History of the Water Supply of the World

Chapter VI: The succeeding articles, viz (1)

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1. The Geology of Hamilton County;
2. Our subterranean water resources and well-boring;
3. The adjacent water-sheds in Ohio;
4. Kirkwood’s survey for a water supply--1865;
5. The Ohio River;
6. Scowden’s survey for a water supply--1872;
7. Moore’s survey for a water supply--1882;

have been prepared expressly for the dissemination of that information bearing upon the proposed new water supply, that will be useful, as well as interesting, to the citizens of Cincinnati at this particular time. These subjects have their respective bearing on our water supply,--that of the geological structure being especially important, because we learn from it a more accurate knowledge of our subterranean resources; of the impossibility of infiltration of the Ohio River waters, and of the formation and availability of our water-sheds.

No. 1.

GEOLOGY.

(Arranged from the Ohio State Geological Reports, 1873.)

The rocks of Ohio are:

===============+=============+==========================+===========
SYSTEM. | GROUP. | STRATA. | THICKNESS
| | | IN FEET.
---------------+-------------+--------------------------+-----------
| | { Delta sand. } |
Quaternary. |Drift. | { Forest bed. } | 200
| | { Erie clay. } |
| | |
|Coal. | { Upper coal measure. } | --
| | { Barren “ } |
| | |
|Measures. | Lower coal measure. | 1,200
+-------------+--------------------------+------------
Carboniferous. |Conglomerate.| Conglomerate. | 100
+-------------+--------------------------+------------
|Lower carb. | Chester limestone. | 20
|Limestone. | |
+-------------+--------------------------+------------
|Waverly. | { Cuyahoga shale. } | --
| | { Berea grit. } |
| | |
|Group. | { Bedford shale. } | 500
| | { Cleveland shale. } |
===============+=============+==========================+============
Devonian |Erie. | Erie shale. | 400
| | |
|Huron. | Huron shale. | 300
| | |
|Hamilton. | -- | 20
| | |
|Corniferous. | { Sandusky limestone. } | 100
| | { Columbus “ } |
| | |
|Oriskany. | Oriskany sandstone. | 10
---------------+-------------+--------------------------+-----------
Upper Silurian.|Helderburg. | Water lime. | 100
| | |
|Salina. | Salina shale. | 40
| | |
|Niagara. | { Hillsboro sandstone. 30| }
| | { Niagara limestone. 180| } 275
| | { Niagara shale. 60| }
| | { Dayton “ 5| }
| | |
|Clinton. | -- | 50
| | |
|Medina. | -- | 20
---------------+-------------+--------------------------+-----------
Lower Silurian.|Cincinnati. | { Lebanon beds. } |
| | { Eden shales. } | 1,000
| | { Mt. Pleasant beds. } |
| | |
|Calciferous. | { Calciferous } | 475
| | { Sand rock. } |
| | |
|Potsdam. | Potsdam sandstone. | 300
===============+=============+==========================+===========

The oldest rocks are designated by Eozoic system, consisting of Laurentian and Huronian groups, and are metamorphic rocks underlying a broad belt in Canada, from Labrador to the Lake of the Woods, and thence to the Arctic Sea. It is computed that this group of strata attains a thickness of 47,000 feet in Canada.

The Potsdam sandstone, the first member of the Silurian system, rests unconformably on the Eozoic rocks wherever the two are found in contact. This, as its name implies, is a sandstone, and is the first product of the invasion of the Eozoic continent by the ancient ocean, and the action of the shore waves upon the cliffs and surface.

It has been reached in the deep borings made at Columbus, Louisville, and St. Louis. Neither the Eozoic or Potsdam stones are exposed in any part of Ohio. Resting on the Potsdam stone, is a formation called calciferous sand-rock, so named in New York because there it consists of a mixture of lime and sand. This formation holds the lead of central and eastern Missouri.

Trenton limestone, with its underlying strata of chazy, Black River, and bird’s-eye limestones, rests on the calciferous sand-rock, and forms a calcareous mass of 300 to 600 feet in thickness. It is exposed in New York, Canada, Lake Superior, and Upper Mississippi, where one of its members, the Galena limestone, claims special notice as being the repository of all that rupture.

Upon the Trenton rests the Hudson group, consisting of the Hudson River and Utica slates, and composed of mixed calcareous and argillaceous sediments. This group is regarded as an equivalent to the blue limestones, or Cincinnati group, which are of special interest to the inhabitants of Ohio, inasmuch as they are the lowest rocks exposed within our territory.

These older rocks are brought to the surface by an axis of upheaval, reaching from Nashville to Lake Erie. They have been still further exposed by the cutting down of the valley of the Ohio, near Cincinnati, where 800 feet of the series are exposed to view. The wells on the upper Cumberland, in Kentucky, were sunk in rocks of the Hudson age. The earthy limestones of the Hudson period indicate a shallow and retreating sea, an approach to land conditions, and the completion of one circle of deposition.

The rocks next in order are:

The Oneida conglomerate marks a period of land subsidence, or water
elevation. It is composed of coarse materials torn from the coast
by shore waves. The system is found in central New York.

The Medina sandstone.--A period of mechanical sediments. In New
York it is 300 to 400 feet in thickness. It has been struck in
borings for oil in northern Ohio, but not well marked.

Clinton Group, in Ohio, is represented by a limestone 15 to 20 feet
thick, an outcrop following the line of junction of the Lower and
Upper Silurian.

Niagara Group is above the Clinton and occupies a wide-spread and
more important formation, composed of equal masses of limestone and
shale. This is the rock that underlies Chicago. The Niagara and
Clinton overlie the Cincinnati Group.

Salina is the formation from which the salt is obtained at
Syracuse. In northern Ohio it overlies the Niagara, and contains
the gypsum of Sandusky. This deposition marks the era of a retiring
sea, which left a series of shallow basins that became great
evaporating pans.

Helderburg group is the surface rock of a large area in Ohio, and
forms a summit of the Upper Silurian, and completes a circle of
sedimentary formation corresponding, in a way, with that of the
Lower Silurian.

The Trenton groups are nearly pure carbonate of lime, while those
of the Niagara series--Clinton, Niagara, and Waterlime--are highly
magnesian.

