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Show COLDH Ifl ME OF ' WA 1TR DUETO MOSS Effects Harmless and Soon to Pass, Commissioner Neslen States. , The entire office f-jrce of the city waterworks water-works department, including Commissioner Commis-sioner C. Clarence Neslen, put in yesterday yester-day giving a bulletin service to citizens who had been nauseated by the "frog-pond" "frog-pond" flavor of the water in all of the city service supplied from 'Parley's canyon. can-yon. Each time the telephone rang someone got ready to offer the explanation. Here it is, as repeated many times by Commissioner Com-missioner Neslen himself: We started recently to draw water from the Parley's canyon reservoir. To do so, we opened the gate at the base of the dam. This resulted in pulling much vegetation from the bottom bot-tom of the reservoir with the water. This moss is responsible for the color and taste, of the water. We had hoped that it would not continue, but the condition has been so persistent that we have found it necessary to close the lower gate and open the one half up toward the top of the dam. This should relieve the situation, as the water drawn from this gale is free from the vegetable growths. We are assured by Dr. Samuel G. Paul, citv health commissioner, that the water is not harmful; that there is nothing bad about it but the ilavor and the brackish color. It probably will be improved within a few hours, now that the lower gate has been closed arid the tipper one opened. As he hung up the telephone Commissioner Commis-sioner Neslen was asked by a reporter what occasioned the "mill-pond" flavor of the' water. "You heard what I told the man at the other end of the telephone, did you not?' asked the commissioner. "That is the answer, to the best of my knowledge, and I have" given it to hundreds of them today. to-day. Dr. Paul assures me that the worst thing about the water is the .taste, and our engineer tells me that the drawing of the water from the lower gate is the cause, since it pulls with the water quantities quan-tities of vegetable growth or moss from the bottom of .the reservoir. In view of this, we have closed the lower gate and opened the one higher in the wall of the dam and expect correction of the condition. condi-tion. Until the new water gets down we will have to continue to explain. I am rather glad that tomorrow is a holiday." |