Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1907-06-27
COUNCIL and WATER
A Citizen Meeting Expert Declares
Present supply Best

| Citizen Meeting-Expert Declares
| Present supply Best
A quorum Of Council was not present at
the adjourned meeting last Tuesday even
| ing, held to determine the proposition OF
the Water committee to install an artesian
plant, so the meeting was resolved into a
citizen conference and Mr.. Churchill
Hungerford, an expert from Philadelphia,
explained the analysis as published in the
DEMOCRAT last week in every day langu-l
age, that the average citizen can understand
Mr.. Hungerford kindly consented to re-
duce his statements TO writing for the bene-
fit Of the citizens of Woodbury., and we
give his explanation in full, as follows:-
Dear Sir Complying with your request
we beg to submit the following explanation
OF the analyses Of your city supply and OF
the water from the test well recently sunk
ia Woodbury..
The analysis of the present city water
taken from tap at City Hall is as follows;
Total parts per million
Nitrites none
Nitrates...... faint traces
Chlorl parts per lniition
Free ammonia ....... .....'..none
The total solids shown are equivalent to
Al grains per gallon. They represents all of
tie foreign matter contained in che water
not OF a gaseous nature. As gallon OF
water contains about IS, 600 grains, the per
centage is infitesimal.
Nitribes when present III water Indicate
recent and suspicious forms of contamina-
ton They are readily oxidized by natural
agencies into nitrates
Nitrates indicate that there has been a
distant contamination of suspicious nat
ure, but that the natural purifying agencies
alwal 5 at work in flowing streams hare per-
formed their good offices and the organic
matter has been comp pletely mineralized
Chlorine usually exists in the form of
common salt. AS it is an nnchangeabe sub
stance and is always an important part of
sewage, it is considered, when it exists in
large quantities, as being an indication that
the water is contaminated by sewage.
There lis, however, certain amount exist
ing In the soil, varying IN different locali-
ties, aud as il is highly soluble it finds its.
way into the running streams. There is not
enough chlorine in the City supply TO indi-
cate any sewage contamination whatever.
/ Flee an1lnoaia lei am monia, Nitrites'
and Nitrates all represent diferent forms
which organic matter takes in the decompo-
sition process Free ammonia is the first
stage of decomposition and shows that the
purifying agenqses are at work. Nitrites
shows the process further along, and Nj
trates show the process completed and the
organic master turned into stone.
None of the above substance are poison
GUS The total contents of thousand gal
Ions of water could be consumed daily with
impunity. In different form, they are the
elements of the food we subslst upon. Their
true significance is this that they indicate
that some time certain substances haye
found their way into the water which might
form food and dpermit the subsistence Of
certain forms of bacterial life ininical to
human health. The above analysis indicates,
however, that the contamination OF the city
supply is not onlYexceedinglysmall but is so
remote that it has been taken care OF by nat
ural agencies The general health OF the con-
sumers is the best proof Of this statement.
The contamination from purely vegetable
sources, having no hygienic Specification,
have been left unconsidered byth analyst.
AS matter Of fact, they are the only ones
|discernable by the consumer. The color,
taste and smell so noticeable are all from
this source, but an efficient system Of filter
alton will remove effectively any trouble Of
this character.
Analysis OF artesian water: