The Sewers Were Cracking — And Seattle Wanted to Know Why
City engineers trace a rash of shattered pipes to Ballard and Olympia, and to the manufacturers who made them.
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.
In order to make sure that the fractures of the sewer pipes in this city were not due to any cause peculiar to this city or to the make of pipes used here, City Engineer Thomson has pushed his investigation to sewers in which the Denny Clay Company's pipes were not used and to other cities where the suspicion of vandalism would not apply. With this end in view he sent Frank Cotterill, the inspector of sewers, through the sewers of Ballard a few days ago and through those of Olympia yesterday.
Mr. Cotterill found that of the total of 662 feet of pipe sewers twenty-four inches in diameter in Ballard, 248 feet were broken in the same way as those recently laid here. These pipes were made by the Little Falls Sewer Pipe Company, which has a factory on the Chehalis river. In Olympia he found a number of twenty-four-inch pipes, which were made by the Denny Clay Company, broken, and at last accounts was about to examine the twenty-two and twenty-inch pipes. In the Light street sewer in this city, which is made of 18-inch pipe manufactured by the Sidney Sewer Pipe Company, and was built about two years ago, 112 feet of broken pipe were found.
“Of the total of 662 feet of pipe sewers twenty-four inches in diameter in Ballard, 248 feet were broken in the same way as those recently laid here.”
A century before 'infrastructure week' became a punchline, Seattle's engineers were already chasing down why its brand-new sewers kept splitting — and following the trail to factories up and down Puget Sound. The instinct to blame vandals before checking the pipes themselves is a very modern reflex; so is the multi-city investigation that crossed town lines to find the truth.
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