The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-10-31
THE DRAINAGE PROBLEM.
The Reason Why Sewage should Be
Kept Out of the Savannah River
Near the City.

Editor Morning News: Allow me to con-
tinue the discussion Of this important sub
ject in your columns. You well know that
In every city there exists certain class,
the members of which feel that they must
copy the fashions Of larger cities, or. per-
haps of foreign metropolitan centers,
without regard to climate adaptabihty or
comfort Here they consider de bon
ton" to have houses, lawns, etc, as are
seen 10 New York and Vermont. If they
belong to New York or Boston. they are
not satisfied unless they mimic the Eng
lish twang or have their horses tails
bobbed 1t is so the world over, We find
pretentious and costly houses built, in
which all comforts are sacrificed to graft
fy that morbid desire for northern style
small rooms, low ceilings, lack of ventila-
! ton, dimlnutive windows put in queer
places; long, peaked roofs covered with
slate 10 better retain the Suns heat and
no ventilation openings; large furnaces in
the basement and heavy portieres every
where. to stop Jack Frost"
Such houses are delightful in a climate
where the temperature goes down to 40
or 80 below zero. where ice and snow are
the fashion" one-half the year. Are they
fitted for a climate like this, where the
thermometer goes but few times below
80 degrees each winter? The greater num-
Der of this class of people spend half
their time and most of the money made
here at the north. They leave in June and
may return in November and they are,
therefore, unacquainted with the condi-
lions that belong to this climate in sum-
mer Yet being wealthy and influential,
they often succeed In having measures
I'D Lrr he arYfk nrff n .h az
cellent in northern climates, but per-
nicious here.
The same principle applies to all mat
tiers pertaining to sanitation Many adopt
this or that measure, because it is sue
| cessfuily used at the north. The changes
occasioned by climate do not seem to
strike them. At the north every river,
stream, estuary, in fact, everything on
top, or several feet underneath the sur
face of the SOIL freezes every winter; here
it never does In their tidal streams de-
posits from sewage are frozen and tioated
away with the ice once or oftener each
year; so that fecal deposits never do ac-
cumulate there except In deep water
In this latitude no ice ever forms on
tidal water, deposits are not disturbed
and increase all the while. At the north
no fermentation occurs for one-half the
| year, because the frost prevents 1t. In
! Savannah 1t is rare day when the sun
ton of focal deposits.
The danger of allowing sewage in a
stream whether 1t be running-on tidal
diminishes-the further north it is situated
while it increases the nearer it Is to the
tropics.
That 1t is dangerous to allow sewage into
any river or stream without previous puri-
fication. is evident from the fact that it
is prevented by law In number of states
at the north and west
1t is now prohibited In Great Britain, so
! far as relates to new drainage works, or
| those to be reconstructed.
Buck in his standard work on Hygiene
| and Public Health, page ST. says: There
! are several objections to the disposal of
| sewage by allowing 1t to flow directly into
| rivers or streams. The danger of sitting up
| the bed of streams by deposite of sub
| stances suspended in the sewage. This
! has actually occurred in the River Thames,
| where extensive shoals were formed be-
| low the odt-fal. Before the present sew
erage works were constructed the accumu-
lation were so rapidly forming as to seri-
ously threaten the safety of navigation. In
tidal rivers the suspended matters are car
ried up stream as well as down stream,
unless dixie our Bilbo cana) the outflow
| is regulated so that the discharge takes
place only with the descending current. j"
Another objection is that valuable stocks
| of fish are destroyed by diScharglng sewag e
into streams Sewage in the fresh
state or when much diluted is probably
not hurtful. 1t is the gases produced by
| decomposition of the deposits particularly
sulphuretted hydrogen, that are said to
be the hurtful agents"
To solve the more important problem
| some place for the publication of sewage
will have to be adopted On page 52S he
says: THE impoundins of sewage within
the out fall sewers during each tide is an
obi Ion 10 In
of seaport towns. There is liability to
the formation of deposits in the sewers on
| account of the frequent checking of the
discharge, and there is greater danger of
the formation and escape of noxious gases
than when the outflow is constant. In a
! report to city council on June 4, 1896, City
| Engineer Winn writes IF we concede
that the diution of sewage would be am
pie, 1t is a recognized fact that neither
this nor any ordinary chemical process
will destroy the organic or living germs of
disease necessarily present in sewage mat
ter" Sewage dis
charged into the Savannah riv-
er might prove in single epidemic, in
money as well as in wrecked lives, far
more costly than the additional cost of a
larger conduit discharging in salt water.
Col. Geo. f. Waring. Jr., in his work on
sewage, and land drainage, page 70, states:
| That delivery at the immediate wharf
which sewage is discharged is moving
back and forth at every tide, Is sure to be.
or in time to become Objectionable" In
| reference to Boston, Mass, he says: "Bos-
ton was practically surrounded by a de-
post Of sewage filth, some stranded and
stationary, some moving back and forth
with the change of the tide and wind"
Providence. r. l.. is now constructing at
immense cost, works TO relieve itself from
the accumulative evils of sewage disposal"
In his report to the mayor, 1895, Health
| officer Drummer: THE outlet for the sew
erage of a city should not be at
any point where the water supply may be
contaminated. Savannah being the city
considered, IL should not enter the Savan-
nah river at any point in close proximity
to the city There will be pollu-
ton of the banks of the river, and there
is at the present time, as any one win
certify who has occasion to come up the
river during the summer months at low
water. The emanations that attack one's
nostrils are distinctly those from focal
matter" In my next 1 propose to point
the place for and the kind of sewage dis
posal best adapted to this climate
Oh