The Devonian age contains many strange forms of ancient life. In the Mississippi Valley, the Devonian strata are mostly calcareous, and much thinner than in New York and Pennsylvania, showing plainly that here, as in eastern Canada, open sea prevailed during this age, and that the Cincinnati Arch formed a land surface probably throughout all the Devonian ages. The Devonian system comprise:

Oriskany sandstones.

Corniferous limestone.--An open sea deposit. The average thickness
in Ohio is 100 feet, and forms two belts of outcrop on opposite
sides of the Cincinnati arch. The rock contains 20 per cent. of
magnesia. Fragments of land plants and limbs of trees are found in
this group.

Hamilton group.--A soft, blue limestone in Ohio.

Huron shale--exhibits a prevailing black color, and contains 10 per
cent. of combustible matter. The line of its outcrop is marked by
oil and gas springs. It is exposed in Kentucky and Tennessee, on
both sides of Cincinnati anticlinal. It contains a large amount of
carbon, derived from sea-weeds.

Erie shales is the name given to the Huron shale in northern Ohio
and Lake Erie.

The carboniferous system is the highest group of rocks found in Ohio, and holds nearly all the beds of coal. As this period is not relative to Hamilton County, we shall only briefly refer to it.

At the period of the formation of the lowest bed of coal, the level of the carboniferous continent would seem to have been the highest; for when the stratum of bituminous matter had accumulated to the depth of a few feet, it was submerged by water, that brought shales and sandstone, and spread them in layers of many feet in thickness above it, before the requisite conditions were reached for the formation of another stratum. The intervals of repose, when the surface of the land was nearly at a level with the sea, were marked by the carbonaceous matter, and the thickness of each stratum measures the length of time during which this state of quiescence continued.

The changes of level were apparently all in one direction, that of submergence. During the epoch of the coal measure, the surface of the land and at the sea level, while the first stratum of coal was forming, was depressed until there had been deposited upon it a series of strata, which measured in Ohio, before being eroded, fully 2,000 feet in thickness, and included at least twelve workable seams of coal, with a great number of thinner ones.

From Signal Service Records]

At the time of the formation of the highest coal-beds, the Alleghany Mountain system was elevated, and an area including most of the States of our Union was raised above the ocean, never again, to the present time, submerged. The anthracite coal basins of Pennsylvania were once a part of the Alleghany coal-field, but were isolated by the upheaval and erosion of the mountain ridges; and by this disturbance, all the rocks were more or less metamorphosed, and most of the volatile ingredients of the coal driven off, leaving it in the condition of anthracite.

THE DEPOSITS OF DRIFT.

The period immediately following the Tertiary age [but separated from it by we know not how many years] presents a complete change in the physical condition, that during this time the pervading warmth of the Tertiary was changed to an Arctic cold. While, in the former age, the climate of our Southern States was carried to Greenland; in the latter, or drift period, the present Greenland was brought as far south as the Ohio. This was when we had our icebergs or glacial age. The gravel, the bowlders, and an unstratified clay thickly studded with small fragments of rock, are the glacial surface-covering. Mingled with these are found many pebbles and bowlders of crystalline rock, such as are found north of the great lakes.

The finding of large bowlders in fields are the deposit of icebergs that once floated over our country. The glaziers reached as far as Cincinnati, planing, grinding down, smoothing all rock surfaces, and excavating the basins of our great lakes. The retreat of the glaciers left clay and bowlders and a great inland sea of fresh water, filling basins, before occupied by ice, 500 feet above the present surface of Lake Erie. At a later period, by continental elevation or the removal of barriers to drainage, the water level was gradually depressed until the inland sea was reduced to the comparative insignificance of our great lakes.

The descent of the water by motion of the waves, cut the well-marked terraces and edges.

CINCINNATI ANTICLINAL.

The term, Cincinnati Group, is now applied to the blue limestone series, and is an equivalent, in the geological nomenclature, to the Hudson Group of New York.

Its thickness is estimated at 1,000 feet. The line of upheaval passes from the south line of Tennessee, with a direction a little east of north, through Cincinnati to Lake Erie. Throughout its whole length the strata are raised in a distinct arch, from which they dip away, on the one side under the Alleghany coal-field, on the other beneath the coal basin of Indiana and Illinois.

The bearing of this axis of elevation is nearly parallel with that of the folds of the Alleghanies; that the date of its upheaval was subsequent to the carboniferous, and anterior to the Triassic period. The line, north of Cincinnati, extends from the Ohio River in a direction a little east of north to the lake shore, between Sandusky and Toledo. In consequence of the erosion, which all the region bordering the Cincinnati Arch has suffered, the line of the axis presents no conspicuous topographical features. About Cincinnati the summit of the arch has been much more deeply and extensively removed than farther north, yet this is still higher than its northern prolongation.

There is every reason to believe, therefore, that this was originally the highest part of that portion of the arch within Ohio, and, in common with the Blue Grass district of Kentucky, the blue limestone area about Cincinnati is the most elevated portion of the ridge; that which has been the longest above the sea level and suffered most from surface erosion. We find here a line or tract from which the strata dipped on both sides in opposite directions.

The strata, that are found in the tops of the Cincinnati hills, can be followed to the eastern side of Brown County, where they seem to disappear beneath the river with a marked easterly dip; while below Cincinnati, near Madison, Indiana, the same beds are carried beneath the river by a strong westerly dip. The Cincinnati anticlinal, unlike the folds of the Appalachian system, generally has its longer slope to the westward, and its steeper descent towards the east, estimated at 35 feet per mile. In the western half of the State, and especially along the summit of the Cincinnati Arch, the dip of the strata is strongly northward, amounting to about 1,000 feet between the Ohio and the lake. The surface of the Cincinnati Group is in Highland County, about 500 feet above Lake Erie, while on the lake shore it is nearly 400 feet below the lake. These figures do not represent the entire dip, inasmuch as the crown of the arch is extensively eroded where it crosses the Ohio in Clermont County. The Cincinnati section was originally crowned, there is little reason to doubt, with the Lebanon beds [the highest rocks of the Cincinnati group] in whole or in part, which suffered by erosion, forming our valleys of to-day.

