Remember When?

FIRST WATER SYSTEM SIMPLE

Excerpt from “Looking Back” Reflections of Orin P. Kendall

A little bit of history concerning the Thompson Falls water supply might be appropriate at this time. I recognize that there are other people who know more about the system than I, but having served as a councilman and mayor for several years I am quite aware of the problems that the system has and have had ever since the beginning of the town.

The first water system, if it could be called that, consisted of water being delivered to homes by the barrel at a cost that no doubt was much higher than water rates today.

One of the first, if not the first, water system was started by a man by the name of McQuirk. The water was brought from Ashley Creek through a wooden pipeline. The principal lines throughout the town were also constructed of wood. (The Old Jail Museum has on display a piece of the old wood pipeline.)

As time went on the system deteriorated to a point where the lines leaked badly. The water became dirty and often contained angle worms and other foreign matter.

Since McQuirk was unable or unwilling to make the necessary repairs, the Town of Thompson Falls took over the system. I am unable to determine the amount of money involved, but believe that the consideration was one dollar.

Since this was in the middle of the great depression, WPA labor was used in making the repairs. Also, I am sure that a money grant was received for the purchase of materials. The takeover of the system was in 1935 or 1936. A bond issue was passed and a storage reservoir was constructed. Further improvements were made to the system and it appeared that the water problem was solved, but when summer came there was still a need to ration water.

In about the middle 1940s, the first well was dug on the grounds known as the old golf course (the golf course was situated in the area of Previs Field and the Senior Center). An abundance of water was found at a depth of 23 feet and a pump calculated to pump 500 gallons a minute was unable to pump the well dry. The water problem appeared solved until the Montana Power Co. took the boards out of the dam and the 500-gallon a minute pump pumped the well dry in less than a minute.

With the water problem still unsolved, the suggestion was made that another storage reservoir would solve the problem. An election for a bond issue to construct the reservoir was scheduled for a day in November and on that day it poured rain all day long and hardly anyone came out to vote. The election was lost. Who needs water in November?

In the early 1970s it was decided to put down a second well and make it deeper than the first well. We contracted with a well driller to put down a 10-inch hole. Water was struck at about 21 feet, but since the old well went dry at 23 feet the new well was drilled to 47 feet when clay was struck, and it appeared advisable to stop at that point. A test pump was put on the new well and it was estimated that it would produce about 250 gallons per minute. A water dowser told me that we missed the main vein by 15 feet. I have been told by well drillers that a 20-inch hole would not produce twice as much water as a 10-inch hole. If so, drilling a bigger hole would not have produced more water but would have been more costly. Luckily the flow of water in the new well was not affected by the removal of the dam boards. The total cost as nearly as I can recall for the new well including the pump and the building was under $6,000 and was paid out of current water funds.

With the two wells and the water from Ashley Creek, the system was capable of delivering upwards of 1,000 gallons of water a minute (engineer’s estimate, not mine). Next we turned our attention to looking for leaks. Thompson Falls being largely situated on a rock pile makes finding water leaks difficult.

Leaks occurring in good soil will eventually rise to the surface, but generally if leaks occur in rocks the water will just sink. Small leaks such as might occur in house plumbing are more easily heard than large leaks in mains. We spent a lot of time trying to locate leaks and found a good many of them that should have helped with the water situation. With the shifting of the ground and traffic of heavy vehicles, leaks can occur at any time, so it is necessary to be on the alert for new ones.

It must be remembered that what may have been adequate water supply 40 years ago would not be adequate today. I am sure that the number of users has tripled and the amount of water used by each customer has greatly increased also.

The fact that we have had one of the lowest water rates in Montana has never made me feel very bad. However, I do think that water should be paid for according to the amount used, which is not the present system of determining water charges. There is nothing fair when one person living in a big house is charged the same as if a family of six lived there.

FYI: Thompson Falls Census figures – 1910, 325 people; 1930, 468 people; 1940, 736 people. With a 2020 population of 1,489, Thompson Falls is currently growing at a rate of 2.13% annually and its population has increased by 13.40% since the most recent census, which recorded a population of 1,313 in 2010.