Daily Republican., 1881-09-05
uONDAY. sEPCEMBER 5. 1881.
a .ev.rag, , sysrem Wanted.

AONDAYs Skf CAm DEN ~ A"
A sewerage 9 sysrem Wanted.
The rain on Saturday, though shof'
in duration, lasted long enough anu
committed damage enough TO fully
demonstrate the inehiciency OF our
poor miserable apology for sewerlng
and draining the city. When ordinary
rains overflow the sewers and all the
vater courses, tearing up cutters and
sweeping bricks, paving stones ana
sand down into piles at the lower emu
Of the streets or perhaps carry them
oft into the Christiana, 1t is high time
the city authorities should bestir them
aelyes and look the question of sewers
right square In the face. We know of
no CITY located on ground better and
easier adapted to an easy and Datural
svstem of sewers than ours and while
such facilities are provided by nature
to assist in draining and protecting the
property of the city, our authorities
are morally criminal in neglecting to
make use Of these means. Had proper
sewerage been provided, the cellars in
the southern part Of the city would
have escaped being half full of water,
the streets would have escaped being
torn up requiring hundreds and thous
snds Of dollars to repair them, and the
damage to new buildings under con-
struction might also have been avoided.
From west to east the surface OF the
CITY is undulating and the distance
between these undulations Is not so
great as to make it difficult to drain
any part of the city. A large well con-
structei sewer along Rattle Snake run
past the middle depot, past Mcdowell.
Vile, aud extending up Union street
towards the dividing ridge at Fifth Or
Sixth street, with laterals extended,
would completely drain the whole of
the city beyond Broome street and up
to Sixth. Another main sewer started
from the neighborhood of Sixth and
Broome south-westward with laterals
would drain all the southwestern part
Of the city beyond Broome. Coming
eastward, the most of the Tenth and
all of the Eleventh wards, would be
completely drained by q sewer with
extended laterals, from Chestnut and
Broome streets, following the course of
the stream down past Warmers, Trump
and Belts manufactures.
Among all the sewers Shipley
Run is most important and relieves a
large and thickly populated part of the
city. Pressing necessity alone seems to
have impelled the commencement of
asewer along this run but it seems to be
built only with view of meeting pres
sing and present needs, rather than of
wisely providing for the future. The
sewer is built by piecemeal, larger in
some places than others, and in places
80 inditferently constructed that it can
not stand the flood from within nor the
food from without. During heavy
rain vast volume Of water comes rush
ing and tearing down the Shipley Run
Valley, endangering all property i'm
tmediately on the run and destroying
some The very best sewer imagina bic
should be built along this water course
with the usual laterals and it cannot
be built too soon. As the city improves,
streets are laid out, paved and guttered
the surface drainage water increases
and demands greater facilities for reach
ing the larger natural water courses.
Passing across Delaware avenue all to-
wards the Brandywine east of Broome
street can be easily severed and drained
into theBrandywine, carrying the water
of course across the rill-race out into
the middle of the creek so as not to ill-
terfere with water supplied to our re-
servoirs of drinking water. All these
sections of the city north oi Tenth street
and east of Poplar and Lombard ,natur-
ally slope to the Brandywine and sew
ers draining those sections should bt
constructed, and can be without extra
expense to the city over ordinary cost
The valley between Washington anc
Market streets seems to be designed by
nature to be drained by n large
sewer either down Tatnall or Orange
streets and another valley between
Market and Lombard streets car
be as eifectually drained by large
sewer down Poplar street instead of thu
miserable apology Of a sewer now ex
listing there, that always chokes ant
overflows Whenever anything more thar
an ordinary rain falls. Had a wise sys
tenn of sewerage been commenced fifty
years ago on Poplar and Tatnall streets
there would be no complaints now from
floods and from offensive nuisances a
times, though we would be glad to see
Hood to carry them off. Seeing the ut
ter inefficiency Of these apology sewer
in the heart of the city, would it no
be wisdom on the part of the City Coun
Gil to provide against such contingen
cies in the future by at once adopting
iudicinus and alaullate sYstem Of 81 v