Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1876-05-31

WELL-WATER POLLUTION.
Notes from "A Manchester Water Exam:na-
tiOn KepOrt-Dangers which Frequently
Lurk in Imperfect Drainage and Sewage.
Extracts from Report by J. T. Tanning, G. E.
Manchester has heretofore depended
mainly on wells for it's supply of water
for domestic use, as young cities are
usually obliged to do. Well and spring
water drawn from quartzose earths in
the open country and in the outskirts of
villages have ordinary GOODNESS and
limpidity, combined with Just sufficient
mineral appropriations to make them
not only sparkling to the eye, but
wholesome and agreeable to the taste.
AS the villages grow into more densely
populated towns and cities their wells
lose their original purity, and are trans
formed, in many instances, into pollut.
ed catch basins and dispensaries of dis
ease. The relative rapidity of
change of the wells of a city
from comparative purity to
foulness is dependant to considerable
extent on the nature of the soils on
which the city is founded. Close and
firm soils do for a long time resist the
penetration OF the dissolving refuse
scattered over the yards and streets of
city, SO that it does not ferment before
1t is washed into the sewers and water
courses; but porous sandy soils absorb
the decaying garbage and excretas be-
low the reach of the surface-wash,
where they ferment under the action of
the summer heats and moistures.
Sandy soils also absorb readily the
liquids from the cesspools and leaky
sewers, and in process of time become
SO foul as to load the atmosphere with
noxious odors, and charge the waters
that soak down through them to the
wells with endemic properties that will,
when other favorable conditions
arise, develop typhus and cholera
germs. The offensive odors that arise
from some of our back streets after, as
we'll as before, their periodical clean
ings by the city scavinge1s, give evil
dence of the saturation of the ground
with fermenting vegetables anil animal
refuse, and give warning that the wells
in their vicinity may be polluted there
by. The fact that many of our
pump wells are driven down through
our sandy surface soil, and thin under
laying impervious strata into lower
water bearing stratum, has led many to
believe we are thus protected against
the injurious effects of the surface con
Nominations, while, in reality,
the piercing of the impervi.
Gus crust for the we'll has
but opened a direct channel
through, and every stroke of our pumps
tends to create vacuum beneath the
opening that shall suck down the sur
face water along the tube to be pump
ed up by the next draft of water. Phys
icians have heretofore observed that
slight impregnation of sewage gives a
pleasant flavor to water, that causes 1t
to be preferred by those accustomed to
it, before the more wholesome waters
of the hills, while at the same time it
was gradually introducing disease into
the blood. It is not less notorious
than that cholera and malignant fevers
attack first and fercest those dense
quarters of the cities in which the peo-
pie most generally secure their water
supply from wells in court yards and
public streets. The taste can not ordi-
narily be depended upon in the proper
selection of portable waters, nor can
the uneducated eye detect the sewage
liquid in we'll water when rendered clear
and transparent by infltration. A
familiar instance is now recalled, in
which deep we'll was located in yard
about two rods from sink acesspool, the
waters of which were pronounced ex-
cellent in the neighborhood. The
owner would not be persuaded that the
water might be affected py leakage from
the cesspool, though his horses refused
to drink it until compelled by thirst.
On one occasion a quantity Of cider
went to waste on his cellar bottom
in consequence of the burst
ing of hoop on his cider
barrel. On the next day there was a
new taste to the water in his well, and
he had gained a new idea of the rapidly
of filtration towards wells subject to
heavy draughts. The flavor of the cider
had passed by his cesspool, and it's infu-
ence had become perceptiblein the we'll. |
It has been asserted by the health Off
GERS of London that one pump-well in
Broad street killed 500 persons in a
single week by disseminating cholera.
DR.. Whitmore, In an official report
relating to the recent outbreak of
typhoid fever in certain district OF
London, traces the outbreak of fever to
q distinct cause. He made a thorough |
critical survey of the farms supplying
milk to the district referred to, and in !
one of the eight farms examined, the
fact was discovered that the we'll fur
nishing the water for washing the cans
and cooling the milk was located in
proximity to the waste-drain of the
house, and also that there were
in the immediate neighborhood of the
we'll, pig sites and manure heaps. The
Doctor remarks: Though by no means
q pleasant fact to contemplate, there
can be but little doubt that the water
Of this we'll was impregnated with the
typhoid poison conveyed into it from
The drainage of the house sinks. This
water, thus poisoned, was daily used
for the washing of milk cans. Nor is it
that that the water was also
used in the adulteratio of the milk
itself" It was further developed in
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