The surface of the blue limestone, near Lebanon, is 441 feet above Lake Erie, while the same rocks were found in the Columbus well to be 721 feet below Lake Erie, a dip of 1,167 feet in a distance of about 70 miles by an air line, or 16.6 feet per mile.

Toward the northern extremity of the arch the dip is north-west and more rapid, the strata descending under the Michigan coal-field. Near the lake-shore the minimum dip is 20 feet to the mile, while on the Ohio it is 40 feet. The easterly dip is a succession of steps or waves beneath the trough of the Alleghany coal-field, the axis of which passes near or beyond our eastern border. This dip is so great that the lowest stratum exposed on the crown of the Cincinnati arch is on the eastern side of the State, buried about 2,000 feet beneath the surface. East of the Ohio all the rocks rise again, and not only the lowest exposed in our State, but even those which underlie them, crop out on the flanks and summits of the Alleghany Mountains. Along the Kentucky River from Frankfort to Nicholasville, and at Murfreesboro, Tennessee, the basal portion of the blue limestone series is exposed to view; and if it was originally as thick at these points as elsewhere, not less than 800 to 1,000 feet of the upper part have been removed.

HAMILTON COUNTY.

Strictly speaking there are no hills in Hamilton County, the surface being all referable to the tablelands and to the valleys worn in them. The elevated lands, called hills, are merely isolated remnants of the old plateau, which have, thus far, escaped the long continued inundation. This isolation is effected by the Little Miami, the Ohio, the Millcreek Valleys, and the abandoned channel of the Great Miami.

The bedded rocks of the Cincinnati section are as follows:

Lebanon beds, 293 feet { Hill quarry beds, 125 feet
Cincinnati beds proper, 425 feet--{ Eden shales, 250 feet
Mt. Pleasant beds, 50 feet { River quarry, 50 feet
---
Total, 768 feet

The Mt. Pleasant beds are so named because, at the Ohio River bed at this point, they are the lowest of the exposed beds, and underlie the lowest beds at Cincinnati by 50 feet. The Cincinnati beds have their inferior limit at low water of the Ohio, and for an upper boundary the highest stratum found in the Cincinnati hills. Their greatest elevation, above low water-mark, is 450 feet. The Eden, or middle shale, is so named because of its prominence in Eden Park hills. It has no economical value, indeed its relation to economical interests are mainly in the way of disadvantages to be overcome, because of its instable character. Of the 250 feet not more than one foot in ten is limestone, the remainder being shales, clay, or soapstones. These shales have scarcely tenacity enough to hold their place in steep descents, still less, when they have been removed from their original beds, can they be made to cohere, and they form treacherous foundations for buildings erected, or for roadways constructed upon them.

The strata of river quarry-beds are comparatively but little exposed. A moderate amount of building-stone of superior quality is taken from the Covington quarries. But little can be burned into lime, but the concretions constitute a hydraulic lime of great energy.

The Lebanon beds, in contrast to the Mt. Pleasant beds, are the highest of the Cincinnati group, and the location determine their name.

The drift formations are divided into--

1. Drift deposits of the highlands and slopes.

2. Drift deposits of the lowlands and valley drift-beds.

The upland drift has no uniformity in the order of formations aside from the monotonous deposits of yellow clay, which, when filled with water, becomes quicksand. But little clean gravel occurs in the upland, and bowlders also are unfrequent. The drift clays come largely from the waste of blue limestone effected by glacial attrition, while the natural soil has the same origin, except the work of disintegration has been done by the slow action of the atmosphere.

The lowland drift consists of the following terraces, in a descending order:

FEET.
Soil 2 to 5
Gravel and sand with seams of loam, 40 to 60
Brick clay with sand and loam, 20 to 30
Buried soil with trees, leaves, etc., 5 to 10
Gravel and clay, 5 to 10
-- ---
Total, 72 115

The gravel of the Ohio differs from the Miami in being largely composed of sandstone pebbles instead of limestone.

A formation of local occurrences, known as the blue or Springfield clay, is found in a few places, but in limited, vertical and horizontal, extent. The greatest thickness, of more than 30 feet, is found on north Pearl Street, above Pike.

The broad valley, now occupied in part by Millcreek, extending from the present valley of the Great Miami at Hamilton to the Clifton hills, just north of Cincinnati, separates into two branches, one passing to the north and east of the city, and entering the valley of the Little Miami between Red Bank station and Plainville, while the other branch is the present valley of the Millcreek. There are no rocky barriers (nothing, in fact, but the same drift terraces that make the walls of its present course) to shut out the Great Miami from entering the Ohio valley at the same points where the Little Miami and Millcreek enter. There is every reason to believe that this was once its course.

Another of the earlier courses of the Great Miami, is now occupied by the Dry Fork of the White Water; still a third of the old channels is found near Cleves, Miami Township, where the Miami approaches within one-half mile of the Ohio, but is blocked from entering it by a ridge 150 to 175 feet, composed of glacial drift, and instead makes a circuitous route of 10 miles for an outlet.

The well of Timothy Kirby, in Cumminsville, developed the following borings:

FEET.
Soil and brick clay, 12
Sand, 4
Blue clay with gravel, 30
Gravel, 19
Coarse sand, 3
Sand, with fragments of bituminous coal, 11
Blue clay with gravel. (Low water of Ohio River.) 9
Blue clay--fine sand, sprinkled with coal, 16
Sand, water-worn gravel, blue clay, with occasional
fragments of bituminous clay. Shales of blue
limestone group, 43
---
Total, 151

A remarkable feature of the Millcreek is here presented, of the present bed being at a higher level by 120 feet, than that of the ancient channel,--an erosion that could not have been effected under existing circumstances, but more probable, to the glacial period.

The coal-field wastes are also unaccountable.

No. 2.

OUR SUBTERRANEAN WATER RESOURCES.

