The Ten-Foot Map That Would Sewer Olympia

The first tangible efforts to equip the city of Olympia with a thorough and complete sewerage system have been in progress for the past three months, and the result of the work will be presented for the inspection of the city council. The work has been under the supervision of J. S. Camp, city engineer of Puyallup, and has been placed in an intelligible shape by Edward Combes, his draughtsman, who has prepared the largest, handsomest, most complete and thoroughly accurate map of Olympia that has ever been attempted.

The work has been quietly progressing for the past three months, known to but few, and in the engineer's office in Temple Flat, the map has been prepared. It is ten feet wide and eight feet deep, and the detail which it involves makes it invaluable to the city for a dozen and one distinct purposes. It shows 150 additions to the city of Olympia, giving the exact size of every street and lot. Each block is plainly numbered, showing all the principal buildings, churches, railroad depot, wharves, bridges, and railway tracks. The fire limits are plainly marked, and every water main and fire hydrant is shown. In the preparation of the work, all ordinances have been consulted, and the widening of streets or vacating of alleys by ordinance are shown in an instant by a different color.

Circles from the center of the city show the distance by each half mile of any point on the map. The map is a work of art, and is well worth the inspection of every citizen of Olympia. In harmony with its interests a frame or border work is constructed by a representative of sewer pipe.

The great difficulty that is encountered in sewering the city is the Seventh Street tunnel, which cuts the city in two, and to avoid this it was necessary to run the main sewer to Jefferson Street. All streets south of the tunnel will be drained by a main sewer, which deposits the water about half way down the east side of the long wharf, where it can easily be flushed by the tide. All of the city north of Seventh Street will be run to Eighth Street, and east on Eighth Street to the intersection of Jefferson, where there is a flush tank. All the east side is drained into Eighth Street by sewers running north and south, thence west on Eighth to Jefferson, and south on Jefferson Street to the main sewer which empties into the bay.

The sewerage system has been so planned that it can be extended to accommodate a city of 20,000 people, or even more, without removing the main pipes. A great mistake which has been prevalent in building sewers in the West has been avoided, which was that of using larger pipes than was necessary, giving the sediment an opportunity to settle. The smallest pipes possible, consistent with the amount of drainage they will have to accommodate, will be used. The mechanical arrangements are such that the incoming tide will be admitted just sufficiently to flush the pipes, receding with the ebb and carrying all sewerage for miles out into the bay. After the inspection of the council suggestions will be acted upon.