Tacoma's $1.75 Million Water Deal Went Bad—and Taxpayers Were Just Catching On
A special dispatch from Tacoma reports that the city's purchase of the old water plant was sold on a false promise of mountain water, while a new bidder offers a cheaper gravity system.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
TACOMA, June 20. [Special.]—Again the water question is open. The truth that went to earth when the deal to purchase the old water plant for $1,750,000 was carried by ninety-two votes is rising. The great hindsight of those who voted for the purchase is again asserting itself. They realize, most of them at least, that the manipulators of the transaction lied when they said a gravity system of water could be secured from the Thomas-Patterson springs as agreed, and as published in the local press. There has been a lot of wiggling and twisting, squandering of money in investigating proposed new sources of supply, but finally the taxpayers who allowed the wool to be pulled over their eyes are realizing their own folly and the knavery of others concerned. Most of the $330,000 voted to carry on extensions to the water system to the Thomas-Patterson springs is still locked up in a bank, drawing 5 per cent interest for the city. C. B. Talbot, who has been searching the mountains for pure mountain water, will in a few days submit a bid to the city council to bring in 20,000,000 gallons of water per day and deliver it at the city limits for about $400,000. This will be the lowest rock-bottom proposition yet submitted. Mr. Talbot's bid will be $1,000,000 less than the old water plant cost, including a fair estimate for the fixtures and pipe laid by the old water company. The water will be taken at an elevation of 2,000 feet above this city and will be delivered at a reservoir near the Thomas-Patterson springs, twelve miles from this city, at an elevation of over 600 feet. This would give Tacoma a fire pressure of great value, and would reduce the fire insurance charges to the standard, thus saving in a couple of years in fire insurance premiums alone enough to pay for the entire cost of the plant, exclusive of the distributing system. This would also solve the fire insurance war, as the reservoir would be over 200 feet higher than the highest building in the city and the water could be thrown direct from a hydrant over the top of the highest building in town. Besides, the city would have a supply of pure mountain water, which would be an advertisement in itself in inducing prospective residents to cast their lot here, other things being equal. If it is true, as stated this evening, that the Light and Water Company proposes to ask for a change of venue in its suit for $13,000 for the pipe which the city, through Mayor Huson, seized, claiming it to be the property of the city, the ghost of the old water property is evidently beginning to realize that taxpayers and people generally are investigating.
“The taxpayers who allowed the wool to be pulled over their eyes are realizing their own folly and the knavery of others concerned.”
Tacoma's 1894 water fight—taxpayers discovering that a $1.75 million plant purchase was sold on a promise that did not hold—could be lifted from any modern debate over public utilities, infrastructure costs, and who pays for a bad deal. The proposed mountain gravity system also shows an early version of the argument that public works pay for themselves through insurance savings and growth.
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