City Leaders Hike the South Tacoma Woods to Scout New Wells
After a soaking walk through the forest, city officials and contractors consider a new strategy for Tacoma’s water future.
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.
It was a rain-soaked but enthusiastic party of city officials who yesterday afternoon waded through the dripping woods in the suburbs of South Tacoma, viewing the proposed site for the new waterworks and making calculations concerning the various details and costs. In the party were Councilmen Balmson, Rolce, Giblett, Bellingham, Wright and Read, Commissioner of Public Works Welsh, City Engineer Frank Davis, Contractor L. Forrest McConihe and the editor of The Times. Mr. McConihe, who constructed the air-lift wells and pumping plant in South Tacoma, acted as guide. The proposed site for the high-service standpipe, near Wapato Lake, was the first point visited. Then the party descended from the heights to the broad valley in which it is proposed to locate the storage reservoir, more wells, and the pumping station. To show the committee the satisfactory character of the three test wells recently placed in active use, Commissioner Welsh and Contractor McConihe uncapped well No. 2, turned on the air and allowed a seven-inch column of water to spurt in a steady stream high into the air. The committee concluded that the solution of the water supply question lay in sinking more wells in South Tacoma.
“It was a rain-soaked but enthusiastic party of city officials which yesterday afternoon waded through the dripping woods.”
Tacoma’s long-standing reliance on the South Tacoma aquifer remains a critical piece of local infrastructure. While the technology has moved on from simple air-lift wells, the debate over how to manage and expand these municipal assets echoes the early 20th-century civic planning displayed here.
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