The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1878-03-12
TUESDAY MORNING, MARCH IL.

vault cleaning from January l, 1877,
to January l, 1878, two thirds of which
must have taken place in the long summer
nights, thus averaging some six cases each
night OF warm weather. Taking into con-
sideration the fragrance of these operations,
commingled with that arising from
the sewers, it is hardly right to
make Back Bay the scape goat. 1t
may allay alarm somewhat to reflect that in
asmuch as the gases from sewers must es-
cape somewhere, it is better that they should
escape into the open air than into our houses;
and further, that gases which can be detected
by the sense of smell are far less harmful
than those which are odorless. The remedy
for this vault cleaning nuisance is obvious
forbidding it to be done in the hot months,
and establishing stringent police regulations
efficiently enforced when done in other
months; the remedy, however, for the obnox-
ious sewer smells is more difficult to point
out. As far as the public authorities are
concerned it must consist in cleansing the
sewers by flushing at frequent regular inter-
walls, by adopting all feasible measures to
counterfeit the pressure above spoken of, and
to continue the efforts to improve their ven
tilation. And in solving this last problem
the private citizen can, and ought to be made
to render efectual assistance. Let each
householder run pipe of suitable material
the sewer, to his chimney hue, or if he cannot
do that, to fue construed for the purpose
extending above his house. and he would not
only protect his own dwelling and the health
of his household, but aid most materially in
ventilating the public sewer in his street.
The cost Of this is very trifing, and if all
householders would adopt the plan, the great
object of ventilating the sewers of the city
would be greatly aided if not fully accomplish
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attention for you to consider whether the
duty of ventilation as thus described should
not be made obligatory on all householders,
and whether permit to enter a drain into
common sewer should be granted save upon
the condition endorsed thereon, that the drain
shall be constructed according to certain pre-
scribed rules, as to size, material, trapping,
ard ventilation, and some system of inspec-
ton be adopted to insure the performance of
this condition.
The topography of Portland is well adapt
ed to successful sewerage. The first public
sewer was built on Middle street only twenty
sewers has been that before the time of our
present superintendent, they were construct
ed without system or plan. No record was
made of many of them. One sewer has been
discovered the past year, buried and filed up,
of which no one had knowledge. Frequent
ly, into sewers of sufficient size for the drain
age of the particular street in which they
were situated at the time they were
constructed, many other sewers have
been entered since. thereby over. charging
them. The older sewers, too, were not built
with reference to the citys being supplied
with water. But perhaps the most serious
difficulty has arisen from the fact that suffi-
Gent attention has not been given to the out
lets of our sewers, and the manner of dis
charge of sewage matter therefrom. On the
westerly side of the city they were made to
discharge on the shore of Back Bay, obvious
ly to the detriment of the public health, and
on the easterly side into the docks of the
harbor, filling them up to the extent of injury
to the rights of navigation, which, the Su-
preme Court have decided, the city cannot
legally do. These evils have been aggravated
by the fact that both Commercial street and
the made lands on Back Bay in filling were
not raised to a sufficiently high grade to afford
proper sewer outlets. Eventually, when we
have grown to be large city and able to pay
the cost, as remedy for these defects, inter-
cepting sewers must be constructed along the
shore of Back Bay, and in the far future
along Commercial street, through which the
sewage matter may be delivered well out into
deep water. The practical question arises
what steps can be taken now at once to miti
gate. if we cannot wholly remedy, the evils
above spoken of. As to the docks on Com
mercial street, the only course for the city to
pursue is to provide means by small dredges
and scows, or otherwise, to remove from them
the sewage matter periodically, before it &C.
cumulates to any great extent.
As to Back Bay, as I have substantially
said before, l am inclined to think it is more
sinned against than SHINING. Nature, as is
her WON'T has done her part toward making it
fy,l hn harv 81
acres more or less. Its bottom falls off some
what rapidly from the shore for a short dis
lance, and from that point to the channel, it
is very fat, the whole resembling shallow
dish with a small, slightly slantiug rim.
Twice every twenty four hours. the tide
brings in mass of clean sea water, esti-
mated at not less than 163,350,000 cubic feet,
covering the surface to an average depth of
five feet, securing out and cleansing the fats,
cooling the summer heats, and creating a
healthful and invigorating current of air be-
tween the bay and the harbor. Its fatty
odors. if any, before the age of sewers, do not
seem to have been particularly offensive to
the olfactories of our ancestors. The facts
seem to indicate that man, not nature, has
been the cause of the difficulty. Any respec-
table body of water would get bad name, by
the emptying OF sewage on its margin, there
to tester and decompose, and by the deposit
mails and all sorts of filth and garbage. That
the real difficulty lies here is proved by the
marked change effected by the removal of
this filth and garbage, and taking avantage of
the falling off of the shore before spoken of,
by carrying away therefrom the sewage by
means of plank extensions, so that the con-
tents of the sewers may early meet the tide
and be discharged into the little threads of
streams leading directly to the deep water of
the channel. This plan is reported to me as
success, and indicates the temporary rene
dy to be adopted till better one can be
found within the means of the city.
1t has been suggested that dam with tide
gates, constructed at Tukey's bridge, by
keeping the flats constantly half flooded
might afford relief. If am right in the pre-
ceding observations, this would be unneces-
sary; and besides, our engineer and the ex-
perts whom 1 have consulted, particularly
Prof. Henry Mitchell, of the coast survey,
distinguished alike for his scientific and
practical knowledge of the subject, and
familiar with the tide waters surrounding our
city, and who visited Portland at my request
to make personal examination. all agree that
such plan is not to be thought off, that if
carried out, stagnant body of water wonld
be created, making the remedy worse than the
disease, and that the outflow and in flow of
the whole tide twice a day is indispensable
TO the purlncauon OF the flats and to the
preservation of the harbor.
While, therefore, Back Bay should be &C.
quilted of large part of the complaint
brought against it. the charges against the
mill-pond above behring's Bridge have been
fully proven. The latter is a pestilential
slough and an intolerable nuisance, which by
all means must be suppressed and abated.
The most efectual way to accomplish this de-
sirable end, as pointed out by our City Engi-
neer and Endorsed by Prof. Mitchell, is to fill
up and reclaim the fats covered by the pond,
and eventually make them solid ground.
The proprietors of the flats, as I understand.
are most ready and willing to cooperate with
the city on equitable terms in carrying this
plan out
The lanyard in the vicinity of the mill
pond has been thought by many citizens to
aid in producing these deleterious smells.
This matter should be investigated by the
committee on health, and if such is proved
to be the case, am satisfied that the liberal
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