Show CITY COUNCIL the city council met in regular session Tue tuesday Fiday evening jan mayor armstrong presiding A petition was presented by J H clive asking that a resolution be pawed passed authorizing the mayor to correct a certain deed the petition was about to be referred to the attorney but that officer stated that he had examined the petition and as it was tie te same as the woodruff rase case one heretofore fully examined the resolution was read and passed and the mayor was authorized to make the correction A petition was presented by samuel J newton asking for the extension of water mains ard ol cl dm ing that injustice had bad been done the petitioner tit ioner by the council in neglecting ang to take any aay action on their former petitions referred to the committee on waterworks water works A petition from Barzil barzillar lat H williams was presented asking that the street supervisor be I 1 instructed to fill up the street in front ot of his residence near the brick yard ordered done some years ago mr mccornick thought the statute of limitations had run against it but it was not so considered by all anti and the petition was referred to the street supervisor A petition was received from W H stahl asking that a license be issued during his pleasure in view of certain circumstances shown by the petitioner referred to the committee on licence A communication was read from the secretary of the chamber of commerce inviting the city council to meet with them thursday evening next to consider several subjects which they wished the city council to consider the invitation vi ws was accepted A communication from thomas quayle for the parleys canyon commission commis islon announced that as the conditions on the part of the city in transferring to the farmers certain waters had not been fulfilled they considered the contract as not binding filed for information two liquor licenses were granted A communication from chas P brooks stating that in view of the sickness of david james a full report of the expense of the sewerage during the past year could not be made and asking for further time was received and filed the following was then read WATER commission REPORT to the honorable the M mayor avor and ouy ou of salt lake wy gentlemen your commissioners appointed in the early part of last april to investigate and report upon the best means of effectually increasing the water supply of salt lake city are now prepared to report to your honorable body such progress as has b en made in the objective direction by us during the last few months although some members of the council have at times shown unnecessary anxiety in suggesting to the commission how and when its report should be presented we have no apology to oter offer for submitting this no sooner conditions were not such that we could the committee accepted with its appointment a problem which required au an immediate partial solution for imperative existing demands it is one which usually requires a knowledge of the area of the several drainage or basins together with the amount of precipitation thereon and a measurement of the dally daily flow of the streams kept up for several years so as to ascertain the maximum and minimum discharge from the respective sources it is rarely possible durin during g the limited time granted for preliminary inary investigation to observe the streams during a minimum year but the conditions of the one just past have been remarkably fitting for this requirement and such tion has been obtained as will enable us to make provision for the season of greatest scarcity ever likely to occur r agal again 13 the culinary requirements of the inhabitants of salt lake city is but a small proportion of the enormous amount of water needed for irrigation the usual beauty of our city depends upon an elegant system of irrigation during a period of five months between may I 1 and september 31 when the flow from the respective sources is at its lowest the official survey of salt lake city shows it to cover about acres of ground exclude excluding dg streets the standard adopted for calculating cu lating the supply in utah is one cubic foot per second to the acres then to properly irrigate our acres requires a stream flowing forty two cubic feet per second or 0 gallons per twenty four hours omission of stati statistics stieg to is intentional but the fact has been satisfactorily determined that seventy five gallons per capita is the usual supply used in twenty four hours by inhabitants of manufacturing centres bentres cen tres so that we safely adopt it as the basis of calculating ours with inhabitants and our population increasing our culinary supply must he be at least gallons per day this gallons plus the irrigation supply of gallons states the cites total requirement of every acre that to is cultivated and each inhabitant uses his full quota but while there are hundreds of acres uncultivated and scores built upon and several thou thousand persons whose daily consumption to is beneath the quota and the number who use in excess not proportionately great we may safely state gallons per day as ample for every requirement qui rement I 1 the commissions commission first official step te was as to institute nations inactions bulwa such as would eda bug suggest g est measures