LEAKS AND WASTE.

The questions of waste and leakage have received more than ordinary degree of attention during the past year. The large consumption, ruling nearly through the whole year, is not only unexpected, but somewhat alarming. The Board had hoped by a thorough search for leaks both in the street-mains and house-service to reduce the consumption below that of 1872; or, at least, place the works in a condition that would result in an important saving during the present year. While many hundreds of defective fittings that were causing a large waste have been discovered and repaired, no leaks of consequence have been found in the street-mains; and, though the saving that has been effected by the repairs made must be considerable, the consumption of the past two or three months shows that not much relief can be counted upon from stopping leaks.

The examination that has been made, however, has furnished additional evidence of the great waste that results from the use of certain classes of fittings, more particularly the hopper-closet. Attention has been frequently called to this matter in former reports, but no action has been taken by the City Council. It is to be hoped that now, when it is of the utmost importance to the city that every gallon of water it can furnish shall be usefully applied, the necessary powers will be given the Water Board to control, as far as practicable, the harmful waste that is now going on through improper fittings. In many instances, as has been proved by meter measurements, the owners of a single hoppercloset are using, or rather wasting, at a cost to them of only five dollars per annum, as much water as the manufacturer uses whose yearly water-rate amounts to some hundreds of dollars. This great waste subserves no sanitary or other useful purpose, and should at once be repressed by the most vigorous measures. Even if the saving of water were not so important, the injustice of such unequal taxation would con

demn the present system. This very important matter is more fully discussed in the annexed report of Mr. Wm. F. Davis, the Water Registrar, to which you are referred for more detailed statements.

ANALYSES OF THE WATER OF FARM POND, SUDBURY RIVER, AND LAKE COCHITUATE.

An order was passed by the City Council, November 10th, 1873, requesting the Water Board to have made a chemical analysis of the waters of Farm pond. In complying with the request, the Board has also had analyzed a sample taken from Sudbury river, another from its most important tributary, Stony brook, and two from Lake Cochituate.

The analyses, the results of which are given in the following table, have been made by Messrs. Merrick and Gray, analytical chemists, who had no knowledge of where the samples were taken :

Grains in Grains in| Grains in Grains in Grains tn Grains in
U. S. gal. U. S. gal. U. S. gal. U. S. gal. U. S. gal. U. S. gal.

All the samples were taken Nov. 7th, 1873.

Sample A was taken from Stony brook, about 500 feet above the proposed location of Dam III.

Sample B was taken from Sudbury river, about 200 feet above the wooden dam, built by the city in 1872.

Sample C was taken from the surface of Farm pond, about 400 feet north of the proposed location of the gate-house for the new conduit.

Sample D was taken at the same point in Farm pond, but 7 feet below the surface.

Sample E was taken from Lake Cochituate, near the gatehouse of the conduit.

Sample F was taken from the southern division of Lake Cochituate, at the culvert under the turnpike, and near where Beaver Dam Brook (the chief tributary of the lake) discharges.

Mr. Merrick makes the following remarks:

Sample A.

"This water was yellowish, inodorous, tasteless, with some slight flocculent deposit after standing. The unconcentrated water gave indications of ammonia by the Nessler test."

Sample B.

"This sample was yellowish, tasteless, inodorous, with some flocculent deposit on standing. It gave slight indications of free ammonia by the Nessler test."

Sample C.

"This sample was nearly colorless, tasteless, and inodorous, with a very slight flocculent deposit after standing. It gave exceedingly faint indications of ammonia, unconcentrated."

Sample D.

"This sample was colorless, or nearly so, inodorous, and giving a trifling deposit on standing. It gave very faint indications of ammonia."

Sample E.

"Nearly colorless, with faint, yellowish tint, inodorous; some deposit of reddish flakes. It gave exceedingly faint indications of ammonia."

Sample F.

"This water was yellow, inodorous, and tasteless, with considerable flocculent deposit. The unconcentrated water gave indications of the presence of ammonia by the Nessler test."

The analyses show Farm pond water to be very pure and free from objectionable qualities of all kinds. There had been no flow into the pond, except surface drainage, for over a year before the samples were taken, and the outflow had been very slight, just sufficient to keep the pond at a proper level.

The two samples from Cochituate were analyzed to show the effect of storing and exposure to the air in purifying the water. Sample F may be regarded as a fair (favorable rather than otherwise) specimen of the quality of the water from the Cochituate water-shed as it enters the lake. Sample E - a fair specimen of the same water after it has reached the entrance to the conduit.

EFFECTS OF STORAGE ON WATER.

It will be noticed, by consulting the table, that the effect of storing has been to greatly improve the quality of the waters, and to notably decrease the amount of organic matter, which is the impurity the most to be feared; in fact, the inorganic impurities may be said to be perfectly harmless.

This beneficial effect of storing and exposure is more strongly shown in the samples of water from the Mystic, analyzed by Professor Hosford, as will be seen by consulting his report. The waters tributary to the Mystic are vastly more charged with impurities, both mineral and organic, than those of the Cochituate or Sudbury water-shed; yet, during the exposure to the air to which they are subjected on entering and passing through the Mystic lake, they become purified and rendered fit for domestic use.

The samples from the Sudbury valley were taken when the river was swollen by previous rains, and the water more than usually charged with organic or vegetable matter, yet the analyses show very favorably for the purity of this water when compared with that of the Cochituate or Mystic districts before it enters the lakes.

It can be safely said that the Sudbury water, after having been stored, and by the time it reaches the consumer, flowing, as it will, exposed to the air in Farm pond and 17 miles of conduit, will be nearly, if not quite, equal in purity to the Cochituate.

That all the points bearing upon this question of purity, which are known to the Board, may be placed before you, the following remarks from the Report of the City Engineer, submitted to you in March, 1873, are quoted :—

"Previously to the selection of the Sudbury as the new source for the additional supply, no analysis of its water had been published or was at command. There were, however, various reasons for believing that it is unusually free from deleterious matter either in solution or held suspended. Such was the testimony of all persons consulted, who had observed and used it. It is used, as taken from the river, in all the processes of bleaching, and is noted for its fitness for the purpose, which would indicate that it is generally free from color, and from matter in suspension. The country drained is of a character to insure purity of supply; it is for the most part very sparsely populated, contains few or no