripped off and removed above the flow-line by scrapers for an area covering a strip all around the reservoir reaching from a few feet above the flow-line to a distance below that line as low as the water will probably be drawn down. The subsoiling will then leave this strip, which is the most important part of the reservoir bottom, fairly well protected. If the measures here recommended appear to be rather extensive, it may be said that they are even less radical than are sometimes stipulated, and their object is solely to obviate the very common trouble experienced with earth reservoirs, viz., the development of vegetable life in the water and on the bottom of the reservoir to an extent that disagreeable odors and even tastes are produced which often render the water extremely disagreeable at certain periods of the summer season. The source of the odors and tastes is also partly animal life of a low order, whose existence is encouraged and made possible, the same as the vegetable life, by the organic matter which the water dissolves out of the old soil. I am, dear sir, very truly yours AMENIA Water supply OLIN H. LANDRETH AMENIA, N. Y., July 10, 1900 B. T. SMELZER, Secretary State Board of Health: Dear Sir-At the request of our local water company I write asking you to send to Amenia an engineer to decide upon the location of a pumping station, the water company to pay the expenses of same. The question is simply one of sanitation, and the company is desirous of meeting all desirable requirements. An early reply will greatly oblige the water company as well as our local health authorities. Very truly L. E. ROCKWELL AMSTERDAM, N. Y., July 23, 1900 B. T. SMELZER, Secretary State Board of Health, Albany, N. Y.: Dear Sir-Permit me to formally report in writing the result of my visit to Amenia regarding the selection of an additional water supply to that now furnished by the Amenia water company. I find these facts: The water company takes its supply from an impounding reservoir on the hills southwest of the village. The quality is very good, but the supply is affected by dry weather of summer to such an extent that the company must quickly find more water. Amenia lies in a valley fairly broad and flanked with high hills on the east and southwest. The stream draining the water shed flows southerly, and at this point is a mere brook. I am informed the brook never runs dry, there being several perennial springs maintaining small feeders to the brook above the village. Two of the water company's plans are to sink wells by the side of the streams: first, near the main stream as it runs through the village; second, near one of the small tributaries on the outskirts of the village. I am of the opinion that either of these plans would provide a source of good, potable water. An objec tion to the second plan, however, is that its course runs contiguous to the village cemetery. I think the objection is one of sentiment, chiefly, as the stream appears to be further away from the cemetery than the limits for contaminating things defined in the rules and regulations for protecting various public water supplies made by the State Board of Health. A third proposal of the water company, however, avoids any of these features of possible contamination. On the level ground of the valley within the village limits is a brickyard. The whole flat is said to be underlaid with brick clay beginning just below the surface mould and extending down for 25 feet or more. Underneath is a water-bearing gravel. In the operations of the brickyard a pit had been dug some 60 to 100 feet in diameter and with almost vertical side slopes, 25 feet deep. The excavation for clay had reached the water-bearing strata, when the bottom broke through and the pit filled to the brim despite the efforts of steam pumps to empty it. The pit is now a pond of pure, wholesome water, without any surface water running into it and no other sources of contamination that cannot be easily controlled. The water company proposes to place a steam pump near this pond, connect it with a main nearby and pump directly into the distributing system. I concur with the selection of this third method as a satisfactory means of keeping up the supply during the summer months. The water company should make arrangements with the brickyard people to permit the proper enclosing or fencing of the pond to keep away bathers and lessen the opportunities of casting rubbish into it. Very respectfully C. W. ADAMS Consulting engineer State Board of Health WHITE PLAINS Water supply ALBANY, September 17, 1900 Hon. C. W. ADAMS, Consulting engineer State Board of Health: |