The Deadbeats Who Were Stealing Seattle's Water

The report of the water department for the month of January, which was filed with the board of public works Saturday morning, shows that there was a falling off in the receipts for the month in comparison with January, 1894, which the city officials say is due largely to the reduction in rates. The receipts for January, 1895, were, however, three times as much as the disbursements, and the expenses for the month in comparison with January were less. During the month 87,? gallons of water were pumped from Lake Washington, or an average of 4,?68,900 gallons per day.

'At present,' said a member of the water department yesterday, 'the city of Seattle pumps about 90 gallons per capita per day, which shows beyond a question of a doubt that the waste is something awful. In other large cities of the United States 25 gallons per capita is considered a good average. It must be remembered, too, that this is supposed to be the season of the year when the people use less water than at any other. The Holly pump would really pump twice as much water as the city should require at this season, but during the past two months it has been found necessary on several occasions to bring one of the other pumps into service in order to supply the demand.

'The city is robbed daily of considerable water, but at present there is less of this work going on than ever. Still, a day hardly passes that we do not come across some dishonest person who has been getting water free for a month, six months and sometimes a year. The other day we discovered a break in one of our pipes through which the city was losing more than 1,000 gallons a day. No one got the benefit of this, as the water flowed into the bay. A party nearby knew of the break but did not report it because he knew that the city in repairing the break would drop on to the fact that he was getting water free from the city. We, however, found the break and made the necessary repair, at the same time making the discovery which the party had endeavored to conceal.'

Under the present administration it has been the practice, when a discovery is made that a person is enjoying free water through some hook or crook, to charge him with the back water rent and cut off his supply until the money due has been paid. In that way over $1,400 has been collected.