The age-herald., 1899-04-30
HOW BIRMINGHAM
 IS KEPT CLEAN The Proposed Great Jones Valley System
 Of Sewerage. II MUST BE ESTABLISHED Filler Beds to Purify Sewerage Before
 Entering the Creek. THE BADLY NEEDED CREMAT0RY The Great Improvements Which Are Now Being Carried on in Street Improvements-Th Paving of
 2Oth Street Hill
THE BADLY NEEDED CREMAT0RY

9lISSl clednlnB departments of Birmingham have their many good points, and are prob ably as good as most southern cities, still there are great improvements to be made in both of them. Their development and continued growth during the next few years will necessarily be very markcd.- It has been nearly thirty years since Birming- ham first became a city, and during that time it has spread out and covered so much ground, that it has been all the city cou.A do to Keep up with the building of streets and sidewalks. Sanitary and storm sewers nave, Of course, been laid in nearly all parts of the city, but there are still nume-- ous improvements to be made.
 Wlthlng the next few years, the estab- nshment Of Jones Valley sewerage sys- tenn will have become absolutely nects ssary Ihe territory lying between East Lake on tfe east and Bessemer on the west is boz coming too thickly populated for each com munity to have its own sewerage system. most of them with TO sewers at all The slope Of the valley is from east to west and very naturally as the territory is being built up, the towns and communities in the lower half are getting the worst of it. For instance, the sewerge of Birmingham emp ties into Village creek several miles below the city. This is naturally very obiectiona- Die to the people living in the vicinity of tho creek, and some time ago an injunc- ton was asked for in the chancery court of the county, praying that the city of Bir- minSham be restrained from emptying it's sewerage into the creek. The case has never been settled, and an injunction of this kind is still threatening the city
 Sewerage Systems By State
 In many states of the union, New York, Ohio and Massachusetts, the state govern ment itself has the right to go into any community where there are a number of towns and cities in close proximity and put in a single system of sewerage into which the individual sewerage of each town must empty. In this way, each community is protected from the others sewerage, and yet each town is able. to maintain the very best sanitary regulations. The most con- spicuous system of this kind is the Metro politan Sewerage system, put in by the state of Massachusetts for Boston and sev- enteen other cities and towns Each one is compelled to pay so much rental per year.
 There is a provision in the constitution of Alabama, though which prohibits the state from entering into internal improve ments. The legislature will have the au- thority, however, to grant to a specified number of towns and cities the right to construct a central sewerage system, and this is what will eventually have to be done for the settlements in this valley.
 Filter Beds For Sewerage
 City Engineer Julian Kendrick, in his last annual report, describes how such a system would be operated, and then tells of the diff ferent methods for disposing of the sewer age when it arrived at the mouth of the great sewer, wherever that should be. There is no stream of water anywhere near Birmingham that is sufficiently large to dilute and purify the sewerage from such large community. Sooner or later Village creek, CT any other creek for that matter. will become very offensive account of the constantly increasing sewerage, and some system must be adopted for artificial ly purifying the sewerage before it enters the creeA.
 MT. Kendrick describes at length the var ious systems which have been adopted in European and American cities for the puri- fication of sewerage. The fundamental idea in all ot them is to let the sewerage water run through beds of sand, or some other porous soil, and this way the water be- comes so much purified that by the time it gets out of the filter beds, it is very clear, and in many cases is even better than the water which some cities drink. The scien- tific explanation of these beds, is that there is a class of microscopic organisms, known as Arobic bacteria, which attack and con- vert into inorganic matter very rapidly, all the organic matter which is found In liquid form in sewerage.
 The SlZe or these DSuS dcPSiihS oA SOeASN' on the size of the cities drained. The usual estimate is one acre of beds for each 1000 of inhabitants The cost of putting In such beds probably a hundred acres of them and the cost of operating them will not be a small one, but this is one of the live ques- tions which Birmingham must of necessity tackle within a very few years. For this reason, joint action on the part of Birming- ham, Woodlawn, Avondale and all the other communities in the valley, or some other "Greater Birmingham" combination, would be very lesiraD pie, as it would reduce to minimum the cost of operating one set of filter beds. Instead, each community now seems to be pulling against each other to establish an independent system of sewers.
 Sweeping Streets With Brooms
 The street department of the city, in charge of cleaning and keeping in repair the streets and avenues of the city, has been wonderfully improved during recent months, but there is still room for even more wonderful Improvements. Street Conn missioner John McCartin, since he was ap- pointed has done a splendid work with the means he had at hand. The city prisoners have been putting in good work repairing and smoothing off certain streets that had become. washed and worn, and in making other improvements. A system or hand sweeping for the streets in the business portion of the city paved with Belgin block, has caused a marked improvement in their appearance during the past few months. Everyone is familiar with the little push carts with big sack suspended in the mid- dle, which are seen so often on the streets. Each of these carts is in charge of labor CT who goes about with a broom and shovel sweeping up the little piles of dirt and filth that have collected. As each sack Is filled, he ties it up and puts it on the corner for trash wagon to remove and keeps on with his work with a new sack. The big street sweeper, of course, continues It's work every night after midnight.
 A new crematory is a public institution which Birmingham will be compelled to have in another year or two. Only few weeks ago. a number of citizens living on the Southside, had the contractors who re- move the garbage from the city, arrested for dumping near their houses. to the det- riment of their health. Although the con- tractors argued that there was no other