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.
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.
There is no occasion for any acrimonious dispute over the water supply of this city. Everybody knows the present administration had nothing to do with the purchase of the rotten old waterworks for which taxpayers are still paying. It isn't a question of blame, but of how to lessen the ill effects of an impure supply until the city can obtain pure water from Mt. Tacoma or another source. The city council has arranged for a few wells to supplement Clover Creek, but the water remains polluted as it passes through ranches, houses, and barns. That typhoid fever has been prevailing in Tacoma cannot be denied. Reputable physicians say the trouble lies in the city water. It will not pay Tacoma to be dishonest concerning this supply; the truth will eventually get out, and an epidemic will remind us that we must do something. The city will eventually have to pay for its gold-brick waterworks, but in the end, it will gain by being known as a desirable place to live.
“It will not pay Tacoma to be dishonest concerning its water supply. Nothing can be gained by such a policy, for the facts will get out.”
Tacoma's early 20th-century struggle with the 'gold-brick' waterworks and the threat of typhoid mirrors ongoing modern anxieties about the safety of urban infrastructure and public health transparency. The call to abandon polluted creek sources in favor of mountain-fed water eventually led to the development of the Green River watershed system that still serves the city today.
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