PHOTO ESSAY | HISTORY
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On a hot summer’s day, the cool inside the Rockwood Vista Reservoir provides welcome relief down a short flight of stairs. Inside lies 2 1/2 acres of concrete pillars and pristine drinking water on the eastern edge of Spokane’s South Hill. No one was allowed within three steps of the water in order to avoid any contamination. The city has in the past hired a specialized diver who would be bleached before entering the water to perform maintanence. Pictured is city employee Eric Schafer performing a weekly chlorine residual test. When is a park not a park? When it doesn’t show up on Google Maps, and it’s covering an 11-million-gallon, drinking water tank. The Rockwood Vista Reservoir was built in 1948. u
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24 INLANDER OCTOBER 17, 2013