The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-09-02
THE BILBO OUTLET.
Some Further Arguments in It's
Favor.

Some Further Arguments in It's
Favor.
Editor Morning News: 1 heard to-day
a criticism on my article on 1.-The Sew
erage Question" published in your pa
per on Sunday last, to the effect that did
not take into consideration the effect Of
the tide in the river and that the illustra-
tons 1 gave, of outlets into other rivers,
were not parallel cases, as the discharge
points were out of the range of tidal Ia
fluences
OF the cities mentioned in my article the
following have their outlets within range
of the tide: Jacksonville, Brunswick
Norfolk, Charleston, Liverpool, Birken-
head, Toxteth, Garston, Warrington
Widues, Remcorn, London, New York
Washington, Philadelphia, Providence
Portland, Glasgow, Preston, Hull. New
castle, Dublin, Chester, Bordeaux, Bre-
man Hamburg, Stettin, Rotterdam, Ran
COON.
OF the other cities mentioned Memphis,
st. Louis, Cincinnati, Kansas City, Mil
waukee, Lyons and Rome, whilst not dis
charging at points affected by tide, have
their outlets opposite and above the city.
In some cases the whole of the sewage
flows past a portion of the city all the
time, in Others a portion of the sewage
flows past the whole city all the day In
a tidal stream, with the outlet below the
city, under the worst conditions you could
but have a refiux for few hours of the
day and that only felt for a short dis
lance from the outlet. Whilst with The
point of discharge below low water it
would be impossible to distinguish the To-
cation of the outlet either during the ebb
or flood.
The tidal effect of the Savannah river
is very different from the purely tidal
streams around on the coast. OF the
latter, for instance. Wilmington river
the flood tide lasts longer than the ebb,
whilst the only currents are produced
by the inflow and outflow Of tidal water
In Savannah river the effect of the tide
is to dam up the water coming from above
only to allow it to flow out with in
creased velocity as the tide GIBBS. The
ebb tide in Savannah river flows much
longer than the flood, and the currents
are of much greater velocity. The tide
does not flow up the Savannah river as
an irresistible force carrying all in front
of it without opposition, but has to fight
every inch Of its way against a vast vol
ume Of fresh water, los. 1872 gallons a
minute-coming down the river.
This opposition of the waters sets up a
mechanical action in the river that is
calculated to distribute and dilute the
sewage in most perfect manner
So soon as the tide GIBBS the waters from
ABOVE become an irresistible force, and
carry all before them to the sea, and
even make their presence felt some dis
lance out in the ocean.
The tidal action opposite the city is
very irregular. and this very irregularity
is a most beneficial factor in diluting,
oxidizing and disintergrating the sewage
Brunswick and Jacksonville discharge
their sewage opposite the centers of their
cities without injurious effect.
The idea that discharging the sewage in
to the river at the mouth of the Bilbo
canal will be injurious to the city on ac-
count of the tide is plea only worthy of
a man of straw, and no amount of this
sophistical arguing will change the fact
that we have every day, irrespective of
tide, 2,640 gallons of fresh water coming
down the river to dilute and assimilate
each gallon of sewage as it would flow
from the Bilbo outlet.
What if the flood tide should carry up
the diluted sewage to the city? You
would need to sit on the wharf with a
microscope to find any traces of the orig
inal matter Percy Sugden,
Sanitary Engineer.
Savannah, Ca, Aug %, 1895.