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Innamorati, Jean

Historic Preservation Program

2008

M.S.

A benefit of urban life that many take for granted is an abundant supply of clean, safe water. This thesis elaborates upon the economic, political, technical and medical aspects involved in the planning, building maintenance and improvement of the Burlington waterworks from 1865 until 1915. Interwoven with materials taken from the extensive historical record is a discussion of the interests and motivations of the engineers and city officials responsible for proposing and constructing the system. Another significant theme is the developing understanding of sanitation principles and how diseases spread that characterized the period and influenced decisions made by the city concerning the water supply system. The need for a municipal water supply was a motivating factor in Burlington's city incorporation in 1865. Four interests converged to make the waterworks essential: growth of the city's population, including an influx of laborers and their families; the needs of the business community, including manufacturers, railroad companies and hotel owners; the lumber processing industry's desire for reliable fire protection; and a wish among health officials to improve the city's health and sanitation. In 1866, two engineers presented separate proposals for the waterworks. W.J. McAlpine advocated using the Winooski River as the source for the city's water, while D.C. Linsley insisted that Lake Champlain was the better choice. The conflict between these two protagonists brought into focus the complex interaction of public-spirit and raw self-interest that defined Burlington's early civic leadership. After Linsley's proposal won the debate, construction began in 1867. A pier and intake well were built in the lake, near the Battery at the foot of North Street. A pump house on the lakeshore housed two pumps, a duplex condensing steam engine and a boiler fueled by coal and wood shavings. The pumps had the capacity to lift water 285 vertical feet for a distance of 8,362 feet to an earthen reservoir with a capacity of 2,236,000 gallons that was built near the University of Vermont campus. The reservoir allowed gravity to distribute water throughout the system when the pumps were turned off. Municipal service began on December 25, 1867. Between 1868 and 1875, the distribution system was expanded to cover most of the city's three wards. From 1876 until 1890, the city expanded the waterworks with a high service tank and a second reservoir. The sanitary quality of Burlington's water concerned health officials and residents after 1873. While the city escaped a cholera epidemic, the rates of disease and death from typhoid fever and other diarrheal diseases had become alarming. The city's mortality rate for children under five years was the highest in the state. Sewage and storm water run-off flowed directly into the lake not far from the water supply intake, but fiscal conservatism delayed changing the location of the intake pipe until 1894, when it was extended nearly two miles out into Burlington Bay in an attempt to secure water far from contamination by sewage. Although disease and death rates dropped in the first years after the intake pipe was extended, by the early years of the twentieth century they began to rise again. In 1908, a rapid sand filtration system was installed at the lakefront. Aluminum sulfate and later, hypochlorite of lime, were added to raw water from the lake prior to filtration to remove and destroy bacteria. By 1915, the rate of death from typhoid fever and other water-borne diseases had decreased significantly.