Seattle’s Water Fight: Pumping Queen Anne or Building for the Future
As Seattle’s reservoirs strain, Superintendent Andrew Jackson argues that waste, not supply, is the problem—and that the city’s pumping system is only a stopgap until a Cedar River gravity plan can be built.
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.
In reference to the report of W. E. Boone, made to the chamber of commerce trustees on needed improvements to the water works, Superintendent Andrew Jackson, of that department, said yesterday:
“I am not in favor of spending any more money on the present system, with the exception of changing some of the pipes on Queen Anne hill. It is sufficient to supply the wants for some years to come, barring some unlooked-for addition to the population. Not that we do not need some improvements, but it is not policy to make them to the present system. What we need to make the present plan sufficient is a proper use of the supply. That was proven by the transfer of all inspector service to the Broadway system. Inside of three days after that, with the additional inspector given by the council, a difference of 300,000 gallons a day appeared in the quantity pumped at Broadway, and with the advent of the rain and cool weather another reduction of between 300,000 and 400,000 appeared, making a total reduction of 600,000 gallons due to these causes.
“I am opposed to any further expense on the present system beyond repairs and rearranging some of the pipes, for the pumping system ought to be regarded as only temporary until the gravity system can be carried out.
“As regards the map of the system, that is being made now. Even with all the waste, there has been no scarcity of water in the reservoir, and in August we pumped 20,000,000 gallons more than in August, 1893. The only scarcity was in the Broadway system, and that was due to waste.
“The criticism on the location of the Queen Anne pumping station is correct. The pump is 106 feet below the level of the reservoir, when it should be only twenty-five feet below. The consequence is that we are pumping 1,000,000 gallons of water eighty feet twice. It would pay to move the pump up that eighty feet even now.
“When once the Lake Washington canal shall have been completed and the level of the lake lowered as proposed, so many industries will grow up around it as to render its water unfit for domestic purposes, so that it will, in a few years, become imperative for the city to adopt some other source of supply. I believe that the only rational system is the gravity system proposed by Benezette Williams, for, as he said in his report on the Cedar River system, ‘It would furnish 25,000,000 gallons a day as cheaply as we now pump 6,000,000 gallons.’”
“What we need to make the present plan sufficient is a proper use of the supply.”
Seattle’s 1894 water debate was about growth: whether to keep patching a pumping system or build for the next century. The same questions—waste, storage, Queen Anne’s elevation and a Cedar River gravity supply—still shape how Seattle manages water and infrastructure today.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.