44 Second Annual Report of the 



year period 1901-1910, and in some of the individual years it 

 jumps into the lead. 



Typhoid is a water-borne disease, and the high ratio shown is 

 unquestionably due to the inferior quality and contamination of 

 the water supplies used in this district. Filtration carried out 

 under competent supervision would, of course, partly remedy the 

 situation, but the cost of pumping, filtering and repumping where 

 necessary is heavy, and is especially relatively great when the 

 quantity of water is small. The larger cities are able to carry 

 out such enterprises without seriously feeling the burden, but the 

 small municipality finds it very difficult and expensive to secure 

 and pay for the kind of service required to obtain proper results. 

 It is the essence of the scheme herein proposed to secure for all of 

 the municipalities of the region the advantages which can be 

 obtained from operation on a large scale. For each municipality 

 to reach out and secure individually an adequate supply of water 

 of the kind demanded is impracticable financially. By uniting 

 them all in one system, a supply can be secured at a price little if 

 any greater than the cost of individual pumping and filtering 

 alone, even if water otherwise suitable were at hand. 



The Proposed Supply from Linden. 



To meet the requirements of the district and furnish an ade- 

 quate supply of superior quality, the Commission proposes to im- 

 pound the waters of Little Tonawanda Creek in a reservoir to be 

 created by the construction of a dam across the creek at Linden. 

 This proposed supply was selected for investigation after consider- 

 able study and reconnaisance. Surveys, underground investiga- 

 tions, stream flow estimates, and plans for filtration and distribu- 

 tion have been prosecuted, and have proceeded to a point where 

 the project is well blocked out and reliable preliminary estimates 

 of cost can be made. 



Brief Description of Proposed Supply. 



The drainage area tributary to the reservoir is 21.7 square miles. 

 The rock is near the surface over the entire area, and the run-off 

 should be a large percentage of the rainfall. In the region along 

 the lower Hudson, where the rainfall is somewhat heavier than 



