An Iron Range Water System: Chisholm

Abstract

In order to deal as concretely as possible with the problems to be solved in connection with the production and sale of pure water, it may be of value to indicate briefly some of the difficulties encountered in the development of the plant at Chisholm. Chisholm is situated on the west shore of Longyear Lake and has a population of 9000 people. The water works are municipally owned and operated and are governed by a Board of Commissioners. When the author took charge of the water works and filtration plant as superintendent thirteen years ago, the condition of the plant was deplorable. The equipment consisted of a Wofthington 600-gallonper-minute fire pump, a wooden elevated tank with a capacity of 37,000 gallons, giving a maximum pressure of only 65 pounds at the pump station, the lowest elevation, a 1,000,000-gallon mechanical gravity filter of two concrete units, only one of which was equipped and in working condition at that time, and a 100-horse power, return tubular boiler that had not been cleaned since it was installed. The reason advanced for this last condition was that with only one boiler, the time limit on the filtered supply of 50,000 gallons was not sufficient to warrant a shut-down with the limited capacity of the wooden tank and the small suction well. Permission was obtained from the electric light company to connect to one of the boilers of its plant located about 200 feet north of the village boiler room. By running a 4-inch pipe line from the header of the water works boiler to theirs, paying a flat rate for the steam, it was possible to shut down for three days and make a thorough cleaning. Before doing this, however, a 24-hour test run was made on coal consumption, which showed 3 tons used for the 24-hour period. After cleaning and making some changes to the