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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1877 | 1 |
| 1888 | 1 |
| 1891 | 1 |
| 1892 | 2 |
| 1895 | 2 |
| 1898 | 2 |
| 1899 | 1 |
| 1903 | 5 |
| 1904 | 3 |
| 1905 | 1 |
| 1909 | 2 |
| 1916 | 1 |
22 stories matching impur
- Tacoma's Gas Monopoly Dodges a Bullet
City council nearly revokes a utility franchise due to impure gas, highlighting early 20th-century struggles with private utility providers.
- Clergyman Declares 'The Flat and Rooming House is a Curse'
Dr. M.A. Matthews criticizes modern housing and argues that a woman's sphere is strictly within the domestic home.
- The City Water Crisis
While typhoid fever spreads in Tacoma, a bureaucratic breakdown leaves the Health Officer unaware he was even ordered to investigate the tainted water supply.
- The Weight of the Future in 1916
Rev. C.E. Miller challenges Kennewick graduates to tackle the corruption and industrial oppression of their era.
- A Sour Business: Cafe Sues Dairy Commissioner Over Formaldehyde Milk
A Seattle cafe owners' association alleges a malicious arrest by the state dairy commissioner in a scandal involving poisoned milk.
- The Unfiltered Reality of Tacoma’s Water
An exposé reveals that the city's water supply flume runs through backyards and cesspools, gathering filth before reaching the tap.
- The City’s Campaign Against ‘Swill Milk’
A new Seattle ordinance cracks down on impure milk production and the use of 'distillery waste' as feed.
- The Typhoid Warning from Salem
Walla Walla is warned against the dangers of Mill Creek water after an epidemic in Salem, Oregon, exposes the failures of filtration.
- The Town Council Declares War on Filth
A sweeping new health ordinance outlaws backyard pigsties, mandates watertight privy vaults, and grants city officials the power to condemn contaminated wells.
- Inside the Eastern Washington Hospital for the Insane
A biennial report highlights the Medical Lake institution's agricultural successes and its surprisingly high recovery rates.
- Tacoma’s Poisoned Water
A local newspaper argues that the city's reliance on the polluted Clover Creek for drinking water is driving typhoid fever and threatening the lives of its residents.
- Typhoid and Scarlet Fever Shadow Seattle's Sewers
Health officer blames bad plumbing and cesspools as 21 typhoid cases, four fatal, are reported; a doctor prepares to test Lake Union and Lake Washington water.
- The Price of a Filthy City
In 1877, Seattle editors warned that stagnant water and neglected gutters were more than just a nuisance—they were a matter of life and death.
- A Filthy Milk Trial, a Lenient Judge, and a Convention's Disgust
The state dairy commissioner lost his Tacoma case against two milkmen whose cows were caked in manure — and the delegates wanted to know what kind of milk the judge kept on his own table.
- The Sawdust in Your Spice Cabinet
A Seattle newspaper exposé from 1888 reveals that the city's food supply was being systemically poisoned by greed, with sawdust in spices and grease in butter.
- The Water Monopoly
Critics allege the First National Bank is steering the city council toward an expensive water project to inflate the value of land it holds in escrow.
- The Great Butter Fraud: Seattle’s First Taste of Food Safety
A local grocer is fined for selling imitation butter, while city inspectors uncover a wave of adulterated vinegar and baking powder in retail stores.
- Olympia’s Fight for a Deep-Water Harbor
Citizens tell the harbor-line commissioners to claim Budd Inlet’s tide flats for public wharves—not a narrow waterway that would hand the waterfront to private owners.
- The Packing Plant That Wasted Nothing
At Meeker on the Seattle–Tacoma line, the Pacific Meat Company turned cattle, hogs and sheep into cured meat, sausage and fertilizer with almost no waste—and kept a small town working.
- A Seattle Preacher Tells Society Women They Are Marching Their Children to the Gallows
Preaching to women only on "Dying Mothers and Starving Children," Rev. M. A. Matthews calls society "the emptiness of emptiness" — and blames card parties, prizes and maternal neglect for juvenile crime.
- A Swedish Immigrant Built Seattle's Clean-Milk Dairy One Gallon of Cream at a Time
Alfred Kristoferson arrived to find a booming city where cream came watery and milk carried disease. His answer — pasteurization, doorstep delivery, and a health officer's endorsement — became a one-man public-health campaign.
- The Dairy Commissioner’s War on Adulterated Food
A Washington dairy official warns that fake honey, poisoned candy, oleomargarine and brewers’ grain are cheating farmers — and demands stronger pure-food laws.