, 1873-06-25
SEWERAGE AND THE PUBLIC HEALTH.

COmu1uu COuuCu W NcIease hu6 dpplup14atluA
for additional sewers from $500, 900 to $700, ,00o
The Mayor does not advise an increase in the
aggregate sum to be appropriated By the Com
mon Council he asks that this increase OF the
appropriation for sewers be made BY dropping
the appropriations for the following named pur-
poBes: $4,000 for lot and engine-house be-
tween Goethe and Elm streets. North Division
$4,000 for q scbool-houee On Elm street !;
$50, 900 to replace the brick building, now used
as police station, on West Madison street
$40 600 for brick building in place Of the wood
On one On Washington and Clinton stroets, for
the Babcock engine-house; $4,000 for school
building On Twelfth street and Centre avenue;
$14, 600 for two artesian wells aad fountain,
and a22, 600 for new engine-house and lot in
the Fourteenth Ward transfer of 3l90, ,000 from
the sum appropriated for the sinking fund
(not needed; $4,000 for bridge over the
North Branch Canal at Halsted street.
The appropriation for tho sinking fund
is not required by law, and there ls money
enough now belonging to that fund to meet all
maturing liabilities. However desirable the
other expenditures may be, they have no I'M
portance compared With that Of the sewers. All
Of them can be postponed without any detrimont
to the public health or safety until next year,
while the construction Of sewers is q pressing
necessity. The Mayor points out the various
localities where this sewerage is most needed
It 80 happens that the unsewered portion OF the
city is that which, OF all others, most needs it..
This portion is found in the districts near the
South and North Branches Of the river. These
neighburhoods are densely populated by people
Who hare not the means to adopt any sanitary
measures. It is impossible to keep the streets
and lots in this neighborhood either clean or
healthy without drainage. The effect Of sew'erB
with connecting drains On the character Of these
streets ia Immediate. "The most filthy, spongy,
and worst streets are instantly converted into
dry and salubrious ground, where sickness i'm
mediate1y decreases, and sanitary rnles can be
enforced"
He recommends the immediate construction
Of ffty-four miles Of Sewers in the following
districts In the low and wet taot OF 800 to 400
acres lying west Of State street and south Of
Archer avenue, upon which 5000 persons re-
side in the 640 acres Of territory between Hal
sted and Loomis, Harrison and Twenty-second
streets. and the angle between Halsted and the
South Branch. This territory contains $4,000
people. Twenty Thousand other persons living
in the Fifteenth Ward are suffering incon-
ceiyable misery from the want of sewerage. He
estimates that 800 acres Of territory, contain
ing over 100000 Inhabitants, imper.hyoly de-
nand immediate sewerage.
The plan OF sewerage adopted by the city is
that of main sewer, four to six feet diameter,
running east and vest on each alternate street
these sewers cost from 94.60 to So per foot on
tbs alternate streets, crock sewers are built,
which cost, say, s1.5o per foot; the streets
running north and south have brick
sewers, ranging from two to three feet,
and these cost from So to $3.50 per
foot. Each main, therefore, drains two streets
running east and west and all the intersecting
streets- The average cost of sewers OF all sizes
Is g. a per foot, or S130 1000 mile. In the dis
tricts proposed to be severed there will be no
deep cuttings, sad no quicksands OF e1traordi-
nary expenditures incurred. The actual length
Of sewers needed to drain these 1900 acres of
[ow lands is 81 milea, and this could all be con-
Btructed for 100000. The Mayor asks that the
Council forego the purchase Of real estate for
and school sites and police
stations tor one year, and turn the money in
ended for those purposes over to the construc-
ion OF sewers absolutely necessary to prevent
oeBtilence, even if there were not one already
approaching the city. Upon the necessity for
his sewerage, the Mayor says:
An inspection Of the maps Of the Board Of Public
1orks shows that, whereas nine-tenths Of the popu
ated OF the city is supplied with hydrznt watez
rom the iake and nearly equal proportion hage
heir streets lighted with gas scarcely half the inhab
ants have sewers, or any means Of underground
[rainaRe for the enormous accumu1aHons ct liquid
Impurities which, lying the surfAoa become putrid
nd poison the atmosphere with their gaseous exhals
ions, adding feazfuly to the bills Of mortality aud