Underlying our drift formation is that impervious strata of blue limestone, 1,000 feet in thickness, through which no water can circulate. The lowest limit of this mass of stone is at low water of the Ohio River, at Cincinnati, from which point it anticlines in all directions. There are crevices or pockets, however, in which water has been accidentally found. The following are examples:

===================+======+========+==========+===========
| | TOTAL | DIAMETER |
NAME OF OWNER. | DEPTH| DEPTH | OF |WHERE WATER
| IN |OF WELL | BORING | WAS FOUND.
| FEET.|IN FEET.|IN INCHES.|
-------------------+------+--------+----------+-----------
John Kaufman. | 25 | | |
| 73 | | |
| 55 | | |
| 35 | | |
| 25 | 215 | 3½ |In crevice.
| | | |
| 75 | | |
Holder’s Tannery. | 90 | | |
| 50 | 215 | 3½ |
| | | |
| 80 | | |
Freiburg & Workum. | 170 | 250 | -- |In crevice.
===================+======+========+==========+===========

The waters of the above wells are necessarily hard, although that at Holder’s tannery is used for all purposes. The water at John Kaufman’s is very turbid. The Freiburg & Workum well was originally a dug one, forty feet deep, but the quantity was insufficient. When they struck the present source, they destroyed the adjoining surface wells of Hoffheimer Bros.

A number of failures to secure water in this limestone formation is on record, but we can notice only a few.

At Rasche Bros., tannery, on Plum Street, opposite Bank Street, they drove a 6 inch well through, respectively, 16 feet of clay, 4 feet quicksand, 15 feet blue clay, 70 feet yellow clay, and solid quarry rock. A pump was then inserted but was inoperative on account of the large amount of sand. They continued the boring to 185 feet, striking clay and soapstone, but found no water, and abandoned the undertaking.

Wm. Kirkup & Son, Pearl and Ludlow, bored 60 feet into rock, for water, without success. At Maddox, Hobart & Co.’s rectifying establishment, they have pierced the rock 150 feet, but found no water up to this date. At Weber’s brewery, on McMicken Avenue, an attempt was made to get water in the rock, and abandoned, after boring to a depth of 458 feet.

The Cincinnati group is about 1,000 feet in thickness of blue limestone, forming, almost exclusively, the rocks of Hamilton County, although an outcrop of the oil stratum has been struck in the wells of the Cincinnati Coffin Company and White Mills Distillery. At the former establishment, flowing gas was found at a depth of 82 feet. Another well was started, and at the same depth gas was discovered. The boring of the latter was then continued into the rock to the depth of 168 feet, when water was found. The water was analyzed by Prof. Wayne with the following result:

GRAINS IN EACH GALLON.

Chloride of Sodium 33.21
Chloride of Calcium 4.20
Chloride of Magnesia 1.17
Sulphate of Lime 10.64
Carbonate of Lime 26.64
Carbonate of Magnesia 3.15
Oxide of Iron 12

The gas burnt out in a few days.

White Mills Distillery has four wells, from 4 to 6 inches in diameter, and 220 to 235 feet in depth, bored through, respectively, 50 feet of clay, 40 feet clay and quicksand, and balance _soapstone_ or shale and limestone, where water was found in a crevice, highly charged with gas and very brackish.

The following wells secure their water from drift terraces:

=================+=============+===================+========+
| | | |
OWNER. | LOCATION. | FORMATION. | DEPTH |
| | |IN FEET.|
-----------------+-------------+-------------------+--------+
| |Fill. | 30 |
Hulsman |W. S. John, |Blue clay. } | |
| near Lib’ty.|Quicksand. } | 131 |
| |Gravel. } | |
| | +--------+
Windisch, |Brewery on |Sand. } | |
Muhlhauser & Co.| the Canal |Quicksand. } | |
| |Gravel. } | |
| |Sand. } | |
| | +--------+
John Hauck |Brewery on |Quicksand, yellow.}| |
| Dayton St. | “ blue. }| |
| | +--------+
| |Gravel. | 46 |
| |Blue Clay. } | |
Emery Hotel. |Vine St. bet.|Black mud. } | |
| 4th and 5th.|Quicksand. } | 40 |
| |Gravel. | 60 |
| | +--------+
W. W. Johnson. |Sycamore & |Alluvial. | 12 |
| Yeatman. |Gravel. | 68 |
| | +--------+
City Infirmary. |Hartwell. |Black loam. | 12 |
| |Blue clay. | 13½ |
| |Blue clay mixed } | |
| | with gravel. } | 6½ |
| |Bowlder gravel. | 15 |
| |Quicksand. | 15 |
| |Gravel. | 29 |
=================+=============+===================+========+

=================+========+========+========+==============
| | TOTAL | SIZE OF|
OWNER. | DEPTH | DEPTH | BORE IN| REMARKS.
|IN FEET.|IN FEET.| INCHES.|
-----------------+--------+--------+--------+--------------
| 30 | | |
Hulsman | | | |
| 131 | 161 | 4 |Bored to the
| | | | rock.
+--------+ | |
Windisch, | | | 4½ |Driven to the
Muhlhauser & Co.| | | | rock.
| | | |
| | 180 | 4½ |
+--------+ | |
John Hauck | | | |
| | 170 | |
+--------+ | |
| 46 | | |
| | | |
Emery Hotel. | | | |
| 40 | | |
| 60 | 146 | 3 |From the
|--------+ | | cellar.
W. W. Johnson. | 12 | | |
| 68 | 80 | 3½ |To the rock.
|--------+ | |
City Infirmary. | 12 | | |
| 13½ | | |
| | | |
| 6½ | | |
| 15 | | |
| 15 | | |Also another
| 29 | 92 | 3½ | well 73 feet.
=================+========+========+========+==============

Upon the limestone lays the drift, consisting of water-worn pebbles, gravel, sand, and clay. The porous nature of this formation, with the assistance of a level surface plain, absorbs a very large percentage of the rain-fall, and produces a fertile subterranean water supply, whose depth varies from 30 to 200 feet.

There are in this vicinity about 250 wells that secure the water from this source. The water is strongly impregnated with iron and magnesia--a ferruginous decomposition from the fossil drift-wood found in this formation. The availability of these wells is in proportion to the capacity of the respective pumps attached to them, but their combined requirements have had no apparent effect, at present, on the source. Yet the fact can not be disputed, that this drift supply of water is a very limited one.

