City of Mt. Pleasant Water System
The City of Mt. Pleasant has a modern water treatment plant located on Interstate 30 in north Mt. Pleasant. The plant contains computerized monitoring systems designed to monitor water quality 24 hours a day and alert City employees before a problem occurs. In the city's early days, though, things were altogether different and quality drinking water was a constant problem.
Today clean, high-quality drinking water and a properly functioning sewage system are absolute requirements for any town. The quality and operation of both utilities are now regulated by both the state and federal governments. However, the availability of clean, high-quality drinking water was not always an option. Simply having running water inside your home was considered a major convenience. Just because the water ran did not mean you might really want to drink it - at times it contained live mosquito larvae and other "wigglers" that weren't exactly appetizing. At other times, as recent as the early 1970s, city tap water was dark brown colored from solid particulates suspended in it. Bad odors and tastes plagued our drinking water system for years. The development of the City of Mt. Pleasant's waterworks system has evolved over years of hard work by City management in upgrading facilities as technology and money permitted. Over the years, the drinking water we now take for granted has changed and improved greatly with advances in technology.
A proper water system not only affects the drinking water, but also has a direct effect on the fire department's ability to extinguish fires. The ability of the City's water system directly affects the rates that you pay for fire insurance. Without a constant and high volume water supply, it is impossible to extinguish large structure fires. Modern fire engines pump between 750 and 1200 gallons per minute, so you can do the math and see how much water is required to suppress a large fire over an hour's time, particularly when several engines are on the scene. Before a quality water system was installed, it was not unusual to lose several homes or an entire block of downtown buildings to fire due to the inability to extinguish it. Examples are the great Chicago and San Francisco fires, where dynamite had to be used to clear fire lanes because sufficient water was not available to fight them.
We wanted to present the topics of the City of Mt. Pleasant water and sewage utilities simply because today everyone takes them for granted. We would like to show our visitors that even though problems sometimes still occur with both systems, they should be thankful for these basic utility services. Things could be, and have been, much worse in earlier times. It's likely that by understanding where we have come from, you will have a new appreciation for the people and systems that provide the clean drinking water that flows from your tap.
While we can research facts and figures about our early water system in City Council minutes, we find that local newspapers provide the "color" necessary to fully understand and appreciate the water system's "growing pains". Unfortunately, microfilmed newspapers don't start until 1923, some 20 years after the water system was first created.
We found the story of the City of Mt. Pleasant's water system, while very long, to also be interesting. Therefore, we divided it into several web pages so you could read it in sections if you choose.
Click a blue link below or on the menu above to learn about the history of Mt. Pleasant's water system:
