New Manager of Big Water Supply

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 780, 28 September 1929, Page 12

New Manager of Big Water Supply

Mr. G. Elliott Controls San Francisco System OLD WELLINGTON BOY As general manager of tbe Spr™Valley Water Company, one of San Francisco's 'water Mr. George A. Elliott has upheld prestige of New Zealand in the Tnitsi States. Mr. Elliott was born in Welling.,;, in ISSO. He studied two years at the University of Calif-, nia, completing his course and takithis degree at the University of CoW ado in 1904. After service with the General Ele trie Company at Schenectady, he r* turned to the Pacific Coast and .5 engaged to install transmission fig. for both Pacific Gas aud Electric athe Great Western Power CompaT He joined Spring Valley in 1909 ~

superintendent of city distribution. Appointed chief engineer in 1914, h» was made vice-president in 1923, an! general manager in 1925. He was supervising engineer for the construction of Camp Fremont and 0! the T.N.T. Plant at Giant, California. 1 He is consulting engineer for the San > Jose Water Works, and a member 0! | the board of engineers serving the State In investigation of water re--1 sources, and in preparation of a coordinated plan for their conservation and use. In 1914, when Mr. Elliott joined the Spring Valley Water Company as chie.’ engineer, the company had 63,016 service connections. He has seen the number grow to 107,146. The average daily consumption was 35.000,900 gailons. It has increased to 50,000,00(1. BUILT UP SYSTEM And he has built up the distributing mains from 455 to 766 miles of pipe. The development of additional water-supply, together with all th 6 necessary facilities to store, transmit and distribute it, have been prorided well in advance of immediate need:. Under him, construction expenditures have totalled 13,500,000 dollars. It was under his direction that tts universal metering of San Francisco was carried out. The installation oi meters for domestic consumers begau in 1916, and was completed in 1918, a: a cost of 575.000 dollars. The instant effect was a saving of 10,000,000 gallons daily and the improvement of pressure conditions generally throughout the city. In 1923 Mr. Elliott was responsible | for the raising of Calaveras Dam. At j that time there were six and a-hali : billion gallons of water in the reset I voir, though its total capacity was : eight billions. When the Calavera; ! work was completed in 1925, the dan | had been raised to a height of 22ttt i above bedrock, giving a reservoir cap- ■ acity of nearly 33 billion gallons. Many other extensions and improve ! ments were carried out under Mr. i Elliott’s direction, and there is no par. of Spring Valley that has not underi gone radical changes for the better j under his guidance.