MUD IN THE SUPPLY
DUE TO LOW WATER.
LITTLE HOPE FOR RELIEF UN-
DER PRESENT CONDITIONS.
River Stage Drops Five Feet -- Slush
Ice Adds to Trouble -- Filter
Plant Badly Needed at
Quindaro Station.
"Good morning. Have you taken your mud bath?" were the greetings received yesterday by W. G. Goodwin, general superintendent of water works, from consumers who had been compelled to take their morning dips in a coating of mud and drink a muddy mixture at their tables and in their coffee.
"Yes," good-naturedly responded Goodwin, "I've been there and I expect to be repeating it so long as the river remains low and the pumps bring forth as much mud as water. The stage of the river at Quindaro station is four or five feet below the level recorded some days ago and the water is running with slush ice and also all kinds and assortments of debris.
"I do not look for clear water until conditions change, and there is some cessation in the consumption. In addition to keeping the pumps busy for days, delivering water at the rate of 39,000,000 gallons for twenty-four hours, to meet the demands, we were called upon to do the neighborly act for Kansas City, Kas., and make up a deficit in its ordinary supply.
"This meant an additional 3,000,000 gallons a day to our burden of production, and as a consequence the water had to be forced into the distributing pipes to the consumer from the river, without having time to have the solids precipitated by the customary treatment of lime and alum.
FILTERING PLANT NEEDED.
"But the condition of the water is no worse than it always has been when the river is low, and after a heavy snow storm. and what is more, I do not believe consumers will ever see much change in times like these unless the city installs a filtering plant."
Mr. Goodwin found it necessary yesterday as a source of protection to the water supply, to shut off the 3,000,000 gallons a day that Kansas City, Kas., has been getting.
"Superintendent Riley, of the Kansas City, Kas., plant told me that they could get along without our assistance, as he has about completed arrangements to have his own plant furnish all the water that is needed," said Mr. Goodwin.
