The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1905-11-28
SEWAGE DISPOSAL.



i BroctOn, Mass, where no septic tank:
Il are employed removed 1900 tons o
4 Sludge from the surface 0f the Sewag,
beds. At Saratoga Springs. the septic
tanks have been Ia use two and one
4 half Years, and as yet no sludge ia:
been drawn off, and what would seen
peculiar to the layman, they cOntair
less solid matter than they did a veal
ago.
A condition worthy of consideration
with relation to these disposal works
1 is the entire absence Of any objection
/ able features to the immediate sur
rounding community. The septic
tanks emit no odOr whatever. and the
OdOrS from the beds are so light as to
be appreciable only within a close prox.
unity to the works.
The items Of operation and main
tenance, which form so important a
consideration in the contempla tion OF
many systems as to preclude their con-
Struction, is here another cause OF
congratulatiOn
During the year intervening be-
tween November /. 1908 and NOyem-
Der /, 1904, the total cost of mainten-
ance was S3.4l0. This includes the
item OF pumping, amounting to 81, $50
for raising 1880, 000 gallons of sewage
per diem toan elevation of seventeen
feet. The sma cost of pumping is a
result OF the model system installed,
consisting of three centrifugal pumps
operated by electricity, and requiring
the services of an engineer only one
half the time.
At the time of my visit 20 the plant,
the beds were being ridged for win
ter use. This consists In cutting a
ditch and forming an embankment al
ternately. AS the cold weather APP
proaches, the beds are flooded to a
level of the tops of the ridges. Dur
ing the night The ice forms and when
the sewage recedes, the ice forms a
covering over the tops of the trenches
which is maintained during the win
ter. This method has been found to
be very efficient, and at no time dur
ing last winter, when the atmospheric
temperature fell to thirty degrees be-
low zero, did the effluent water regis
Ter temperature lower than forty
four degrees IT,, thus enSuring favora-
BILE bacterial action, both in the septic
tanks and in the filter beds.
With reference to the efficiency of
the work done by this plant, / will
quote from an article treating of the
plant by Douglas @. MOriata, NJ D.,
read before the Fourth Annual Con-
ference of the Sanitary Officers of the
State of New York, Albany, N Y,
December 16, 1904. In summarizing
the conclusions reached from an Oper-
alton of the plant, he says: THE
sewage disposal plant at Saratoga is
an ideal one for sewage not contain
ing germicides: the beds did perfect
work last winter with tempera-
ture that would average zero, and for
days was from twenty to thirty de-
grees below that point: there is no
local nuisance of any kind at or near
the beds. The maintenance is low
and the effiuent potable, the latter
the State S requirements"
The results attained at Saratoga
Springs by the method of septic tank
and intermittent filtration OF sewage,
would seem to remove this method Of
treatment from the realm of theory
and experiment and place it upon a
solid basis of practical achievement.
There would seem to be no doubt,
that with the proper conditions avail
able, the satisfactory results of the
plant at Saratoga Springs can be re-
produced in MOrriStown, where relief
mas been so long delayed.
Yours very truly,
FREDERICK S.. SMITH