The record-union., 1898-11-02
CHAMBER OF COMMERCE.
WANTS A SANITARY ENGI-
NEER'S OPINION ON SEWERS.
Favors Bonds for Water Mains
High School and Wharves
for the City.

The meeting of the Chamber of Com
merce last night at Pioneer Hall
brought out large and representative
| assembly of the business men Of the
city, and much interest was taken by
| them in the matters discussed.
The meeting was called to order by
| D. A. Lindley, the President, VINO
| stated that it was called on recon-
| mendation of the Committee on Mem
bership. The directors had contem-
plated taking up the water question
| for some time, but it was not yet ripe
| for action, and, therefore, only the mat
| ters mentioned in the call would be
considered at this meeting. Each
| speaker would be limited TO five min
| utes for the first speech. He did not
| think the chamber should pass on any
matters unless it had full information
| upon the subject under consideration
| 1t would be better to refer it to some
committee as it is a body Of repre-
sentative men, whose opinions Will
have weight The first subject to be
| taken up would be sewers.
General Tozer was called on to speak
on the subject of sewers, having been
| a City Trustee and being familiar with
| the subject. He had a diagram Of the
| sewer system advocated by the City
| Surveyor, and showed the old sewers
| that have been constructed for many
| years, some Of them being nearly use
less The Newberry plan, he consid-
cred the best one proposed, but as It
had been vetoed and abandoned, there
was no use of talking about it.
BY the City Surveyors plan the s.
! street sewer is to be continued from
| Seventeenth to Twenty ninth, the Thir-
| teenth street sewer to be prolonged
| across the city and various other sew
ers to be constructed. The southern
| part of the town is to be connected
| by new sewers from Y street to the s.
street sewer. He criticised the plan be-
cause it leaves several large sections
without drainage, and said the question
for the citizens to decide is whether
they want sewers for them. The diff
Guilty with these sections is that they
are so fiat as to be difficult to drain,
and the Surveyor contemplates under
ground drainage by deep drains, which
are not shown on the plan and which
will require a manhole at each corner.
| I1S LII Tic pAdII LII IltSo1lA14S w 11So
defective, and that the Newberry plan
was superior in that respect. The
main point is to get the water into the
sewers quickly He explained the map
and plan point by point.
Mayor Land said that the fall from
B street to Seventeenth is s feet II
| inches, giving a very good fall. It is
calculated to keep the sewage down at
| the pump so that the water will run
away fast at the upper end and keep
| the sewers clean. The flush tanks pro-
vided for in the system will empty
| themselves at stated intervals and will
prevent the sewers from clogging. The
| S-street sewer is found to be perfectly
clean and there is plenty of fall to carry
| off the water.
Mr. Lindley said that the alley sew
ers are all right, but in the sections
spoken Of it will be necessary for the
property holders to put in manholes
and pipes in the cutters to carry off the
| surface drainage.
w F. PurneIl said that the region of
| the old Burns Slough Channel from
| Twentieth to Twenty ninth street was
not drained we'll and after a heavy
storm the water takes long time to
run off. He was not opposed to the
sewer system, but he wanted more of
it, so that that portion of the city could
be drained.
Dr. Simmons, Sr., said that the city
had had many engineers of reputation
to consider the sewerage question,
among them Mr. Waring, who had
stood at the head Of his profession as
a sanitary engineer. None of them
had advocated a plan of combined sew
erage. No flushing can carry of in big
pipes all the solid foul matter Mr..
| Warnings system is in use at Memphis
and has a separate system Of small
pipes to carry off the solid matter from
cesspools, and it can be burned or
otherwise disposed Of The Trustees
allowed direct connection Of closets
with sewers and we all know the con-
sequences. 1t is well known that Sac
ramento cannot expect to empty all it's
solid sewage into the river, for any one
living below it can at any time enjoin
the city from doing so. The city au-
thorities and Board of Health had to
ask Folsom Prison to discontinue doing
the same thing last summer.
DR.. Briggs moved that the Board of
|
tary engineer to consider local condi-
tions of sewage and sewerage disposal,
to prepare plans that would give the
| city the best system of sewerage, and
| report them to the chamber
r. D. Stephens agreed with DR..
Briggs to some extent, but if success
was to crown effort, the matter must
be gone at in the right manner If the
matter is discussed until all the mem
oers are agreed on what they want 20
ask he did not think the Trustees would
| object to doing as was wished. The
money that might be spent to secure
the best possible system, no matter how
much, will be well spent.
Dr. Briggs said that the subject of
sewage disposal is a very difficult one.
and he must confess that he knew very
little about it, and did not believe that
the average citizen did He believed
that before beginning the work the
| opinion of some competent sanitary en-
gineer should be had
Superintendent Of Schools Erlewine
thought the proper way would be to ap-
point committee and have confer
ence with the Trustees, in order that
they may work in harmony
city trustee Brown said that he had,
until now, supposed that the chamber
had indorsed the sewer system of the
City Surveyor and he believed that the
other members of the board had under
stood so too Now he found that the
members of the chamber are far from
agreeing on it,
L. L. Lewis thought that the City
| surveyors plan could be carried out