upr000001 56

(COPY) Los Angeles, May 10, 1912 Mr. T. P. Cullen, Superintendent, Los Angeles, Dear Sir:- Referring to letters which came to me with your letter of May 1st in regard to condition and care of pipe lines at Las Vegas: I have noted what is said in Mr. Walter Bracken's letter to Mr. Bettis, and in Mr. Clark's letter to Mr. Wells, and Mr. Bancroft's letter to Mr. Clark. The correspondence indicates that the impression has gone out that our department has paid, very little attention to this water system. I beg to advise that this impression is certainly incorrect, as a perusal of the file upon the subject will fully convince anyone. There have been a great many letters written and a great deal of criticism made from time to time in the past, all of which was absolutely unjust as far as an attempt to censure anyone in my department is concerned. As you remember, this water pipe is constructed of rivetted steel of about No. 16 guage, and has leaked move or less from the day it was put in by the Construction Department, None of these leaks have, at any time, affected or reduced the volume of water necessary to be delivered through thepipes in supplying the railroad shops, yards, ice plant and the city, as the capacity of the pipe line has always been many timesthe maximum amount of water consumed by all these demands put together. The intake and overflow pipes at the roundhouse are so constructed that a large amount of water is flowing through the tank and wasting through the overflow flume into the cieek at all times, I have watched this system carefully from time to' time for the past seven years, and have never yet known a time when this tank was not full and a large volume of water running through itfee overflow pipe, except at the instant when a locomotive might be taking water. The overflow stream is cobstantly almost as great as the stream running from the spout into a locomotive tank when engine is taking water, ' ..... I am making this statement to show that all the leaks that have occurred during these years have never bean, in any way, cur­tailed the amount of water available for all of the consumers at all times. There have been only two occasions during these seven years when the screen over the intake pipe has become sufficiently stopped to curtail the amount of water flowing into the pipe and at these times, no consumers were in any way short of water to my knowledge. My Water Service men have been instructed for years to make periodical inspection of the pipe line, intake > springs and fences around the springs and to see that they/ are kept in good 4. v jJ? Cl Jfe X