The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1907-05-02
OUR NEW SEWER SYSTEM
Is interestingly Explained BY Guy
Engineer Wood
WILL Be SECOND TO NONE IN S. D.
Anc will Prove Great Boon 10 Every
Resident OF the City

rs our city has, after many futile
attempts. at last determined to install a
system OF sewerage disposal second to
none in the state 80 far as being
thoroughly up to date is concerned,
it may be of interest to the whole OF
the property owners and taxpayers to
know something Of the proposed dis
posal plant and its workings,
Up to the present time the great
majority Of the habitable property in
the city has had, for the disposal of
its sewerage the old timeworn, execra-
bic germ producing, fever producing
cesspool.
The cesspool, that birthplace of
germs absolutely fatal to the human
race, cannot under any circumstances
be too severely condemned. So far as
Br0Okings is concerned j. is to be
Admitted that under the most fortu-
itoUsly favorable circumstances the
old CesspoOls have acted similarly to
septic tanks for great number of
years. Owing TO thin and fairly
widespread population the fatal gases,
etc, haye Z I'd free and ample scope to
disseminate in the atmosphere in a
practically free and open country.
Had this city, however, been like
some towns in the state, congested or
even fairly densely populated, the
consequences would have been such
as would have caused quite a large
increase in the death rate OF the city,
anG from one cause only viz:-the
inAaling Of foul gases and disease
germs in yitiated atmosphere caused
by the stagnation in our vile cess
pools Of decayed vegetable matter and
excyement. The city is now fairly
settled and increasing every month in
population and this being go it be-
hoves the City Council to look to its
best welfare.
The city officials are elected to pro-
tee: and care for the we'll being OF the
citizens. The greatest protection is
accomplished by safeguarding the
public utilities. For instance people
living in cities are compelled to de-
pend upon the public water supply as
it is realized that shallow wells are
easily contaminated and to compel or
seek to compel them to depend upon a
public water supply, and then take no
.
tent. Recent sanitary science has
made it almost possible to prevent
typhoid and other similar diseases
ana city officials should be held re-
sponsible for their outbreak in COM
munity. The process now most
successfully used in the publication
OF sewerage is that known as the
septic tank method, process per-
fectly simple and automatic in its
operation. DO not propose in this
article TO deal in detail with the dis
posal plant but to merely give thin
outline OF manner in which the
sewerage is disposed Of. In the
REGISTERS contemporary will be
found an article dealing more on the
tank itself. At present it must suffice
to say that the sewerage is collected
in lateral pipes and mains as in any
system, but instead OF discharging
direct into streams, the sewerage
is discharged into tank made OF
concrete or brick OF sufficient size to
allow the sewerage to pass at a
slow rate through the tank, and while
the sewerage is in the tank, the solid
matter is liquified by bacteria that
thrive upon the sewerage. The pro-
cess is one Of nature and is not
dependant upon special inspector OF
works continually. The bacteria
form into a light colored scum on the
surface OF the sewerage. 1t is claimed
that in a number of septic tanks
publication OF as high as 90 per cent
has been attained and for greater
publication the sewerage is discharged
upon a filter bed or intermittent filter
which has the effect OF oxidation on
the ettluert from the tank. This
filter bed gives All effiuent that is
practically colorless and tssteless.
While the effluent has been tasted
and drank without injurious results,
YET it is beverage that would never
be popular as a drink, even in Brook
ing5, because Of its past associations.
]. G. WooD,
City Engineer.