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
Health officer

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 objection 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 rub bish 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:

Dear Sir-At the request of J. T. Lockwood, of the White Plains water works company, you are directed to visit White Plains some time convenient to you, before Friday of this week,

for the purpose of examining a newly constructed dam to be used in connection with the water supply of the village of White Plains.

Your bill for services and expenses will be paid by the water works company. Upon your arrival at White Plains, Mr. Lockwood will conduct you to the works.

A meeting of the State Board of Health will be held at the Imperial hotel, New York city, on Thursday, the 20th instant, at 1.30 o'clock, which you may wish to attend.

Very respectfully

BAXTER T. SMELZER

Secretary

UTICA, September 27, 1900

Hon. B. T. SMELZER, Secretary State Board of Health:

Sir-Pursuant to your directions, I visited White Plains, N. Y., September 24th inst., for the purpose of inspecting the new reservoir now being built by the water commissioners of White Plains, the inspection by a representative of the State Board of Health being requested by J. T. Lockwood, secretary of the water

commissioners.

The members of the board, including John M. Digney, president; J. T. Lockwood, secretary; John P. Moran and F. C. Schirmer, with the engineer, John M. Farley, and the counsel, H. T. Dykman, accompanied me in the inspection of the reservoir and the water works plant. They explained the situation of things. Later, with the engineer, Mr. Farley, I looked over the plans and maps pertaining to the reservoir and he furnished me a copy of a map which showed the relation of the reservoir and the water works plant. It accompanies this report.

In 1886 a private company built the system of water works now in use. They selected, as the source of supply, the water obtained by sinking a series of wells on an area of level land some 23 acres in extent, located in the extreme suburbs of the village. The company built a stand pipe, a pumping plant and a distributing system. Eight or 10 years later the village determined

it should control its own water supply. A provision of the stat ute required that if White Plains desired municipal ownership of its water supply the vested rights and property of the company then furnishing the town with water must be purchased. Hence, in 1896, the water commissioners, on behalf of the village of White Plains, began proceedings to condemn the plant of the water company. An award was made and under it the commission took possession of the plant and operated it. The water company contested the award, the amount of compensation being unsatisfactory. It is still in litigation. The village has spent a lot of money in this legal contest, and it has brought out very full information as to the rainfall, the watershed area apparently supplying the wells, the character of subsoil through which the water filters into the wells, the amount of water they may be relied upon to furnish and its quality.

The quality of water has always been satisfactory. To maintain it in this condition the board of water commissioners have shown a degree of care that is unusually keen and comprehensive. Where the source of the water supply of the municipalities of our state is a natural body of water, the authorities generally stop in their efforts at absolute control of the watershed at the purchase of a strip of land adjoining or surrounding the lake. But the White Plains commissioners have taken steps to purchase outright the entire watershed above the reservoir dam, the purchase being complete in the case of nine parcels of real estate and condemnation proceedings under way in the remaining 46 parcels.

The 22 acres of level land in which the several wells are sunk has a surface drainage area of 700 acres. Tompkins brook, a small stream, is its main feeder. The topography of the watershed of this brook is hilly, with considerable woodland, quite uninhabited, and the ground is rock, sand and gravel,

The continual pumping reduced the supply of ground water to such an extent that the water commission determined to increase it. Being in possession of a plant already installed and in oper

ation furnishing a supply of filtered water satisfactory in quality and sufficient in quantity for nearly the whole year, the commission wisely chose the plan of augmenting the supply by building a reservoir on the same Tompkins brook, the flow from which produces the present supply, and storing in it the water which in winter and spring is in excess of the capacity of the ground water basin to hold. It flows to waste.

The plan adopted, and put under contract in 1899, comprised the building of a dam of Portland cement concrete faced with granite ashlar both front and back, with suitable gate house and a 16-inch pipe line leading from it to the filtering well which now supplies much of the water for the suction well as now in use, or the water can be discharged onto the surface of the basin and filter through its subsoil into the filter wells.

The lawsuit mentioned disclosed the facts,' by the testimony of experts, that the watershed above the basin, some 700 acres, based on its topography and the rainfall of 46 inches per year, should yield 700,000 to 800,000 gallons per day, that might be pumped from the filtering wells. They actually pump now about 600,000 gallons. The balance of the rainfall, 1,600,000 to 1,700,000 gallons per day provides for the evaporation, vegetation and run-off or waste.

Half of the basin watershed is above the reservoir, the capacity of which is about 100,000,000 gallons. If the run-off or waste be allowed at the low rate of two-tenths of a cubic foot per second per square mile of watershed, this reservoir would fill during the year.

The

The project of building this reservoir seems a wise move. masonry is very well built and all precautions that experience suggests have been taken to make the walls tight, strong and safe.

The area of 14 acres above the dam, to be flowed, has been partially grubbed and cleared. At the time of my visit it was almost covered with weeds and grass. The central portion of less than one acre is swampy and is overlaid with muck of varying depth.