The Evening critic., 1881-10-18
THE POTOMAC FLATS,
And Their Effect Upon the Health OF
the White House Occupants and

And Their Effect Upon the Health OF
the White House Occupants and
Others.
The illness of Mrs. Garfield while an
occupant of the White House, and the
possible effect that its interior condition
might have had on the wounded President,
have induced Col. Rockwell having charge
of the public buildings, to invite George L.
Warning to examine the drainage and sani-
tary condition of the Executive Mansion,
with view to making an application to
Congress for such an appropriation as may
be deemed necessary to remedy the defects.
The report Of Col. Waring was published in
the Sanitary Engineer Of last Saturday. AS
the Sanitary Engineer points out editorially,
cit reveals condition of things far from
creditable or satisfactory, so far as the
arrangement Of pipes, location of fixtures
and means of ventilation arc concerned.
All the drainage arrangements are far be-
hind tho requirements of the best practice
and the demands ofsanitary science" The
blame, however, is not attributable TO the
plumbers employed to do the jobbing and
repairing, but to the niggardly ap-
made it impossible to correct the blunders
which for several years have been apparent
to those familiar with the White House.
The temporary changes suggested by Col.
Waring will be proceeded with at once (;
but the hope is expressed that Congress
when it meets will appropriate a sum suni-
cient to reconstruct the whole system of
drainage in the best manner that present.
knowledge makes possible. All this Is
very well, but the most serious defect of
the White House is its insalubrious situa-
ton, exposed, as it is, to the malarious ema-
nations from the Potomac flats. In the
earlier days Of the Federal capital these
malarial conditions were scarcely felt, for
the free waters of the Potomac passing
through forest-clothed watershed, carried
comparatively little of that sediment with
it which is now brought down the river
and is intercepted by and accumulated on
the flats. Every year these flats become
more deleterious to the public health, and
will render the Executive Mansion less
habitable during these months when the
malarial influences are most intense. Two
propositions have been mooted to remedy
this state of things. One is to abandon the
present White House and build another in
more salubrious situation. The other is
to fill up the Potomac flats. The cost OF
constructing new Executive Mansion
would be small in comparison with that OF
filling up the flats. But this would only
be withdrawing the occupants of the White
House from the evil, not curing it, and the
local advantage of the present White House
is its easy access to the Departments and to
the Capitol. If the flats were filled up
and the now defective drainage of the
White House reconstructed under the di-
rection of the most skillful sanitary epgi.
neers, it would be as healthy residence at
all seasons of the year as it is now said to
be tho reverse, while the citizens of Wash
ington would share in the immunity frcm
malaria which such an improvement would
measurably insure. The objections urged
by the latter to the filling up of the flats
are twofold: First, it would nccessitate
material and costly changes in tho existing
system of sewerage and next, that il
would change the course of the river chan
nell to the commercial disadvantage o
Washington and to the corresponding
benefit of Alexandria.