The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1884-01-09
Brooks as Sewers.


When natural water-course trav-
erses a town, and its banks become
built upon, the easiest way of getting
rid of filth and house wastes is to throw
them into the stream. Every mans in
stinctive impulse is to get rid of what
annoys him, anu not to mind how his
neighbor will be affected. After awhile,
when the water-course has become suf-
ficiently nasty, the people come to re-
alizing sense of what they have brought
upon themselves, and then they try to
devise a remedy. In this they begin
usually at the wrong end. They look
upon the stream as creating the nui-
sance, and don't consider that it is
their abuse of the stream that is the
source of the trouble. So they 90 to
work and cover the stream up and call
it a sewer. What is the resultp Simply
that the stencil of the foul matter
in the channel is bottled up somewhat,
to be vented through every man-hole,
every inlet and every house-drain, and
probably do more real injury than when
the rotting filth was exposed to the air
and the sun, and dlffused its aroma
through the whole atmosphere.
The channel of small natural stream
through town or village ought never
to be converted into sewer for house
wastes. This will strike good many
people as an odd doctrine, but still it is
y sound doctrine. The functions of a
natural stream and of a sewer are so
diverse that one can not be made to do
duty for the other.
A natural water-course serves for the
drainage of the land all along its course.
It's banks can not be made water-tight
without obstructing the natural progress
of the water in the soil and backing it
up and retaining it where it ought not
to be retained. A sewer, on the other
hand, is intended to carry off foul mat
ters which must be gotten rid of as
quickly as possible, and the channel for
conveying them must be absolutely I'M
pervious, so that nothing can soak
through tito the soil. AS the level of the
water in the soil rises and falls with the
season and the amount of rain, an open
iointed or pervious channel would
sometimes admit water from the soil
and sometimes permit fluids flowing in
the channel above the level of the
ground water to flow out, and thus
pollute the soil and the air in the soil.
Again, a natural stream draining a
considerable territory is subject to great
variations in, its volume. A channel to
carry its extreme discharge in floods
must be many times larger than can
ever be necessary for the carriage of the
greatest amount of sewage that can be
brought to it, A large channel is not
suited to the rapid removal of small
flow Of filthy fluids, and, moreover,
costs great deal more than sewer Of
the proper size. Even if the large
channel for tluctuating stream is built
through a village, the sewage from the
houses should not be turned into it, un-
less the minimum volume of the natural
flow in the driest seasons is large enough
to keep the channel thoroughly secured.
There are a good many small towns
which have for years gotten along with
out sewers, and have arched over natu-
raj water-courses running through the
heart of the town, but are now impelled
by the sanitary revival " to construct
sewers for removing household wastes
The first impulse is to utilize the COW
cred streams to slve the expense of
constructing q few hundred feet of
sewer. They should be very careful
how they proceed. 1t is better to spend
a little more money and be safe, than to
eeonomize in first cost and spend ten
times the saving in doctor fees and un-
dertakers bills.-Saa6tary Engineer.