South Tacoma’s Water Crisis
A broken pumping station leaves local residents drinking from Clover Creek instead of the city's new wells.
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.
The pumps at South Tacoma are idle and have been for a week because the engineer in charge put the delicately adjusted machinery out of business. The pure water which the new wells are supposed to supply has been cut off and Clover Creek is again being dished up for drinking purposes. When a representative of The Times went to the pumping station, he found the engineer sitting in the doorway, disconsolately holding his head in his hands, and the big pumps idle and covered with a piece of canvas to keep the dust off. When asked why the pumps were not running, the engineer unleashed a tirade against the reporter, revealing that the station had been compromised after The Times published the truth about the ruined rawhide pinions of the big pumps. The people are still drinking Clover Creek water.
“The pure water which the new wells are supposed to supply has been cut off and Clover Creek is again being dished up for drinking purposes.”
Public infrastructure failures remain a flashpoint in Tacoma, where access to safe, reliable water was as contentious in 1904 as it is during modern debates over utility management and water quality. The reliance on 'Clover Creek' water suggests a time when local residents were forced to consume untreated surface water during maintenance lapses—a far cry from today's sophisticated, albeit constantly managed, regional systems.
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