The practical experience in London and Liverpool substantiate the above fact, for there the underground sources have been materially lessened by the demands made upon them, notwithstanding they are the richest resources of this nature, and vastly superior to ours.

Prof. Orton, of the Ohio Agricultural College, in a valuable paper on the “Relations of Geology to the Water Supply of the Country,” refers to the purity of the drift water in the south-western part of the State. He says: “The broad and fertile terraces of the river valleys constitute, especially in the south-western corner of the State (Ohio), the most attractive and most valuable portion of its area. They consist of sand and gravel in large measures, and to this structure they owe their chief attraction. _But this same structure renders them unfit to be used for the water supply of the towns built upon them_; for, although an abundance of clear and sparkling water can easily be reached, it must not only be looked upon with suspicion, but must be positively condemned as unsafe.

“These gravel-beds are as porous as a sieve, and there is indisputable proof of the free communication of the water sheet and all the receptacles of impurity that the surface of the ground contains. The only relief is found in the fact that the water sheet is also in free communication with the rivers, rising and falling with them; _but_ even _this_ does not free the wells from the poisonous effects of the filth soakage from above. Geology turns over to sanitary science the conclusion, that the drift wells of central and south-western Ohio are, in all densely populated districts, small cities, towns, villages, and hamlets--even in those containing no more than a dozen houses--_utterly unfit for human use_.”

The above facts are applicable to all the drift formation, including that portion protected from immediate filth soakage of blue clay formation.

A recent examination of our sewerage system, by the U. S. Census Bureau, developed the fact that Cincinnati is polluting its subterraneous soil, to an alarming degree, by the vault system. That no city has so neglected the sanitary necessity of tapping the sewers for house drainage than Cincinnati; that this nature of carelessness was the cause of Memphis’ sad fate, which we have escaped because our soil is of sand and gravel, and susceptible of natural drainage. Yet through this same soil passes the water that is used by some 250 well-owners, still the use of this water is increasing.

London was originally supplied by shallow wells in gravel-beds of 10 to 20 feet in depth, and the direction of its growth was controlled by this water-bearing strata, until the establishment of the New River Water Company in 1600. The Public Health Act of 1872 gives the sanitary authorities power to close these wells.

ARTESIAN WELLS.

Beneath the Cincinnati group are the calciferous sand-rock and Potsdam sandstone, which are porous and water bearing, but they rise to the surface nowhere in our State. They have been reached, however, at this point in several of the deep well-borings, and flowing water of sulpho-saline nature was found, at the following locations:

=========================+====================+==========+=============+
| | | |
NAME OF OWNER. | LOCATION. | DEPTH | SIZE OF BORE|
| | IN FEET. | IN INCHES. |
-------------------------+--------------------+----------+-------------+
Rabe’s Distillery | Cumminsville. | 1,400 | 4½ |
Millcreek “ | West of Millcreek. | 1,440 | 4½ |
Cincinnati Gas Co | West Front Street. | 1,360 | 4½ |
“ “ | “ “ “ | 1,360 | 4½ |
“ “ | Eastern Avenue. | 1,475 | 6 |
Moerlein’s Brewery | North Elm Street. | 2,408 | 4 |
Keck’s Fertilizing Works | Cumminsville. | 1,380 | -- |
=========================+====================+==========+=============+

=========================+==========+==========+========+============
| | | | CAPACITY
NAME OF OWNER. | DEPTH | PRESSURE | TEMPER-| PER HOUR
| IN FEET. | IN LBS. | ATURE. | IN GALLONS.
-------------------------+----------+----------+--------+------------
Rabe’s Distillery | 1,400 | 35 | -- | 6,000
Millcreek “ | 1,440 | 45 | -- | 16,000
Cincinnati Gas Co | 1,360 | 41 | 60 | 8,300
“ “ | 1,360 | 40 | 60 | 8,300
“ “ | 1,475 | 52 | 61 | 30,000
Moerlein’s Brewery | 2,408 | -- | 62 | 24,000
Keck’s Fertilizing Works | 1,380 | -- | 60 |
=========================+==========+==========+========+============

Through the kindness of Gen. A. Hickenlooper, President of the Cincinnati Gas Company, the following complete account of the borings at their works on Front Street is given, which will also serve for a description of the above artesian wells.

The depth and classification of strata are:

Filling 5 feet.
Yellow clay 5 “
Blue clay 20 “
Sand and gravel 90 “
Soapstone 3 “
Blue limestone 40 “
Blue & gray limestone 50 “
Sandstone 5 “
Limestone 380 “
White limestone 240 “
Sandstone 65 “
Limestone, very hard 15 feet.
Red sandstone 62 “
White sandstone 85 “
Coarse sandstone } 15 “
Coarse limestone }
Sandstone 140 “
Very hard, flinty }
limestone }
Red and white } 25 “
marble }
White marble or flint }
-----
Total 1,250 feet.

The synopsis of boring is condensed as follows:

July 24, 1880.--The contractor, John J. Pfeffer, drove a 6-inch
iron tube with a heavy sinker, a few feet at a time, through 123
feet of drift, into limestone. A sand-pump was used to remove the
loose formation. This portion was completed August 2d, 11 A. M.

August 2.--Commenced drilling a 4½-inch hole through the stone
formation at an average rate of 33 feet per 24 hours, and continued
to a depth of 425 feet, when the diameter of the hole was reduced
to 4⅜ inches. The drilling was then continued, at the rate of 29
feet per 24 hours, until the 28th of August, when the socket pulled
out of pole attached to sinker at bottom of well, and at the same
moment the top pole, attached to chain on drilling beam, broke
and fell into the well along-side of the sinker. This accident was
repaired September 7th, and drilling resumed, at rate of 20 feet
per 24 hours, until a depth of 1,025 feet was reached, October 11,
1880, when the drill broke. Resumed work, at rate of 12 feet per
24 hours, until November 5, 1880, when a depth of 1,265 feet was
reached. At the depth of 1,225 feet, the well was tested by sinking
a 4-inch pipe into the well with a bag at lower end to fit tightly
into the 4½-inch bore. When the pipe reached a depth of 15 feet
below the 6-inch tubing, the water flowed over the top of the pipe
at surface, showing a leak around the bottom of the pipe where it
was bedded in the rock.

