With city officials determined to push the work with all possible energy, sealing operations were commenced Tuesday noon at the city's big impounding basin on Cedar river, according to Supt. L. B. Youngs, of the city water department, who with Councilmen Oliver T. Erickson and W. D. Lane, visited the scene of the proposed work Tuesday to witness the beginning of an effort which, it is hoped, will determine before winter the question whether the reservoir can be successfully sealed.

With two pumps at work and a third to be added next week, earth is being sluiced from the banks of Cedar river to the bottom of the reservoir and mixed with clay brought down the mountain side from a clay pit amile away owned by the city. A score of eighty men is employed on the job and this will be increased later on as additional equipment is provided. As a result of the work of an I. W. W. organizer, thirty-three of the men employed on the job quit work Tuesday. Other men will be secured to take their places.

That most difficulty in making the reservoir hold water will be experienced with the section immediately above the new masonry damn was made clear during the high-water period of last winter when the reservoir held large quantities of water more than six months. Most of the seepage, it was found, was from the part of the reservoir just back of the dam, where the primary sealing treatment was first applied. The river bed at this point is filled with huge boulders and had many deep cavities. Earth sluiced from the adjacent banks into this section of the river bed disappeared almost as rapidly as it was pumped into the stream. Although an earth covering was finally secured, most of the leakage from the basin continues to be from this section. City offcials are hoping that when given the secondary treatment of clay, leakage from this part of the basin will be reduced to a minimum.

Marked differences of opinion exist among memebers of the council and city officials as to whether the basin will every be effectually sealed. Supt. Youngs is hopeful and optimistic, but recognizing the uncertainties connected with the enterprise, is not ready to declare that the basin will be successfully sealed by the earth and clay treatment. In the event the earth and clay covering does not prove sufficient, it will furnish the foundation necessary for asphalt or concrete which would do the work effectively, he points out.