Published once a week at Palmer, Alaska for the Matanuska Valley Farmers1
Cooperating Association for the purpose of giving news of the Associations
work, problems and accomplishments.
FACTS on THE WATER SiTUATlOH
One thing that all citizens of Palmer should be grateful for is the fact that practi
cally every week some new and startling news event becomes available to the public,
it breaks the monotony in the life of the average citizen in a small town like ours.
This week we learn that the water supply in Palmer is contaminated with dangerous
bacteria and that citizens must boil all water used for drinking purposes.
This may be startling news to the average uninformed citizen, but it was not un
expected by the people who own the water system, for ever since the present Terri
torial Sanitary Department was established the Co-op has been warned to install a
protective system that would safeguard the water from contamination. This program
has been suggested over a period of years although regular tests of the purity of
the water has been conducted by the agency in charge and nothing was shown in these
tests that indicated there was anything wrong with water during that time.
The original development of the water system in question, was planned by men who
were undoubtably competent enough to engineer a job of this kind and their opinion
was that the system was protected by the nature of its installation in that it was
developed from underground springs that are shielded by a layer of gravel and earth,
thus preventing harmful organisms from entering the system. It was thought that
until it was definitely proved that there was something harmful found in the water
that it would be a waste of time and money to make any changes.
The people who have been in charge of the Co-op certainly do not want to endanger
the lives of the citizens who use water from their system but there are certain con
ditions that will have to be considered before the recommended changes are made.
The main one is that of financing the improvements, and. it might be well to inform
those who are interested that the Co-op did not break even this last year in its
operations in the water department and if the proposed improvements are made it will
take several years and possibly never before the Co-op can get the water department
on a paying basis. Naturally, the farmers who own the Co-op do not want to subsidize
the operations for the benefit of the public.
It appears that unless the good citizens of Palmer want to underwrite the cost of
new improvements or the building of a new system independent of the Co-op, or until
the Co-op finds means of financing it, the present setup will have to continue.
The Board of Directors of the Co-op have plans for developing more water and making
more reserve water in case of fire and installing safeguards for purity, however,
it will be impossible to do this f®r at least another year.
The possibility that the Co-op may have to cut the use of water to any outsider
should be considered, we do not want to do this, but it must be remembered that the
present wa'^er system was not built for or intended to be a public utility and that
the Co-op has the right to restrict the use of the water in this system to its own
uses. It has only agreed to furnish surplus water, when available, to the public
and due to the short rainfall during the last year the source of supply is diminish
ed and will not increase until normal rainfall occurs again.
The Co-op has been short on water for its own uses for several weeks and really
needed all the water that has been available during that time, however, it has
shared the shortage with its dependents, although it has caused considerable loss
in the departments that have to use a lot of water in processing atid manufacturing.
C • R, R