November 8th.--Tested well, and found a pressure of 30 lbs. per
square inch, and a flow of 90 gallons of water per minute.

February 17, 1881.--When testing well No. 2, the gauge was placed
on this one, which showed only 15 lbs. The bore was then increased
to 4½ inches, and drilling continued to a depth of 1,360 feet, the
last 40 feet being only 3½ inches in diameter. The additional 125
feet was through alternate formations of sand and limestone; the
last 10 feet through a hard flinty formation. Boring into this
last formation increased the pressure to 41 lbs., and the flow to
200,000 gallons per day. The outlay of the two wells is placed at
$8,000.

The analysis of the Moerlein artesian well, by Prof. Wayne, gave the following results:

GRAINS IN ONE
U. S. GALLON.
Carbonate of Lime 19.34
Carbonate of Magnesia 9.13
Chloride of Sodium 534.77
Chloride of Potassium 3.95
Chloride of Magnesia 17.26
Chloride of Calcium 22.19
Sulphate of Lime 29.20
Sulphate of Potash 2.30
Iodide of Magnesium 30
Bromide of Magnesium 39
Oxide of Iron 43
Phosphate of Soda 1.34
Silica 79
Loss in analysis 76
--------
Total 642.16

Prof. Newberry is of the opinion that soft water is improbable in these deep rocks.

No. 3.

WATER-SHED.

The courses of our streams show at a glance that a water-shed crosses the State from north-east to south-west. This water-shed forms a range of highlands that slope by long and easy descent to the Ohio in the south, more rapidly to the lake in the north. _This water-shed in its relief is almost insignificant_, its average altitude being only 500 feet above the lake, its highest point rising perhaps 1,000 feet above the bottom valley of the Ohio. Our topographical features may therefore be described of a plain, slightly raised along a line traversing it from north-east to south-west.

The following altitudes will show the topography of the northern divide. The levels are all above Lake Erie:

The actual crest of the divide forms a singularly tortuous line with remarkable variations of altitude. The water-sheds, with which we are particularly interested, are found in the counties of Shelby, Mercer, and Auglaize, where we have the water-gap of the head-waters of the St. Marys and Auglaize, as feeders of the Maumee River with the Wabash and Big Beaver Rivers on one side, and the Great Miami on this side; with another gap, between the Miami and Mad Rivers, and the Scioto River, found in Logan and Hardin Counties, in which the highest points of the State are found viz., 1,000 feet above low water in the Ohio River. These streams descend very rapidly to the level plateau (500 feet above the Ohio River) passing over lime and magnesia rocks, through swampy lands and “cat-head prairies,” the latter composed largely of vegetable accumulations. The population, through which the Great Miami and Mad rivers flow, is approximately 360,000.

The available resources of the Big Beaver, Wabash, and St. Mary’s water-sheds are collected in St. Mary’s Reservoir, a lake of 47,000 acres, for feeding the Miami Canal north; while Lake Laramie in Shelby County, and Lewistown Reservoir in Logan County gather the waters of the Miami, and being at the summit level, feed the canal both north and south. This level is 519 feet above low water in Ohio River, St. Mary’s 424 feet, Eden Park Reservoir at Cincinnati 235 feet, and Third Street Reservoir 173 feet. The distance in air line from Cincinnati to St. Mary’s is about 95 miles, to Lewistown over 100 miles.

The waters of all the streams named present those features that experience considers most objectionable for a gravity supply, namely:

“1st. In the calcareous nature of the soil, producing hardness of
water.

“2d. In the low and level plateau of water-sheds from which a
minimum surface flow can be realized, requiring storage reservoirs
of large surface area, that are objectionable, because; 1. The loss
of water by evaporation: and 2. The liability to stagnation of
water and propagation of vegetation.

“3d. The streams are fed by the drainage from richly manured farms,
and the water polluted by vegetation of the swampy lands, and
the sewage of a large and growing population. This condition is
intensified, when we consider the proportional size of the streams
to the amount of pollution, and the fact that the most perfect
means of filtration would not suffice to make the water wholesome.

“4th. The available resources of these water-sheds are now used
for feeding the Miami Canal, from which a number of mill-owners
secure their power, whose rights must be protected.

“5th. The insufficient elevation of the sources for securing a fair
hydrostatic water pressure, and their extreme distance, causing
loss of head by long conduit, and enormous cost for construction,
for conveying unwholesome water.”

RIPARIAN RIGHTS.

The compensation to millers by the Manchester and Liverpool Water-Works was fixed by Parliament at one third of the available rain-fall. Nearly one-half of the present capacity of the Glasgow supply is used by mill-owners.

On this subject John W. Erwin, resident engineer of the Ohio State Board of Public Works, says:

“The riparian right of water-users are great, and could not be
purchased for $2,000,000. The water for this purpose can not be
spared. The canal is fed as far as Middletown, by a feeder from Mad
River. At Middletown we feed it from the Miami, which furnishes its
supply of water to Cincinnati, a distance of forty-four miles. The
Middletown Hydraulic Company have owned their rights since 1808,
long before the canal was constructed; and when the canal was built
there was no surrender of such right, merely common consent to the
use of the water, but since that time more than double the amount
of water is used than was contemplated.

“By taking water to Cincinnati from the river, you injure the
power supplied by the river at all points between Middletown and
Cincinnati, and you would find great objections raised by users
of power along the canal. The power derived from the canal is the
life-blood of the town of Middletown, and of the mills along its
banks--at Excello, Woodsdale, Rockdale, Hamilton, Rialto, Port
Union, Crescentville, Lockland, and other places. The mills have
large interests, and would not surrender their rights without a
struggle.

“A large portion of the water of the Miami, and at the present
time we might say half the volume of the water of the river is
carried into Cincinnati by the canal. This is more than was ever
contemplated, and is destined to injure the water-power of the
river itself.”

The abandonment of the canal in the city, will no doubt be accomplished within a short time, when provisions should be made to provide a better use for this surplus water than turning it into Millcreek.

Monthly and annual quantity of water from rain and snow reduced to water, in inches and hundredths, at Cincinnati, Ohio. Latitude 39° 6′ north, longitude 84° 29′ west.

