The Bemidji daily pioneer. [volume] (Bemidji, Minn.) 1904-1971, 1906-04-12
WITHHOLDS
APPROVAL
State Board Of Health Not
Ready to Grant Bemidjia
Sewer System.
BOARD POSTPONES AC TON TO
MAYS.
City Engineer McGilyray of Du.
luth Represented Bemidji at
Board Meeting.

luth Represented Bemidji at
Board Meeting:
st. Paul, April 11.-"Unless
Bemidji has sewer system at
once, an epidemic will breakout, "
declared T. F. McGilyray of Du.
luth before the state board OF
health yesterday. "Typhoid is
bound to result" he continued,
land people will die. The city
must have some sewage system
at once.''
Mr.. McGilvray appeared be-
fore the board as a represent.
alive of the city council to urge
upon the board the necessity of
arriving at some decision con-
corning the kind of sewage plant
the board would allow the city to
install. The plans for a sewer
system have been drawn for
three years but the board has
never made the necessary recon
mendations concerning the style
of a. plant which should be put in.
At the hearing yesterday, it
was shown that if the board took
action in allowing Bemidji to
empty it's sewage into Lake Be-
midi it would, by it's action,
adopt principle which might
cause trouble all over the state.
There was no doubt that the per-
mission given to the city to dis
pose of sewage would to some
extent contaminate the lake and
the Mississippi river, which flows
through the lake.
Assistant Attorney General
Simpson cautioned the board to
move slowly in the matter, as it
was one of the most important
questions ever raised. BY the
action on this question, he said,
the board virtually determined
it's policy in respect to the grant
ing to one community the right
to contaminate a body of water
which might be directly or in
directly the source of the water
supply of another town.
Mr.. Bracken called attention
to the fact that England had per-
mitted the contamination of it's
streams by allowing them to be
contaminated and was now spend
ing millions of pounds to clear
them of this contamination. He
said that it was a question which
the board could not act upon
hastily.
Mr.. McGilvray pointed out to
the board the urgency of sewer
system in Bemidji.x He stated
that the city was prepared to
dispose of it's sewage in a sanitary
manner, providing the cost was
not too great. Bonds were now
being sold, he stated, for the con-
struction of a sewer SYSTEM, a
plan of which he submitted to
the board for it's approval.
The plan contemplates the es.
tablishment of a gravity system
witha septic tank topartially filter
the sewage. 1t was shown that
the tank, however, would only
purify the sewage about so per
cent, and that partial contamin-
alton of Lake Bemidji would re.
suit. He stated that the citv
could not afford to build filtration
beds which would entirely purify
the sewage before it mpties into
the lake.
The board realizes that the
proposition was a serious one
and postponed action in the mat
ter until the next meeting on
May 3.
It is likely that the city of Be-
midi will 90 ahead and construct
the plant and let the board bring
injunction proceedings to test
the matter. The lake, it is con-
tended, is the only outlet for the
sewage and the city, which is
growing fast, must have a sewer
system at once. Few cities in
the state, it is urged, can afford
to put in a sewage plant which
will purify all the sewage, vet the
state board of health under the
L