Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1898-05-19
Col. Wakina on savers.

give stenograpnlc report or MS talK. ds
said =
Mr.. President and Gentlemen -
l do not propose to deliver lecture, only
to give yo1 a familiar talk about sewerage
as affecting your interests here. This is IL
one sense rather an old stamping ground O
mine | think it is len years ago that
came here first, believe under the aus
pieces of the Board of Health, to make
some general suggestions, and found that
my friend Mr.. Andrews was a good and
faithful correspondent, SO that we kept uI
more or less intercourse on the subject OIL
the sewerage question for good while, and
finally, not finally, but in the course of
time, in 1894 my partner came here and
took the data, with Mr.. Carriers assistance
on which he based the plan for sewering
the city.
Then the subject seemed to go pretty well
to sleep as far as we were concerned, IN.
til the present time, when Mr.. Andrews
asked that one of us would come down here
and have general talk with the citizens
on the subject.
Now, there are two very distinctly diff
ferent sy stems for the seweribg of towns
1t takes every thing. 1t takes not only the
foul water from the house,, but it takes
the rain water that falls on roofs, and in
the streets. In city, a large city, the re-
lative cost OF the two is about as one 10 Fl We;
that is to say, if system of smaller sewers
would cost one hundred thousand dollars, a
system of Combined sewers would cost hall
million. OF course, that is not an exact
L.
of everything 10 every case. but that is the
general idea,-that the Combined system
takes about five mes the outlay that the
Separate system does.
The Separate system is the one we rec
ommend here. 1t has nothing whatever
to do with anything but the foul water
from houses, factories, etc but incidentally
| it is accompanied with the drainage of the
ground. Where the ground is inclined TO
be at all wet;-that is to say, wherever we
find heavy soil, ia addition to laying the
sewer 10 the bottom of the trench, we lay
alongside of the sewer an ordinary agri-
cultural drain tile, that takes up The mois-
ture in the ground. These under. drains, as
they are called, are very effective for a
considerable distance, so much so that re-
call no instance in an experience of nearly
thirty years where the laying of such
drains has not had the effect of M king
the cellars and soils of all kinds perfectly
dry, provided ordinary precautions were
! taken to keep the rain water from running
down behind the foundations and getting
into the cellar.
The fact that the cost of the separate
system is so much less than that of the
| the fact that if a certain amount OF sewage
| flowing from the houses passes through
the sewers, and If you add all the storm
water to it, especially in paved towns, it
would be little less here-it increases the
volume in storms by fifty times the
amount, and you have got TO make pro-
vision to carry fifty times as much flow,
as when you have nothing but the house
sewage to remove,
Some thirty years ago, il is more thau
that, the discussion began about the time
of the sewering Of Memphis, which was
done in 1880, or nearly twenty years ago,
| there was very active and acrimonious
discussion among engineers as to which
| of the two systems was the best. But
finally that discussion has settled itself,
and the opinion SO far as | know is uni
versal That in small towns like this, and
in very much larger towns than this, the
| Separate system is in every respect better,
while in very large cities, where provision
has to be made for a great deal of storm
water, more than can be carried off in the
cutters, the combined system is the best
The system we have recommended here
consists Of these elements; Seventy five
per cent. of the whole length of the pipes
Is only eight inches in diameter. When the
flow of these pipes during the hours of
greatest use, say, at half past ten o'clock in
the morning, supposing the street to be
entirely built up, when the sewers flow in
enough to fill the sewer half full, we en-
large to ten inches, later to twelve inches,
and so on, to whatever size the occasion
calls for. Of course, if you are taking
storm water, especially water from roofs,
you get the advantage of a very thorough
flushing whenever it rains, but you do moi
get any flushing at all if it does not rain and
the time when the temper .ture is the
highest and sewers get foul most quickly
in the Summer season, when there are
weeks without rain, the sewers get into
very bad condition
To take the place of this occasional rain
water flushing, we provide for a constant
and daily automatic flushing. That is TO
say, we put at the head of each branch OF
the sewer small tank, having discharg-
ing capacity OF about fifteen gallons, that is
filled from the alter supply by trickling
stream, enough to fill it 10 twenty four
hours, or, if you choose to use more water
in twelve hours; and when it gets full, il is
discharged by an automatic siphon, which
removes the whole in about thirteen sec
onds. That goes through the sewer with
rush and takes everything stranded in the
sewer along to point where there is flow
enough to keep everything moving.
There is one condition in your case
which we do not very often meet with that
is, the condition of what lies on the other
side of Woodbury. creek. These sewers
all come together little the other side of
the Broad street branch, and there the
sewage is delivered into a tank holding
about one thousand gallons. That tank
is constructed like the flushing tanks
with an automatic siphon, and when it is
full that whole accumulation is dis
charged with great rapidity, which car
ries it through an iron pipe which passes
under the bed of the creek and comes out
on the other side. This is called an in
verted siphon. A regular flow would
create a deposit in time which might
perhaps quite obstruct the pipe. To pre-
vent that we arrange that there shall be
great rush through this pipe. This
pipe continues to the main sewer which
passes along this side of creek, laid under
the embanking dixie, to point just below
the city line.
There we have provided for reservoir
fifty feet in diameter and about seven feet
deep, into which all the discharge of the
sewers goes, where the sewage is ac
cumuIated until whatever point may be
selected as the best of the ebb tide, when
gate Is automatically opened by tidal
action, and the contents flows down to
| the river by. the out going tide. The
gate is closed long enough before the
turn Of the tide to allow whatever is in
the creek to get some distance away.
| Now. suppose some of that discharged
matter came back. You must keep in
mind that the sewage is very different
| from that WHICH people have been ac-
customed to think of in old-fashioned
city sewers containing good deal OF or
ganic matter, and where the sewage takes
the character of ink in appearance and is
very offensive in odor. Sewage, or what
may more properly be called water
borne waste" from houses is practically
inodorous until it begins to putrefy.
No putrefraction TO any amount takes
place within the first twenty-four hours.
In this system that / have been telling
you about all the sewage of the town