contribute contri butt immediate relief as well as to the he objective permanent result CITY CREEK the city creek canyon was subjected to early in may controlling features were carefully observed our conclusions were soon fort formed ned and the measures suggested to your honorable body were promptly carried out under the supervision of the superintendent of waterworks water works the channels of the main creek were cleared of obstructions as were also those of tributary springs and feeders whereby small flows were perceptibly increased and some new springs were opened frequent gau ginga of this stream showed the average daily flow be tween april 5 and november 18 to be gallons and between july 18 and november 18 only gallons the maximum now flow was 1140 gallons and occurred june 5 the minimum oce occurred burred au gust 13 and was gallons per day ay between november 18 and december 18 a marked increase in the average daily flow was noted the flow gauged being gallons per twenty four hours fully 25 per cent of the average daily flow of the season was the me direct and satisfactory result of the developments in the canyon this increase will be still further augmented by pushing to completion the work already begun measurements were wem made of this stream at different points above the mouth of the canyon to ascertain approximately the amount of loss by seepage by this means we found that in the vicinity of the north fork the stream is diminished by the seepage by over a million gal long ions daily much of this after per co lating for a distance of three or four miles spill springs to the surface and unites with tr the main stream at the upper end of pleasant valley while between this latter point and the head of the water works considerable sid erable actual loss occurs this can be prevented in the future by straightening the channel of the creek and extending up to pleasant valley the stone aqueduct now built along north temple street this canyon contains several sites for the construction of small reservoirs or impounding basins away from the main creek the principal one of which is little valley to the courtesy of mr C ii stevenson who made the necessary surveys we 4 are indebted for an estimated cost of storing gallons at the latter atter place which he states can be done at a total cost of or per million gallons we do not recommend reservoir construction in this canyon unless a series of small ones should be built but the cost per million gallons impounded by this means would be at least per cent greater than would be the the cost ot of storing in one large reservoir and the latter is objectionable in standing a constant menace to the city for while no engineering angi gi difficulty besets the construction st of a substantial and safe dam the bed bad has not yet been proven fit f athe A the requirement and the deposits would soon become it is 18 our opinion that the plan of development already applied and which has been productive of the marked increase above noted should be vigorously prosecuted if results similar to those already attai acte future operations the cost of increasing our daily supply from the city creek will be nominal compared with the method of obtaining the same amount by small reservoirs we therefore recommend that the work of development be continued RED BED BUTTE AND emigration CREEKS when on april 26 the flow of red bed butte bulte was gallon sand that of Emigration 1013 44 per twenty four hours hese streams were temporarily augmented in may by storms and rapidly melting snow but by the middle of june the flow had receded below the discharge of april 26 and the average flow of each has not ex ceedee gallons per twenty four hours for the season the only water available from red butte canyon is any amount which may be in excess of fort douglas requirements we are reliably inform informer eu though that the original settlers of the section now embraced in the tenth and eleventh wards made due appropriation pria tion of this water still it has been diverted from them and no compensation rendered the supply from emigration creek can doubtless be increased very materially by the method of development applied in city creek canyon since from examinations made we find that the flow a few miles up the canyon Is ia greatly diminished mini shed at its mouth this canyon contains ains an excellent reservoir site at its mouth which may be utilized if ever necessity demands but it is objected to on the ground that we object to constructing any large reservoirs in the direct course of any of our canyon streams PARLEYS CREEK the city corporation has acquired claim to eighty two one hundredths of the volume of this creek by right of pur purchase ehase and of exchange for water to he be drawn from the city canal on april 27 gallons of water were running into the cites city Is ditch constructed across the east bench from parleys canyon and gallons were passing down the canyon making a total daily flow of gallons exclusive of a considerable amount used on farms in the canyon on may 27 the flow was again measured to apportion off the cites share but the storms of the week previous had augmented the daily now flow to gallons so under the conditions thor entrusted by the city with the divi divelb on in refused to make it it was