El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1899-09-18

| Oeen great deal OF complaint from
the citizens of east Ell Paso and
! corning the terrible stencil that arises
from the sewer. It has been popularity
supposed that this stencil proceeded
! from the mouth of the sewer and only
| q week ago q bond issue of twenty
thousand dollars was authorized on the
| Recommendation of the city engineer
for the purpose of extending the outlet
OF the sewer some distance down the
river.
Most people who had not locked into
| matter at all concluded that this was
all that was necessary to do away with
| the unbearable stencil which has made
life burden to the people of the east
end. The facts, it seems, do not bear
out this view.
When certain members of the board
| of health started out to Investigate
sewer. They could not detect any very
unpleasant odor at that point. but were
surprised to find that there was practic-
ally 70 flow of sewerage at all through
the outlet.
Following the course Of the sewer
toward town they found that the stencil
proceeded from different points In the
course of the main line. Conjecturing
that the sewers were not being proper
ly flushed, they started out to visit the
flush tanks and found, as they had ex
pected, that they were not working.
Thus the sewage of the city has
for some time been pilipg up in the
sewers instead of being emptied into
the river. There it has lain, rottiEg,
breeding corruption, and actively COM
batting the bestefforts of our people to
keep the city healthy.
In order that every reader may I'M
derstand this story it will be necessary
to give brief description of the city
sewer system. The main sewers of the
city run along Franklin street,
just north of the track, and Second
street. The Franklin street sewer
runs east to Austin street, thence south
the districts north of Franklin street
runs into this main through 'laterals,"
which run north and south through all
the alleys.
At the head of each of these laterals
there is supposed to be flushing tank,
The same arrangement is repeated in
regard to the territory south ofFranklin
| street, only that the north and south
laterals empty into the Second street
sewer.
The flushing tanks are autom atically
arranged so as to empty from one hun
dred and seventy-fve to two
| hundred gallons of water
| into the sewer at regular intervals.
Water runs into the reservoir con-
stautly and when the required amount
| has run in, trap Is opened and the
whole volume of water ia turned into
the sewer. There is supposed to be
one of these tanks at the head of each
lateral, but as a matter of fact the
city never completed it's sewer system,
and quite number of the laterals are
without flushing facilities.
There is no arrangement whatever
for flushing the main sewers direct
| ly.
When the board of health inquired
of the city engineer if these tanks
| were running and in good order, he
answered that they were. The board
knew to the contrary and gave the city
engineer the result of their inspection
tour. He said that the tanks had been
operating regularly once every twenty
| four hours.
The appearance of things was against
him, but assuming that he stated the
matter correctly. we still have q
scandalous piece of loose management
on the part of the city administration
to record. Under the contract with
the water company the city has been
paying five dollars per month each for
these flushing tanks. The amount to
be used was not limited and of course
the water company did not care wheth-
er the tanks were in working order or
not, and it was not their business to
see.
Suppose that the tanks emptied
their contents once day as Mr..