Sacramento daily record-union., 1881-06-14
BOARD OF HEALTH

1OuIHeu.
Without undertaking the Importance oil
other measures about to be presented to the
people of this city for their adoption or reiec.
tion. that relating to the disposal of the city
sewage is certainly not the least worthy of
consideration. The location of our CITY is
such that the question of sewerage will prob.
ably for long time to come present difficult
ties and occasion perplexity. It is so in cities
better situated than ours in respect to drain
age facilities. Yet. as necessary sanitary
measure, we have to meet it sooner or later,
and devise some means tor the improvement
| of what all admit to be at present sadly de-
fectiye. In this light, it is not to be measured
by the pecuniary outlay necessary for its ac-
conplishment; its Importance is equal to
that of our levee defenses. The question
now presented is How is better system of
sewerage to be obtained?
Some years ago, we are told by the engin-
GERS that the drainage canal which, on their
recommendation, was adopted, would, when
completed, prove sufficient 1t is true that
the fall from r street to Snodgrass Slough, o
distance of 20 or more miles, was said to be
only feet, say about inches to the mile;
! yet upon the strength of the assurances
| given, we have been endeavoring to carry
out the plan the right of way has been OBJ
| tainei hopes held out to those interested in
lands below US of improved drainage, and
pretty large sum of money expended in the
endeavor to make it effectual. 1t will proba-
bly, be admitted that it has been SO far par
! TALLY successful in that it does, except during
very high water, when the low lands below
r street axe ovsrhowed carry from US the
! sewage that reaches it, and that it has
| been eminently successful in enabling the
city to fulfill its promises to the landowners
this side of Beach's Lake
1t is thought by those who have given the
subject careful examination, and have been
over the ground, that the canal, if completed
according to the original plan, and its bed
| kept properly cleaned, would yet give US the
means of getting rid of our sewage for some
| time to come. How this result is to be eff
| fected, with fall Of Only four inches to the
mile, in an open ditch, liable to obstruction,
it must be confessed seems somewhat prob
lematical Perhaps an iron-stone or cement
pipe, or even redwood-box drain would ma
teriaily assist. These would he somewhat
expensive, it is true, but the cost should
| weigh but little against the great good TO be
accomplished.
Admitting freely the difficulties attending
drainage by the canal, are there no difficulties
attending the proposed plan of pumping the
sewage into the river?
Unouestionably the natural ontlet for the
sewage of city sesms to be a running stream
upon its border. 1t is convenient; 1t is
cheap; it saves trouble, and, for the parties
Immediately concerned, it affords ready So
i luton for one of the most difficult problems.
| It is on account of the facilities which rivers
afford of enabling US to be rid of what we do
not desire to keep at home, that river water
has always been considered one of the most
| uncertain and undesirable sources of supply.
Isolated individuals often make this use of
rivers unobserved and to such limited ex-
/ tent as to be scarcely appreciable; yet it is
| different thing where the entire sewage of
town is concerned. However convenient such
a disposal of the city sewage may be, few
would consider it quite honest aid conform
able to the honored principles of the golden
rule to send down upon our neighbors below
us stream polluted with matters which we
ourselves would be quite unwilling to use.
The plan proposed has been tried in vari.
Gus parts of England and on the continent;
it was tried in Massachusetts,, at Cincinnati
and other cities. But what has been the re-
suit In England, the Rivers Pollution
Commission grew out of the evils which fol-
lowed the practice, and the discharge Of un-
purified sewage into the streams was forbid
| dep. Several evils resulted. There was the
danger of sitting up the bed of the river, and
the expensive and disgusting necessity of
dredging Witness the effects of unpuri6ed
sewage in the Thames and Lee. Then, in
| tidal rivers. there was danger that the water,
polluted with unpurifed sewage, would be
carried up stream as well as down. How
much the tides affect the river at Sacramento
we are uninforned We once had tidal
wave here of several feet. Then there are
| the gases arising from decomposition of the
| sewage when deposited in large quantities.
| Lastly, there ara to Be considered the effects
of the sewage upon those living below the
city.
| Scn,e few years ago we protested, through
the Health Department, against the dis
charge of sewage by the city Of Marysvills
into the Yuba river and thus into the Sacra-
mento and the law which some believe inap-
piicable to the case was appealed to.
1t is difficult to see with what grace we
can sustain demurrer against these prac-
tices by cities above US, while we ourselves
supply a similar disgusting mixture TO those
having the misfortune to live below US. 1t is
estimated that the sewage from water closets
alone, apart from the water used for flushing,
amounts to two and one.half ounces of solid
and forty ounces of liquid matter for each
| individual daily. With population of D..
600. this would give daily quantity of more
| than twenty-nine tons. or not far from 10, 000
| tons annually, while the sewage from other
sources would probably make up as much
| more-sixty tons of filth annually-worse
| than the debris against which we are con-
| tending.
Ii we are to improve our system of sewage
now, and undertake a great expense for the
purpose, let us have system which will
enable US to get rid of that which is the
most Objectionable, as well as that which
comes from oGr kitchens. butcher-shops.
stables and slaughter houses. Let us
do away with the abominable system
of privy vaults and cesspools, which pollute
the soil and poison the atmosphere of our
towns. 1t is possible to do this, if we must
avail ourselves Of the river, by providing for
the publication Of the sewage not perfect
publication, it is true, but such one ex-
perience elsewhere has shown to render it
proper to be admitted into river as large as
the Sacramento.
We ara told that the cost of precipitation
by what is probably the best of the methods
adopted for the purpose-including interest
on capital Notwithstanding the sewage and
drying the sludge, il. for one town in Eng
land with a population of 10000. having
.. 2.000, 600 gallons sewage daily. f3, 446 FER
annum. or el14-. 43i. per ], ,000. 600 gallons.
In another city of .. 900 population, with
{. 000 water clcsets-probably four or five
times as many as there are in Sacramento
and 200 COO galio.s OF sewage daily, the
cost of chemicals, by a different process, was
e3 b per 1,000, ,000 gallons.
These figures are given mainly as examples
! Of what c.hsr cities are doing for the disposal
os sewage. Perhaps they do not form any
very lust basis for an estimate of what sini
lar undertakings would cost here. Yet it
ought to be remembered that good sewerage
at any endurable cest viii be cheaper in the
end than the imperfect excuse re row have.
1t win save mucD ruifering by sickness, .-155e
public aud private expenditures incident
| thereto, and many lives. These reflections
are offered on behalf of the sanitary interests
of the city, and in view Of the election to be
held this week Sifted down. they embrace
the propositions tha. an efficient system of
Sc serage is desirable at any cost; that before
undertaking to change our present plan, ds-
fective as it may be, we should be well salts
fed that we are about to embracs better;
and that we should reflect well before we seek
to inaict on cur neighbors below us evils
against which we ourselves most emphatic
! ally protest. A. b. Nixon, NJ. D.
G. L. SIMMONS, NJ. D.,
Nj. GARDNER, NJ. D..
w. Il. CLUNEss. NJ. d.,
+. w. HATcH, NJ. D.,
Board OF Health.
ExAMINArIoNs-By dispatch received in
1 the city last evening it is learned that Henry
! Still, who was arrested in this city in COM
pany with Lawlor upon the charge of coun-
| terfeitirg was discharged in San Francisco