A Memoir On The Water Supply Of The City Of San Francisco Classic Reprint

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ISBN 13 : 9781332317752
Total Pages : 324 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (177 download)

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Download or read book Reports on the Water Supply of San Francisco written by and published by . This book was released on 2015-08-05 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from Reports on the Water Supply of San Francisco: 1900 to 1908, Inc Upon the settling up of the peninsula in 1849-50 the necessity of a water supply was met by springs and wells at several points within the limits of the city. The soil being unpolluted, these nearby sources were safe, but soon failed to meet the rapidly growing demand. Water was then brought from springs and streams in Marin County and distributed to homes, restaurants, hotels, shipping, etc., in buckets and casks (as is now being done). In 1851 the Mountain Lake Water Company undertook to bring the water of Mountain Lake and Logos Creek into the city, and made a contract with the city of date June 1, 1851. (City Manual, page 117, Ordinance No. 167.) This ordinance was amended and the time extended from time to time. In 1857 the San Francisco Water Works was organized and succeeded in bringing in the water of Logos Creek around the shores of Golden Gate, by tunnel through Fort Point, and flume to Black Point, where it was pumped to suitable elevations. Water was introduced on September 16, 1858. This company and the previous one, the Mountain Lake Water Company, had numerous suits at law. The Mountain Lake Water Company failed in 1862 and went out of business. In the meanwhile George H. Ensign organized the Spring Valley Water Works under a charter obtained from the legislature. He took up a small spring near the intersection of Mason and Washington streets and laid a few pipes in 1858. He kept this franchise alive by extensions of time until 1860, when it was bought by a stronger company. (This company retained the name of Spring Valley Water Works until 1904, when for the purpose of overreaching the state law, which limits the bond issue to the amount of stock, it doubled its capital stock so as to issue an equivalent volume in bonds. It then changed its name to Spring Valley Water Company). The stronger company organized in 1860 proceeded at once to actually bring in a supply from San Mateo County and introduced 2,000,000 gal. per day from Pilarcitos Creek in 1862. Litigation. - There then existed the two companies: (1) The old San Francisco Water Works, bringing in its supply from Logos Creek via Fort Point to Black Point and pumping into reservoirs and mains. (2) The reorganized Spring Valley Water Works, bringing in the gravity supply of 2,000,000 gal. per day from Pilarcitos via Lake Honda. There was no litigation and no trouble about water for municipal purposes. But in February, 1865, the two companies "consolidated," or the Spring Valley Water Works "bought out" the other. In 1867, or two years later, there commenced a series of litigations which have continued until the present, notably the ten years' litigation in which the city won the somewhat barren victory under the late John F. Swift, and the litigation now in progress in the United States courts, ostensibly for adjusting rates, but evidently to get a high valuation fixed for cither rates or selling out. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.