Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1882-11-28
What Is the Present Coalition of Our
Sewers?

Sewers?
SAVANNAH, Nov. 24.-Editor Morning
NelgS. Before adopting the scheme for
tinkering at our sewerage system, which
is now occupying some share of the pub
lie attention. 1t will be well rOr the people
of Savannah to consider what are the
Opinions of the practical scientists of
acknowledged ability upon the defects OF
the combined system of sewerage that is
now in use here.
Col, George Z. Warning, who projected
and executed the system now i'll use III
Memphis, says in The Separate system
Of Sewerage" reprinted from the Amerl-
can architect, March and April, 1852,
pages 10 and IL: THE storm water taillng
per hour in violent rains oyer an acre Of
closely built up city land is nearly fifty
times the amount of the waste water and
sewage produced per hour on the same
area. The sewage is, therefore, ordinarily
a mere trickling thread in the bottom of
sewer large enough to carry oil great
bodies of storm water. In time OF ram
the sewer Will be nearly or quite
full of diluted sewage. which is absorbed
by the brick and leaves a coating ON them
as the water falls. The powerfully flow
ing stream of storm wafer on suDsldlng
deposits silt in the bottom of the sewer,
which Obstructs the flow Of sewage, giving
it time to decompOse. Foul gases are
then emitted. and it has been popularity
assumed that these gases called sewer
gas are the cause of disease. Physicians
are agreed upon the fact that AR from
sewers passing into a dwelling Is very
likely to produce serious disease. That
this illness is due TO gas from decom-
posing sewage is a mere assumption un-
supported by proof But the hypothesis
was hastily adopted by engineers, who
naturally inferred that the healthfulness
of large sewers would be secured II they
could only drive out, or sufficiently dilute,
this gas by yentilating the sewer; or pre-
vent its formation by keeping the stream
of sewage flowing uninterruptedly. The
discussion Of the subject by Mr., Eliot
Clark. in the Massachusetts, Board Of
Health report, and the opinion Of other
engineers who favor large sewers, seem to
be based on this idea.
at is time, therefore, to call attention
to the fact that no such gas as sewer gas
exists, and that there is absolutely no proof
that the diseases which attend the admis-
sion of sewer air into a dwelling are pro-
duced by gases. On the contrary, the
whole tendency of modern investigation
is to show that the ZymOtic diseases are
produced by bacteria, whose germs are
developed under favorable conditions.
1T is well known that the most favor
able conditions for the growth OF these
low organisms are heat, moisture, dark
ness and the presence Of ammonia, The
damp walls Of sewers present, therefore,
all the requirements for most f1ourishing
growth of bacteria, whose germs may
float off on the sewer air and be carried
into dwellings by mechanical action, as
dust is borne on any air current. 1t is,
therefore. most probable that sewer air
brings the germs of disease into dwellings
rs dust is blown into the window i
THE foul gases of decomposition MAY
or may not be present: The fatal power
over life lies, probably, in the little plant
seed, odorless and invisible, floating upon
the sewer air.
s'Large sewers are, then, plantations
for the propagation Of deadly organisms,
the moist, porous walls forming most
favorable soil, the ammonia of sewage
supplying the manure essential to full
and the warm, damp air
to the utmost all processes of
growth.
1.-The occasional flushing of sewers,
while it may clear out silt and accumu-
lated filth. and thus decrease the amount
of heat and ammonia from decomposition,
can never prevent the growth of bacteria
on the sewer walls, nor will ventila-
ton prove efficient. Every device of
engineering has been exhausted to keep /
large sewers clean and well ventilated, !
but the air from them is deadly. EXpe- /
rience, therefore, teaches that there is |
some radical defect in the system of large |
or combined sewers, while modern inves- /
legations of the origin of zymOtic diseases |
and the mode of growth of bacteria seem |
to show that sewer walls are almost ideal |
hOt-beds for the production of fatal organic |
germs. Perfect plumbing may prevent |
sewer air from entering dwellings. but |
perfect plumbing will always be the rare |
exception.
I'm view of these facts / am forced to /
conclude that. from a sanitary point of /
view, the combined system of sewerage is
a failure"
| present this opinion without comment,
it for what it is worth.
JNO. NJ. KREEGER.