finally divided on june 3 when the daily t c i charge was found to be 4 au allons aliens the farmers in the canyon at the time using t the he full amount claimed by them A condition of the trade for the parleys creek water provides that the original owners shall resume their claim to it whenever the canal water fails owing to unprecedented low water in utah lake and the condition of the canal it failed to deliver to the farmers a substitute for their canyon water so they were compelled to enforce the conditions of their agreement and when it was most needed by the city the water was turned off alib although ugh the water shed creating this stream is greater than that of city creek its topographical features are of such a nature as to occasion a heavier flood discharge in the spring which however diminishes by august to a volume not hot greater than that of city creek so that the cites rl right ht to 82 of it without furt further er development in seasons similar to the last amounted to about three million gallons daily since this supply is suitable for either culinary or irrigation use and will flow by gravity to any necessary elevation in this city it becomes at once an object worthy of the greatest effort to secure hence we would suggest the wisdom of appropriating every opportunity port unity to increase the cites interest in the canyon not alone because they should own the water but also because they should have the power to keep it pure by removing the outhouses out houses stables and manure plies piles which at present tend to befoul it through our examination of awards of rights made bythe by the board of water commissioners acting by authority of legislative enactment of 1880 we find that acres were endowed with primary and forty five acres with secondary water rights in all acres last summer water for the irrigation of between five and six hundred acres was taken from the main creek in the canyon we emphatically suggest that a more judicious act than the purchase of these water rights cannot be considered by the city parleys canyon has an excellent reservoir site in the mountain dell bell gorge this contains a storage capacity for every drop of surplus water parleys parlea Is creek can ever furnish nish we report no estimate of the cost of utilizing this site because we do not recommend the construction of a reservoir there at present since improvements prove ments suggested in other directions can be more immediately effected and this site left for future necessities from a careful inspection of par ays leys eys canyon we are fully convinced that the supply here can also be greatly augmented by every means of development applied in city creek canyon cottonwood AND CREEK cottonwood and mill creeks were each given a share of attention the former is used to irrigate some acres of farming land while the latter has acres dependent upon it the water of cottonwood is for culinary use superior to that of city creek or pa parleys rl ays eys creek but available only at great cost of purchase and transportation several r reservoir as sites at the head of big cottonwood canyon were filed u upon P on last summer by the farmers being satisfied that the cost of purchase storage and transportation will be much greater than will that of securing an adequate supply by means of the city canal we abandoned for the present all plans dependent upon this source the possibility of obtaining an interest in one olie or both of these creeks will be referred to in connection with the city canal NATURAL SPRINGS beginning near liberty barkand Par kand extending twelve miles south along the mountain base are numerous springs of excellent water which during may last flowed in the aggregate gallons daily two important streams have their source amongst these the hanauer stream is created by springs in the cottonwood bottoms which appear at elevations from 42 to feet lower than that of the city canal where it crosses the bottom in which they use it falls a hundred feet to the hanauer smelter for whose use it is a appropriated and flows thence to the yordan jordan river biver during may it had a daily flow of gallons which by september had declined to gallons the pratt brothers recent offer was based on their appropriation of this stream after it has pawed passed the smelter gm elter your commissioners commissio ners are of opinion that the diversion of this water from frem the jordan river into which we are reliably informed it has run since the first settlement of the territory cannot be manta maintained ined except by direct purchase from all parties interested te in its use below the point of coD confluence fluence with the jordan we therefore pronounce this plan not dot sul suitable taLle for present consideration the husler busier mill stream is created by springs in the vicinity of mill creek the claims upon it are similar to those upon the hanauer consequently it cannot be thought of for the cites use new near the point of the mountain at the south end of the valley and located considerably above the city canal are several springs of warm water suitable for irrigation only this water can be turned into the canal at a very trifling cost and can be purchased edt we are informed but no price has been stated in ewe case of a future emergency it might then be |