100 YEARS AGO TODAY
February 9, 1913
Arriving in Tacoma on the 9 o’clock trip from Seattle this morning, the steamer Sioux, of the Puget Sound Navigation company, crashed into the steamer Admiral Sampson, of the Alaska Pacific Steamship company, laying at the A.P. dock. Both vessels were shaken from stem to stern and many passengers of the Sioux were thrown to the deck.
50 YEARS AGO TODAY
February 9, 1963
A real giant cap was placed atop a City Water facility yesterday. The new cap, considerably different from the thousands of Giants baseball caps in the Tacoma area, was lifted atop the North End standpipe by two cranes with 100-foot booms. Weighing a full 22 tons, the steel roof was raised to the full height of the 250,000-gallon tank and gently lowered to fit over its rim. The new cap measures 64 feet, 11/2 inches across and cost $11,800. City Water officials explained that standpipes, such as the 61-foot-high structure at North 30th and Shirley streets, are used to assist in supplying peak water requirements over a wide area.
25 YEARS AGO TODAY
February 9, 1988
Tacoma ratepayers may have to come up with approximately $23 million to remove toxic chemicals contaminating groundwater beneath the city landfill. The dimensions of the problem and costs of solving it should become clearer in a public hearing, where the state Department of Ecology will provide details of its preferred plan to remove the chemicals. The preferred plan, with several possible price tags in the $23 million range, would be to pump contaminated water to the surface; treat it to remove the 24 chemicals normally used to make solvents, plastics, insecticides and refrigerants; and then pipe the clean water to Leach Creek. The money also would be used to cover the dump with clay or some other material to stop rain from soaking through it.
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