======+========+=========+======+======+======+======+======+=======+
| | | | | | | | |
YEARS.|JANUARY.|FEBRUARY.|MARCH.|APRIL.| MAY. | JUNE.| JULY.|AUGUST.|
------+--------+---------+------+------+------+------+------+-------+
1856 | 1. | 2.49 | 1.51 | .73 | 1.23 | 2.24 | 3.43 | .61 |
------+--------+---------+------+------+------+------+------+-------+
1857 | .54 | 1.98 | .76 | 2.73 | 5.53 | 3.09 | 2.50 | 2.92 |
------+--------+---------+------+------+------+------+------+-------+
1858 | 2.50 | 1.74 | 1.05 | 4.34 | 8.32 | 5.69 | 3.01 | 7.97 |
------+--------+---------+------+------+------+------+------+-------+
1859 | 2.58 | 5.92 | 4.38 | 7.53 | 2.32 | 3.22 | 1.74 | 3.79 |
------+--------+---------+------+------+------+------+------+-------+
1860 | 1.43 | 1.56 | .41 | 5.32 | 3.68 | 1.55 | 7.97 | .92 |
------+--------+---------+------+------+------+------+------+-------+
1861 | 2.68 | 1.81 | 2.08 | 3.88 | 5.91 | 3.80 | 3.62 | 7.10 |
------+--------+---------+------+------+------+------+------+-------+
1862 | 4.74 | 2.36 | 5.84 | 6.30 | 3.32 | 3.02 | 3.05 | 1.49 |
------+--------+---------+------+------+------+------+------+-------+
1863 | 5.55 | 3.05 | 4.37 | 2.13 | 2.84 | 3.11 | 3.21 | 2.99 |
------+--------+---------+------+------+------+------+------+-------+
1864 | 1.85 | .99 | .90 | 2.43 | 2.34 | 3.43 | 1.25 | 3.42 |
------+--------+---------+------+------+------+------+------+-------+
1865 | 2.45 | 2.43 | 4.40 | 3.89 | 7.72 | 2.59 | 7.77 | 2.26 |
------+--------+---------+------+------+------+------+------+-------+
1866 | 2.74 | 1.26 | 5.06 | 2.03 | .94 | 4.44 | 6.94 | 2.75 |
------+--------+---------+------+------+------+------+------+-------+
1867 | 1.41 | 3.56 | 2.71 | 2.74 | 3.80 | 3.73 | 1.60 | 1.57 |
------+--------+---------+------+------+------+------+------+-------+
1868 | 3.72 | .57 | 4.87 | 2.72 | 6.09 | 5.60 | 1.21 | 4.64 |
------+--------+---------+------+------+------+------+------+-------+
1869 | 1.60 | 2.51 | 5.06 | 2.87 | 5.93 | 3.60 | 5.36 | 1.20 |
------+--------+---------+------+------+------+------+------+-------+
1870 | 5.35 | 1.55 | 3.26 | 1.59 | 1.74 | 4.84 | 2.38 | 0.58 |
------+--------+---------+------+------+------+------+------+-------+
1871 | 2.34 | 3.53 | 3.57 | 1.23 | 4.66 | 2.02 | 4.30 | 5.22 |
------+--------+---------+------+------+------+------+------+-------+
1872 | 3.118 | 4.18 | 2.438| 4.890| 4.362| 3.442| 7.129| 2.191 |
------+--------+---------+------+------+------+------+------+-------+
1873 | 2.808 | 3.717 | 1.90 | 2.098| 3.856| 3.291| 3.935| 4.766 |
------+--------+---------+------+------+------+------+------+-------+
1874 | 3.95 | 5.91 | 3.65 | 4.06 | 1.38 | 2.58 | 3.42 | 1.03 |
------+--------+---------+------+------+------+------+------+-------+
1875 | 1.59 | 1.83 | 3.69 | 2.12 | 3.92 | 4.83 | 9.63 | 3.17 |
------+--------+---------+------+------+------+------+------+-------+
1876 | 9.49 | 2.92 | 5.07 | 3.26 | 1.25 | 6.53 | 6.91 | 6.38 |
------+--------+---------+------+------+------+------+------+-------+
1877 | 2.33 | .67 | 5.47 | 2.32 | 1.26 | 5.24 | 4.25 | 2.26 |
------+--------+---------+------+------+------+------+------+-------+
1878 | 4.33 | 2.33 | 4.03 | 3.05 | 2.53 | 5.03 | 4.32 | 4.11 |
------+--------+---------+------+------+------+------+------+-------+
1879 | 2.20 | 2.22 | 5.30 | 2.14 | 4.23 | 5.22 | 2.75 | 1.172 |
------+--------+---------+------+------+------+------+------+-------+
1880 | 5.14 | 4.50 | 4.15 | 5.82 | 5.70 | 9.86 | 2.46 | 4.01 |
------+--------+---------+------+------+------+------+------+-------+
1881 | 3.76 | 4.95 | 3.51 | 3.25 | 2.23 | 7.82 | 3.12 | .76 |
------+--------+---------+------+------+------+------+------+-------+

======+==========+========+=========+=========+=========
| | | | | SUM OF
YEARS.|SEPTEMBER.|OCTOBER.|NOVEMBER.|DECEMBER.|THE YEAR.
------+----------+--------+---------+---------+---------
1856 | 3.62 | 1.74 | 2.09 | 2.19 | 22.88
------+----------+--------+---------+---------+---------
1857 | .75 | 4.92 | 5.36 | 3.82 | 34.90
------+----------+--------+---------+---------+---------
1858 | .85 | 4.66 | 2.57 | 6.41 | 49.17
------+----------+--------+---------+---------+---------
1859 | 2.10 | 1.28 | 4.46 | 3.75 | 42.57
------+----------+--------+---------+---------+---------
1860 | 4.34 | 1.28 | 3.53 | 1.85 | 33.84
------+----------+--------+---------+---------+---------
1861 | 2.93 | 3.77 | 3.62 | 1.10 | 41.30
------+----------+--------+---------+---------+---------
1862 | .93 | .80 | 3.97 | 3.01 | 38.83
------+----------+--------+---------+---------+---------
1863 | 3.10 | 3.85 | 2.05 | 3.80 | 40.05
------+----------+--------+---------+---------+---------
1864 | 8.66 | 2.92 | 3.40 | 2.94 | 34.51
------+----------+--------+---------+---------+---------
1865 | 5.76 | .86 | .56 | 3.89 | 4.53
------+----------+--------+---------+---------+---------
1866 | 1.055 | 1.85 | 3.06 | 1.98 | 43.60
------+----------+--------+---------+---------+---------
1867 | 0.47 | 2.05 | 2.20 | 3.07 | 28.91
------+----------+--------+---------+---------+---------
1868 | 7.19 | 1.32 | 1.70 | 2.07 | 41.60
------+----------+--------+---------+---------+---------
1869 | 3.20 | 2.75 | 3.30 | 2.46 | 39.84
------+----------+--------+---------+---------+---------
1870 | .30 | 2.77 | 1.50 | 2.17 | 28.03
------+----------+--------+---------+---------+---------
1871 | 1.08 | .98 | 3.40 | 3.31 | 35.64
------+----------+--------+---------+---------+---------
1872 | 3.170 | 2.852 | .868 | 5.55 | 35.433
------+----------+--------+---------+---------+---------
1873 | 2.340 | 3.212 | 2.521 | 6.843 | 41.193
------+----------+--------+---------+---------+---------
1874 | 2.33 | 1.31 | 5.35 | 2.58 | 37.55
------+----------+--------+---------+---------+---------
1875 | .65 | 3.05 | 4.35 | 3.75 | 42.58
------+----------+--------+---------+---------+---------
1876 | 3.17 | 4.26 | 2.36 | .88 | 52.48
------+----------+--------+---------+---------+---------
1877 | 1.66 | 1.85 | 3.49 | 3.35 | 34.65
------+----------+--------+---------+---------+---------
1878 | 2.84 | 2.39 | 2.77 | 3.89 | 41.62
------+----------+--------+---------+---------+---------
1879 | 4.01 | .65 | 4.05 | 7.11 | 51.60
------+----------+--------+---------+---------+---------
1880 | 1.37 | 2.98 | 4.42 | 4.26 | 54.67
------+----------+--------+---------+---------+---------
1881 | 2.10 | 6.01 | 4.06 | 5.67 | 47.24
------+----------+--------+---------+---------+---------

1856 to 1871 the observations were taken by Prof. G. W. Harper; 1872 to 1874 by the City Water-Works, and the last years by the Signal Service.

No. 4.

KIRKWOOD’S SURVEY.

In 1865 the common council appointed a special commission to investigate and report upon the best method of obtaining an abundant supply of pure and wholesome water. The committee consisted of L. A. Harris, mayor; Thos. H. Weasner, president of council; D. T. Woodrow, Henry Pearce, and Henry Kessler, trustees of water-works, Geo. F. Davis, Wm. P. Wiltsee, and Chas. Brown, who succeeded R. B. Moore, members of council; and A. W. Gilbert, city engineer. They secured the services of the most eminent of engineers, John P. Kirkwood, of New York. His instructions were to ascertain the most economical and practical mode of supplying pure water, either from the gathering grounds by gravity, or by pumping from the Ohio River. No scheme was to be considered that would not provide at least thirty millions daily, with resources for future necessities. This limitation rejected Lick Run and Ross Run entering Millcreek; West Fork and East Branch of Millcreek, Duck Creek and Sycamore Creek entering Little Miami River. Those that presented _fair_ prospects for the collection of water as regards quantity were:

The objections to these waters were: 1. The hardness; 2. The contamination of richly manured farms; 3. The uncertainty of the availability of the water-sheds. To produce the thirty millions it required the combined area of Clear and Gregory creeks, besides large storage reservoirs for dry seasons. The distance of latter creek is 38 miles from the city, and 15 feet below flow-line of Eden Reservoir.

He considered the waters of the Ohio most preferable _providing the water was taken above the city limits_. The plan embraced a pumping service with two lifts, to be located in Pendleton, with storage and settling reservoirs and filter-beds. The elevation of reservoir was 200 feet above low water, and would not supply elevations above 175 feet. The estimates were:

Three settling reservoirs, $381,436.02
Two filter-beds, 514,220.50
Storage reservoir of 39 acres, 635,386.50
Pumping house and foundations for low service works, 194,822.80
Pumping house and foundations for high service works, 77,285.75
Pumping engines--two for low service and two for high
service, 30 millions capacity, 402,500.00
Force-main, with river inlets, 119,979.50
Forty-two-inch supply main to Third Street Reservoir, 457,355.00
Lands and damages, etc., 105,225.00
Auxiliary pumping engine and reservoir for Walnut Hills, 150,000.00
-------------
Total, $3,038,214.07

The majority of the committee in recommending the plan stated; “that they regarded the question, as to the source of supply, as definitely settled for all time, that the Ohio River is the only means from whence this city should derive her supply of water. The site is as high up the river as can well be obtained without crossing the Little Miami.” This latter consideration they thought would be demanded fifty or one hundred years hence. The minority report recommended the retaining of the present system, and the construction of a new reservoir in Eden Park,--the minority report was adopted. Had the Eden Reservoir been completed within a reasonable period it would have served the purpose intended, at least for a few years, but before it was ready for use the consumption of water increased from five, to seventeen millions daily.

No. 5.

OHIO RIVER.

The Ohio River above Cincinnati has a water-shed area, estimated by U. S. Census Bureau, of 100,000 square miles, one-tenth of which is of limestone formation. The hardness of the water varies in proportion to the contribution from this formation. The water, at the mouth of the Big Sandy, is .8 of a degree hardness; at Markley Farm, 4½ to 8; at Dayton sand-beach, 7 to 8; at pump-works, 6 to 8; Eden reservoir, 7 to 9; Eggleston Avenue sewer, 7 to 13; wells in the banks of the river at Dayton sand-beach, 32 to 39; and those at Sedamsville 50 to 60 degrees. The well water is upland surface water. In fact, all borings in the banks of the river secure, in more or less degree, this nature of water.

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