The Price of Tacoma’s Water
As Tacoma looks toward the Green River gravity system, Mayor Wright tallies the high cost of the existing well-water infrastructure.
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It is costing three and a quarter cents for every 1,000 gallons of water the city is getting from the South Tacoma wells, according to the books in the city controller's office. Mayor Wright is having an expert go over the city records to see just what the cost of securing well water is and the whole water problem will be ready in a few days to submit to the council for its edification. The engineers are now making the final checking of the figures on the Green River gravity system. 'After all the estimate is going to come under the $2,000,000 mark,' said Mayor Wright today. 'It will be between $30,000 and $50,000 less than that figure, and everything is made high enough, too, so that it will not be necessary to increase it again.' Comparing the South Tacoma wells with the gravity system, Mayor Wright said: 'Counting $100,000 a year for interest on the gravity system bonds and another $100,000 for depreciation of the plant, the cost of securing water on this plan will be but one-half cent a thousand gallons, as against three and a half cents that it is costing to get it from the South Tacoma wells.'
“It is costing three and a quarter cents for every 1,000 gallons of water the city is getting from the South Tacoma wells.”
Tacoma’s early 20th-century scramble to secure a reliable, municipalized water source via the Green River system mirrors the modern civic tension over maintaining aging infrastructure and managing the costs of essential public utilities for a growing population.
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