Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1881-07-09


Editor Morning Ne'cs: see by your paper
that the subject of sewers in the city is
again before the city fathers, and course,
all citizens and taxpayers are interested;
and therefore, as native and taxpayer, l
beg room in your paper for an article or two
on the subject.
The sewage of a city is so costly that 1t
should be well considered before it is un
dertaken, for mistake such as Was made in
the great Broughton street sewer has in
volved not only bonded debt on the city
hard to carry, but succession of law suits,
indefinitely adding to that debt, by cost of
defense and penalty for damages.
Boston, Mass, is so situated that In one
place a large part of its sewage, water and
mud has to be raised thirty feet by steam
pump, and the outlet of all, owing to insult
fcient current in its harbor to carry oil the
foul matter, is made through a culyert
whose mouth, in the sea, is three miles from
the city but Boston can afford it.
Chicago has thorough system OF drain
age, but, owing to the want OF tide, the wa
ter of the adjacent lake is so infected by the
sewage that the supply of drinking water is
brought by pipe from distance Of three
miles out in the lake but Chicago can af-
| ford it.
Our neighbor Augusta is taking the bust
ness In hand also, aud although the river
can carry off the sewage fairly enough, she
has to provide against an occasional rise in
the river of thirty feet, choking the sewers
and submerging portions OF the streets.
| Augusta takes counsel.
Charleston lies very fiat, but l cannot
| speak of its drainage yet.
T. L ~ e. ,.a1F L., -
| situation than any city l know. At the
Exchange the bluff is fifty feet above tide
water, and there is a gradual, gentle descent
from there through Bull street and the
| White Bluff road for five or six miles wary
| ing very little from the road) to the salt
water at the head of Vernon river. An In
strumeutal survey would find the proper
| course. | confess that this opinion is formed
only from having ridden few times over
the route; but there are the two points, and
| the distance very plain: First, the height
of the bluff at the Exchange; next, the salt
water under the bridge near White Bluff
| Church; and last, the six mile post near by,
This fifty feet fall to tide water or sea level
divided by the six miles, would give eight
feet to the mile.
The question then is, would that answer,
II the present Broughton street does not
which has fall OF thirty feet in less than a
miller
will take you up to Pdrysburg, more
than eighteen miles above Savannah, and
show you that the tide rises there tire
feet; then down to TYbee, another eighteen
miles, where the rise and fall Of the tide is
six feet. II, therefore, the river with a fall
| of not more than six feet in thirty six miles
can keep itself clear of impediments, we
must look for some other cause than
distance as a factor. | give you another
| illustration: From my remembrance of the
Bilbo canal of old times, it is at least one
mile long, and this through the old rice
fields, which shows 1t to be on a level
therefore we have only the fall of the tide
which is only six feet to the mile or more
of this canal. Now this canal is a centrd
agency of the Savannah sewage, and Ii
mile or more as a part of its present eys
tenn; therefore the digging Of such grade
and depth in Broughton street and emptyiDg
| It into such level was inconsistent, and
one or the other was a mistake. The only
reason / can surmise is that the canal Ii
open and can be cleaped out with spades
when foul. II this be so the grade In
Broughton street was yet an error, for the
sewer is large enough to work in, being
III mistake not) nine by four feet, and
could be cleaned out through traps
and catches nearly as readily as the cana
can be, and the expense Of doing SO would
not be 1.-THE of the interest of the extrs
debt which it cost to dig the immense
chasm In which the sewer now lies hidden
which, during its construction, was 9
wonder and annoyance to the citizens and
visitors, and will long be remembered by
the children as giving to many of them the
first idea of mountain and gorge.
A. g., of Roswell.