226 Report on the Water Supply of Albany. 



of very little filtering ; that in fact water so obtained ex- 

 cept in the coarser particles of matter will retain all the 

 qualities of the same fluid in the open river. 



We cannot but regard any scheme of this kind or any 

 plan which may be devised for obtaining water from the 

 Hudson near the city, as open to grave objections, and if 

 carried out it will be at the cost of health and life among 

 the inhabitants. 



In conclusion, we must beg leave to express our opinion 

 that although a temporary supply of water may be obtained 

 from the sources indicated, and that we may, by a little 

 care, be saved from the obnoxious if not really noxious 

 qualities of the water as at present furnished, we do not 

 see in any of these sources the means of a permanent sup- 

 ply in the future. All the water-sheds upon the lower 

 plateau are becoming cultivated and more closely peopled. 

 The regular supply is diminishing, while the quality is 

 rapidly deteriorating from various causes. In this state 

 of things we must sooner or later resort to the higher 

 water-sheds for a supply of pure water. Although Albany 

 may perhaps be able, by great care and better manage- 

 ment than heretofore, to maintain a tolerable supply for 

 twenty years, we are convinced that the city must finally 

 resort to the Hudson river, or some of its tributaries, at a 

 point above the towns and villages whose rapidly increas- 

 ing populations and manufactories are poisoning the waters 

 for forty miles to the northward. 



The committee have now pointed out the various 

 sources from which a supply of water for the future wants of 

 the city may be obtained, but whatever plan may hereafter 

 be adopted, we think it is urgent to proceed at once to 

 guard against the failure of water with which we are 

 threatened during the next few months. At this season, 

 when we usually have a large supply on hand to carry us 

 through the drought of the summer months, Rensselaer 



