Report on water supply for the city of Ottawa.

The Surveys and Estimates necessary for determining the cost of a Water Supply for the City of Ottawa being completed, I beg to submit my Report thereon with the Plan shewing the extent of Pipage proposed, and the different sites for Pumping Machinery.There is no other mode of supply except by pumping, and for a City like Ottawa, with districts of such unequal elevation, a pumping system presents advantages over any other.In Quebec, where the supply is by gravitation, and the fountain head several miles distant, and more than one hundred feet higher than the highest point in the City, it has not been found practicable to keep any water constantly upon the higher levels, in consequence of the draught from the lower districts-and the greater the head the greater the difficulty -the discharge from very small apertures in the low districts, under such great pressure, being sufficient to take all the water away from the high level pipes.The only remedy for this would be high level reservoirs within the City, or duplicate mains separating the high from the low districts.In gravitation plans it is necessary either to provide a supply for future generations, entailing heavy interest charges on the present one, or else to duplicate the works at great extra cost when an additional quantity is required-and in this respect pumping systems have generally the advantage over others, additional pumps being added only as required, and at a comparatively trifling cost.Gravitation supplies must also be assumed for a fixed level, and with the increase of consumption and waste, an annually increasing loss of head sets in for which there is no remedy save a higher head, which the fixed level cannot supply ; but with the pumping system, the water can be kept up to any required level by the application of more power. My instructions require meto keep the estimate if possible within $300,000, and direct my attention to what is known as the " Holly System," which is exclusively a pumping one, and conspicuous for itseconomy.An impression prevails that, from the experience of other cities, a very large sum will be required.In Montreal, Quebec and Hamilton it was necessary to go from six to eight miles from the centres of the City to obtain a desirable quality of water, whereas in Ottawa this is found within the City, and within a mile of its centre.At Montreal it was necessary to expend far more than the whole required cost here to reach the point where the Ottawa Works begin ; and after the water power was thus created, the machinery was still two-and-a-half miles from the City's centre.At Hamilton it was further necessary to construct works for filtering the water before it could be used.In the important question of the quality of the water, Ottawa is equally fortunate.The water from a river of such volume, taken under the most favorable circumstances for maintaining its purity, is unsurpas- sed in quality by that of any river of equal dimensions.It is softer, and therefore better than the St. Lawrence water, although from the difference in color this is not the popular belief.The brown color of the Ottawa is a vegetable tinge, while the clear water of the St. Lawrence, like that of the sea, and of wells generally, is impregnated with mineral salts.The Ottawa drains a primitive formation generally, from which the rain is thrown into the river tinged only by the color extracted in the swamps.The St. Lawrence is supplied from a more alluvial district from which the rains have washed out the salts into the great lakes.Both qualities and causes are seen here ; the Rideau water being quite hard, and that of the Ottawa preferred for all domestic purposes.This comparative softness of water becomes quite an important item as an economical question, when applied to the whole consumption of the City.In the two articles of tea and soap, so universally used, the two qualities can be measured by a money value, representing thousands annually in the consumption of large cities ; while for manufacturing purposes, dyeing, tanning, brewing, &c, a soft water is invaluable.expenditure of about $12,500 would provide a double pumping main, and this would duplicate the system throughout.But a much smaller sum would provide sufficient storage to meet any probable stoppage of the supply.The objection to a duplicate main is, that, to be thoroughly efficient, it would require a double set of branch pipes and stgp-cocks, so that a reser- voir would be by far the cheaper provision.The larger pipes of the distribution through streets parallel to the route of the pumping main may, with proper arrangement of valves, be used as a duplicate in emer- gencies-so far as they can be made a substitute for any damaged or unwatered portion of the main.I Stewart-Ottawa to do Wilbrod-Do.

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