The Sunday herald. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1866-1887, 1880-10-31
DRAINAGE AND WA TER supplY.

DRAINAGE AND VA TER SUPPLY.
Lieut.. IIoxie, in charge of drainage and |
sewerage in the District takes bright, |
even rosc.colored view of the subject in his
recent report. II will perhaps serve to reas-
surea great many timorous souls, who thought
that our beautiful city would become unin-
habitable by the ravages Of the fiery untamed
sewer-gas. The outcry about this matter has,
indeed, been overdone; past the point Of al
lowable eloquence in forcing it on the atten-
tion Of Congress, TO the extent of injuring the
reputation of Washington for healthfulness.
Lieut.. lIoxie light-hcartedly assures IFS that
though man has done little, nature does a
great deal for us in the way of publication,
and many of the great cities of the world
would esteem themselves happy TO he even
so well of in the matter of sewerage as we
are to-day. Air and water, he assures us,
those great allies, are always fighting on our
side, tending TO eat up and destroy, and not
to spread contagion indefinitely, as we are
prone to imagine them doing. He instances
the case Of London, where, despite the almost
ocean of sewage discharged along the banks,
ships fill their casks for long voyages from
the Thames, confident that the water will
purify itself in its own alembic, and come
out clear and sweet. lie might have cited
the observation to the same effect which we
have elsewhere seen, that few impurities
| being of the same specific gravity as water,
| they must either rise to the surface, where
they are rapidly oxygenated, q. e., burned
up,) or sink to the bottom, where they are
out of the way of doing harm. This is the
reason why, among other things, swimmers
in apparently filthy water come to little or
no harm, but emerge really cleansed by the
bath.
Even in regard to our horror the mud
flats in the Potomac, the engineer has re-
assuring case in point The Craigentinny
Meadows. near Edinburgh, he tells us, were
used ss a sewage farm, that is, irrigated with
the flow from the cloacp of that unsavory
city. Iempore Lord Macaulay they were in
vestigated, not by smelling committee
that, we are given to understand, would
have been superfuous--but by the light o.
medical statistics, and it was shown that ths
health of troops in barracks near by was
not affected. 1t would have been interesting
to know whether these were Scotch soldier.
and used to what they complained of. But
while We know little about the Craigentinn,
Meadows, save from Lieutenant Hoxie's re
port, any comfort ought to be SEIZED upoI
t eagerly at the present time, when, we ar
told by another report, that our "meadows
are not to be touched this year, not ever
under the appropriation ($50,00O) at las
made by Congress for the neglected Wash
ington harbor. By piece of red-tapeism i
has been decided that because this occurs il
the River and Harbor Bill not dollar can b
expended in way that will bring about sani
tary improvement, as distinguished from til
increase of mere commercial facilities
= Therefore, as there is some difference, W
cannot tell why, in favor of floating the eS
Is cavated detritus, which Lieutenant Hoxi
;, tells us would make an excellent disiniectant
10 down the river somewhere instead of dunn
= ing it on the flats near at hand, the forme
course has been promptly adopted. 1t strike
IL us forcibly that as dumping down the rive
l. may be expected to raise new difficulties i
the way of navigation, instead of removin
any, construction of the law not moi
9 forced and strained than the original OIL
l. we complain of would have allowed
d dumping on the flats, even at an increase
is cost, under the plea of making the improve
he ment permanent. Neither hanging, in
is peachment, nor court-martial would ha,
!" been likely to result, but, on the contrar.
as only the thanks of grateful citizens.
g. As we cannot control the inscrutable worl
III ings of official decisions, Lieut.. Hoxie's arg
I'd ment is our only solace at present.
le labors to show that the symptoms old woms
lg feel in their bones every time the wind bov
1t from the south must be largely laid to in
or agination or some other cause than the bu
'y bear of river drainage. Above all, we cor
increased mater supply is the shortest, the mo
IL effective, the cheapest, and in every respe
,w the best way out of our difficulties. With
H. great river at our doors ready to bear it
10 the sea, the correct method is to dilute o.
Ne, sewage just as extensively as possible al
mp keep it in constant flow. At the same tir
lst this will do the double good of supplying t.
he people on high ground with the copious al
" steady water supply they now need, whi
of protecting those on low ground from t
as evils of stagnant sewage. This should
n urged on the attention of Congress-