City Health Official Sounds Alarm on Water Supply
Dr. Schug confirms that Parkland cesspools are poisoning Tacoma's drinking water, urging residents to boil their supply.
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Dr. Schug, health commissioner, has completed his examination of the city supply and presented his findings to the council. He confirms that the water supply from Clover Creek is being contaminated. At Parkland, a college cesspool is overflowing and draining toward the city water ditch. Further up past Brookdale, many houses have privy vaults located within ten feet of the water supply, posing a serious menace. During wet weather, surface drainage makes the water dangerous. Dr. Schug noted that while he found no typhoid in the water ditch, many typhoid cases in the city originated in the Smith-Kife addition where residents rely on shallow wells located too close to privy vaults. He advises that the city extend the flume to avoid contamination and urges citizens to boil their drinking water as a precaution.
“During wet weather, the city water can be easily contaminated from this source alone.”
This report highlights the precarious nature of public health infrastructure in a rapidly growing, unincorporated Tacoma. Much like current debates surrounding water quality and aging septic systems in the South Sound, residents in 1904 were forced to reckon with the invisible dangers of shared resources and lack of sewage planning.
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