The record-union., 1891-05-27

most heaithful. Sclent11c men look nolQ
| of the matter, and presently it was
demonstrated that the sewage of the
| largest cities could be treated by this
method. The disposal of the sludge was
/ the chief difficulty encountered, but this
/ has now been Surmounted by what may
J be styled the Legion or the Croydon pro-
| ceSses. AT Legion the sludge is pressed
! into cakes'and sold. If there is no sale
! they may be burned. At Croydon the
Rural Sanitary Authorities Company
also congresses the sludge.
| ENGLAND's TESTIMONY.
| To-day England recognizes chemical
| precipitation to be the best known form
OF sewage disposal, and in no nation has
there been such faithful experimenting
and patient effort to probe the whole ques-
ton to its bottom, in every part. The
! two greatest sanitary engineers of Eng
| land to-day, Mansergh and Melliss, adopt
the chemical process in all their practice,
and have reported in its favor for treat
ment of the drainage Of the lower Thames
| section. In answer to the question Of the
English authorities, they have thus re-
sponded: "Can chemical treatment be
carried on without creating a nuisance?
Unhesitating, yes, and the works at Cow
entry and Aylesbury are cited in proof"
THE REASON FOR IT.
They add that the reason is that the
pressure treatment of the sludge drives
out of it most of the moisture. 1t NAV
then be stacked and kept, If one likes,
without oi1ense. Pressed precipitate,
says Mr.. Melliss, the engineer for the
Royal Commission on Metropolitan Sew
! age Discharge, is practically inodOrOus
and Inoflensive, and causes no nuisance
or annoyance. DR.. Voelcker, the chem
! list, experimental for the engineer with
caGcd sewage Wetted, and keeping it two
months in high temperature, found it to
| be inoffensive, when the precipitant used
J was Sulphate OF alumlna, iron and lime.
! The conditions a. Worcester aye not so
/ favorable TO" sewage treatment, by irriga-
| ton or filtration, as at Berlin or Dantzic,
! or as i'll England or France. Precisely
! the same IS to be said at sacramento. We
could not procure the proper land any
where near the city, nor coald we bear
| the cost OF lifting ana projecting the sew
! age TO q considerable distance to be spread
upon or led through lands. We might
! lit it high enough to discharge into pipe
! line 10 convey it by gravity u tide
i water, but the cost would be very heavy
for construction ana maintenance, and
! the right OF way might be difficult to OBJ
! tam.
AT sACRAIENTo.
| 1t IS true that here we would never be
confronted with the freezing of the
ground, and, also, that our high tempera-
! ture would greatly facilitate evaporation ;
! but still the land difficulty would remain,
and the conveyance OF the sewage 10 it.
! In the winter there would be another
difficulty, and that is the heavy rainfall,
! during which the land would be satu-
! rated and incapable of receiving sewage
at all. At Berlin this difficulty of storm
/ weather is met by storing the sewage in
! immense tanks, an idea not to be thought
OF III this city.
AT Pullman, H., sewage farms are said
! 70 be successful, summer and winter.
! The lands there aggregate 40 acres, with
/ ten acres underdrained set apart for filtra-
ton. BuG Engineer Allen visited Pull
/ man III winter, and he says:
AT PULLMAN, Ill.
Upon the day Of our visit it was quite
warm, the thermometer registering 400
! Fahrenheit. We found that the sewage
( was all being discharged upon the fiitIa-
/ ton area, the first section Of which was
! covered with sludge to depth Of about a
! foot. The sewage was running over this
/ TO the second section which was partially
! covered with ice, and then over the re-
naming area which was entirely covered
with ice, and was finally discharged into
I tie eihuen5 trench without having been
! filtered in the least.
! 'Ghe entire area was completely covered
with sewage, and there was evidently no
! filtration taking place, as about the same
I
! the beds as was discharged upon the
! upper end.
NOT RUN TO PURIFY.
''The manager of the farm was away.
/ but we were given the following facts by
his assistant, which we subsequently
verified:
THE farm is run for the purpose of
making money, the publication of the
sewage being q secondary consideration
a1I1-i 10 1JggN,11 he,
vegetation has received all the sewage it
viii bear, it IS simply turned into Lake
/ Calumet in it's crude state.
| I'VE were told that not q particle of
sewage has been applied to the farm
proper this winter. it al having been
simply passed over the area as already
described"
PRoFITABLENEss OF sEwAG EFARMs.
AS to the proftableness of sewage farms
/ there is no evidence that they really pay
the city using them. y. c. BrundeIl, G.
e., NJ. Inst, G. T., who has constructed
! many sewage farms, says: Sewage if
| properly applied to land may be purified,
but the operation is not profitable.
Mansergh, who laid out the sewage
! farms IN dozen places in England, gives
much the same testimony, and saws that
where there is freezing weather it is inn
polite TO adopt the farm system, as also
! where there IS a Substratum ofclayey soil
All the authorities agree that where the
/ irrigation or sewage farm system is
used, and there is at any time heavy rain
fall, the sewage has TO be taken care OF
III some other way while the land is sur
charged with water.
WHAT WOULD SACRAMENTO DO
In the rainy season then, with the sew
age of so large q city choking her sewers?
So that sewage farming is out OF the
question here, under existing condi-
tons. They can be used only when the
city is immensely rich and able to pro-
vide, as has Berlin, for storage. Even
then sewage farming in this hot climate
would have to be very carefully con-
Quoted or there would be resultant dis
ease. Sir r. Rawlinson, writing on the sub
ject, takes such a view of the matter. At
Pullman there are two sets of sewers. and
no surface drainage enters the sewage
farm. In Worcester, as in Sacramento.
the drainage of all classes entered the
/ sewers. We could, however, here make
our surface drainage take better fall by
combining it to cutters, and leading it
/ thence to n point for discharge into the
river without polluting the stream. and
thus lessen the cost OF treating the sew
age proper, because lessening the body
of liquid to be treated. But at present
the subject must be treated here as it
/ was in Worcesterin 1857. when the record
! before us was made and there was but
one system Of sewers.
MANSERGH's OPINION.
Mr.. Mansergh, writing to Engineer
Allen at Worcester-and it must be kept
in mind that Mcnsergh is the most emf
nent of English sanitary engineers-said:
There are, however, as You are aware
other modes of treatment of sewage in
England which, so far as [ can Judge.
would, with some notifications in detail.
be equally applicable to the States.
81 allude, of course, To the several
methods of chemical publication and
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