The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1883-09-28
SEWERS.

volving itself for a sewerage sys-
tenn. Various plans are suggested
and schemes proposed. One wants
TO sewer East Temple street only ;
another thinks the cross and ad-
jacent streets should be included:
some say the sewage should be car
ried to one point and others desig-
nate different places for the filth. In
nine cases out of ten these agltatOrs
are dreamers. They lose sight Of
the two more important elements in
the construction of any effective
system of sewerage-the money and
the water. There are scientific and
sanitary matters also connected
with the project that are not taken
into consideration. For the mo-
ment passing the money and water
questions, let us say that it isby no
means clear that Salt Lake is in
need of sewerage, or that sewerage
would be well as a sanitary meas
are. Looked at from any point
sewerage is never health pIomoting,
1t is an evil everywhere that it ex-
lists. In most places it is a nuisance,
breeding disease and causing death,
and is disagreeable and unpleasant
in every way. There are some
cities where it is a less evil than
those it displaces, yet it is
nevertheless an evil that wise peo-
pie avoid just as long as they are
able to escape it. In Salt Lake we
sincerely believe that any sewerage
system that could be adopted would
be more Of a nuisance, the cause of
more annoyance, disease and death
than the continuance of the present
order of things. 1t would certainly
prove worse than the existing plan
if the ordinances were enforced and.
people compelled to keep their prem
ises clean as the law contemplatss.
The filth fevars in New York and
other cities are almost invariably
traced to the sewers, and statistics
show that sewerage does not lessen
the death rate. If sewers il sea
coast or riverside cities are offensive
and dangerous to life, how much
more so would they be in town
like Sale Lake, where it would be
next to impossible to get rid Of the
sewage? Two plans for disposing
of the filth drained from the city
have been suggested. One of these
is to convey it to deep pits or pools,
there to be deodorized and its death
dealing properties destroyed. To
the thoughtful this plan is simpl
visionary and impracticable, for the
reasons that suitable pits could not
be constructed, and if they could
the required disinfectants and de-
Od0rizers would consume half the
revenue of the corporation. The
ether scheme is to drain the sewage
to the Jordan, which will be ex-
pected to carry it out to the Great
Salt Lake to be picked and cured.
The inventor of this plan knows
nothing of sewerage, Of the Jor-
:. nor of sewage. When Salt
AXE ndertakes to make Joruan
the receptacle for its filth, it must
first understand that for five miles
back of the mouth of the river are
swamps, sloughs and mud-holes,
included in which is the Hot Spring
lake. There are five miles of farms
and houses on either side of the
river that would necessarily be
ruined by turning the Jordan into
s sewer; and people familiar with
the subject assert that the sewage
which would accumulate in one
year in the Jordan sWamps would
breed contagion in the city that
nothing could stay, besides being so
offensive that people would flee the
city for fresh air. The money ques-
ton is one Of supreme import
anee, and which cannot be
solved by wind. 1t is all well
enough for the visionary to say
"bond the city," but to do this is "a
very different matter. Cities may
be bonded for sums, the interest on
which investors understand may be
readily paid, but beyond that
amount "bonding" is neither easy
nor honest. Salt Lake is already
bonded for quarter of a million
dollars, and we d9ab5 if another
Obligation c3u.d be incurred for a