Meter Practices of the Terre Haute Water Company

Abstract

Several papers in recent numbers of the Journal explaining features of the meter practice in several cities suggest that the methods of The Terre Haute Water Works Company may be of interest to the members. The conditions of water supply in the city are rendered rather unusual by the ease with which water may be obtained from the ground, so that there is a tendency rather more marked than usual to employ private supplies. This has made the problems of metering more sensitive to public opinion than is often the case and has also had its effect on the general subject of practicable rates. The supply is coagulated, settled, filtered, chlorinated and pumped, most of it being pumped twice, and it is therefore necessary as a business matter to collect revenue from all water that is furnished to consumers, whether they use or waste it. This can only be done satisfactorily by metering. At first only large consumers like railways and industrial plants were metered. Then hotels, public buildings, livery stables, saloons and photographic galleries were metered, and after that stores and restaurants. Not much opposition was encountered to metering these consumers, but when the practice was extended to boarding and rooming houses there was an immediate vigorous public protest and the manager of the company was denounced at various indignation meetings of irate citizens. One reason for the outburst of feeling at this time was that there are two large educational institutions in the city and consequently a relatively large proportion of rooming and boarding houses. Opposition of this kind had to be met vigorously in an educational way, so the company bought space in the newspaper advertising columns and published a series of Water Talks or statements