Democratic Sentinel, Volume 22, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 August 1898 — WATER FROM SAND DUNES. [ARTICLE]

WATER FROM SAND DUNES.

Cnrions Source of Supply A Iona: the Feacoast of Holland, Consul Corey, of Amsterdam, in the July Consular Reports, makes the curious statementathat the water supply of that city is being obtained from the sand dunes bordering the sea in the vicinity. The dunes consist of sand blown up into ridges from the beach, having a height near Haarlem of about twenty feet and a width of about two and a half miles. The fresh water they contain is supposed to come chiefly from the rainfall. Not only is the water in the dunes fresh above sea level, but it is perfectly fresh also to a depth of sixty-six feet below the sea level. The water in the immediate neighborhood is salt. It is held by some persons that the sand in some way renders the sea water fresh, but it is more intelligible to find the source of the fresh water of the dunes in the rainfall. Be the cause what It may the dunes are a vast reservoir of fresh water, which is being collected for Amsterdam by means of stoneware pipes thirteen feet beneath the surface and by means of open canals. For Haarlem the water is collected in wells flfty-flve feet below sea level. There is some doubt, however, as to the permanency of the supply if too largely drawn upon, Wells sometimes give fresh water for a while and afterward turn salty. The occurrence of fresh water on small low islands and on sandy beaches has long been a curious problem upon which the waterworks of Amsterdam may throw some light.—Baltimore Sun.