The Unfiltered Reality of Tacoma’s Water
An exposé reveals that the city's water supply flume runs through backyards and cesspools, gathering filth before reaching the tap.
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.
Even if the sand and gravel filter at Parkland were capable of removing pollution from the Clover Creek water, the flume which brings the water to Tacoma is unfit for any use except irrigation. During the wet season, water settles in low places along the right of way, gathering impurities until it washes into the flume. Before reaching the pumping station near D Street and Tacoma Avenue, the flume passes through a deep gulch. Along both sides are backyards, outhouses, chicken yards, and cesspools. The gulch is the natural source of drainage, and nothing prevents this pollution from entering the flume. The planks are old, decayed, and in many places covered with mold and green slime.
“There is nothing to prevent the pollution from getting into the flume... it is little more than a wooden trough and the planks of which it is made are old, decayed, and in many places covered with mold and green slime.”
This piece highlights the early, messy history of Tacoma's public health infrastructure. The discovery that the city's 'fresh' water was essentially a drainage ditch for backyard cesspools serves as a reminder of the foundational battles for clean water that preceded modern utility standards.
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