Growing Pains of a Small Town Water System

Abstract

THE days of the old West, a water system consisted of the town pump and water trough in front of the trading post, and wild cowboys shot holes in ye olde water trough, that had to be repaired with plugs whittled out by the Town Marshal. When the trading post grew into a village and was incorporated as a town, however, the old town pump was no longer able to carry the load and had to be replaced by a new system. The development of the water works in such a small town usually was somewhat as follows: The Town Council met and voted to build a water system and to finance it by a bond issue, which, though it represented all the town could afford, limited the system to the bare necessities. To save money then, the Council planned the system without the aid of a competent engineer and without standard specifications. A small well, a pump and a tank were then installed, and after several more hot council meetings, an 8-inch wood stave pipe was laid from the well to Main Street and along the street for five or six blocks; and later a few laterals of 4-inch pipe were run into the residential districts. The duties of Water Superintendent were then added to the work of the Town Marshal, and Presto! the town water system was. During the following few years the town grew normally and the woodstave pipe began to dispense its contents to Old Mother Earth, until the customers had to get their water as it went by. By that time, however, the small town had been modernized by the institution of a commission form of government, the commissioners being elected on their promise to build a modern water system. Under this new administration, after straining the town's financial resources to the breaking point, the old well was enlarged and deepened and a new and larger (10-inch) cast-iron main was installed to replace the 8-inch wood pipe. In addition a couple of 6-inch and a few more 4-inch laterals were provided to take care of additional customers. At that point the