Bluefield evening leader. [volume] (Bluefield, W. Va.) 1906-1911, 1907-12-17
EXPERIMENTS DISCLOSED d.
RECT sEwERAGE CoNTAMINA-
TION OF BLUEFIELD's WATER.

AT meeting OF the city council
last night Secretary Bernard Nc
Ciaugherty, OF the Board OF Health.
presented the Stabler report and on
motion 1t was read and ordered given
to the public. Mr.. McCiaugherty said
the board had several very good
reasons why the report was not given
out previously: that the Ada and
Beaver Pond water were about the
same, and experiments were ordered
made at the Beaver Pond spring.
Mr.. wm. Mccarthy, OF the water
company. was present and asked for
prompt action on the part OF the city,
county and state boards OF health.
and advised that experiments be
made along all streams to see IL they
effected any of the springs. Follow
ing is in Stabler report:
'Bhefeld, w. Va, Dec. Sth, 1907.
''Cfty Board of Health,
''Bluefield. w. Va.
"Gentlemen:-I desire to present
the following report upon my inves-
tigations of the Ada and Beaver Pond
water supplies:
'Inasmuch as this report has a
bearing upon the present epidemic OF
dyphoid fever in Bluefield, wish
to preface IL by the statement that
! have made no effort to locate the
principal source of Infection by fol-
lowing up the history of the fever
cases. General inquiry has indi-
Gated that the infection proceeds
from the Ada water supply and any
remarks relative to typhoid fever
herein contained are made upon the
assumption that this is in reality the
source of infection-an assumption
Ehich am not prepared either to
prove or disprove.
ADA SUPPLY.
The Ada supply has three sources:
Spring No. /, an underground stream
with flow OF approximately one
million gallons in twenty-four hours:
Spring No. 2, with a flow OF few
thousand gallons per day. fed chiefly
Hby sub-surface connection with Ia
surface stream passing the Col.
Thompson house; and reservoir.
fed by the above mentioned springs
and two other small streams OF un-
doubted purity.
Spring No. breaks out OF Shen-
andoah limestone at an elevation o.
1881 feet above sea level. 1t is un-
doubtedly fed from surface streams
upon East River Mountain which
generally originate in Sewer Shale
Mocassin Limestone, a green and red
limestone, containing many impuri-
ties, into the geological formation
known as Chickamauga Limestone,
where they pass beneath the surface
through irregular caverRous chan
nels The Chickamauga is a blue
limestone and is the softest stone
south of East River. IL extends along
the entire north side of the noun
tain and is marked by numerous
sink holes which collect and lead to
underground channels almost the
entire surface drainage OF this re-
gion. South OF this formation lies
the Shenandoah Limestone, a dolo-
mite or magnetism limestone, some
what harder than the Chickamauga.
but like 1t traversed by underground
streams of water. South OF the
Shenandoah Limestone and border
ing a geologic fault, lies Kimberling
Shale, a formation which Is nearly
fmpervious to water. The under
ground streams OF the Chickamauga
and Shenandoah formations how
southward, following the surface
topography but are barred by the
Kimberging Shale from further un-
derground progress. Hence we find
Ahem breaking out I'm the rmestoDes