Baltimore's Water Supply 1787-1854 Meeting the Needs of a Growing City

摘要

In retrospect, Baltimore's efforts to provide an adequate supply of water proved to be a long struggle for politicians, engineers and consumers. From its first failed attempts to secure water to its final purchase of the private water rights, the city struggled to gain the needed financial political and popular support for building a water supply. For most of this period, it appeared the municipality could not convince the public of the need for an ample water supply, or it could not convince taxpayers that it was worth the expense to build a municipal system. Baltimore's seemed content with their piecemeal system of wells, springs and pumps. The task of building a piped water supply was left to the privately owned Baltimore Water Company, As the Company later claimed, the job of building the waterworks was given to the private sector by default. With limited financial resources and conservative business leadership, the Water Company expanded its services at a very slow pace. Leaving half of the city without piped water after almost a half century. The dual system of the privately-piped source for a number of wealthy individuals and businesses and a publicly-run system of wells and pumps for the less wealthy appeared to work satisfactorily until the early 1820s. Before the mid-1820s there were no strong voices of dissent or criticism regarding the dual system. The two systems were based upon the ability to pay, to what historian Joel Tarr referred to as a water system based on "class structure." Signs of conflict first appeared in 1803 when Baltimore was growing but only 13% of the population had access to a piped water supply. It took nearly thirty years of negotiations and commissioned studies to unite the two sources, Despite the occasional outbreak of water-related diseases and the frustrations of broken pumps, there appeared to be no great sense of urgency for an improved water system. Public concern over the quality of water, which, today, is a key issue water supply, was virtually nonexistent in this study. Before the 1880s, there was little understanding in America about the treatment and filtration of water. Neither of Baltimore's two sources provided any filtration, although both recognized that polluted water was unappealing to customers. The key issue of expanding the water system was based upon securing an adequate supply for fire protection. This remained the most compelling reason for any improvements to the water system from its first creation in the early 1800s and until the transition from private to public control in the 1850s. Repeatedly, citizens and politicians expressed their concern for adequate water, fire hydrants and pumping capacity to reach the higher elevated portions of the city. This, combined with the growing realization that the Baltimore Water Company had outgrown its original role as the only entity capable of supplying water to the city, moved the two suppliers to unite as one under the governance of the municipality.