Norwich bulletin., 1911-01-17
Brook. Water Not Needed For 90 Days
to Trading Cove Pumping Station, But Water Will Not be Used Until Necessary--Report and State- from Chemist Nevlands-Action on Elevators Delayed.

have to go by circuftous route con-
 siderably more than this distance. Only slight improvements would be necessary here. The sink drain goes 1 to a cesspool. The privy is on the
 edge of slope and about forty feet from small spring brook which fol- lows the course of the road to the
 main brook about four hundred feet distance During wet weather the privy might easily contaminates the stream. The privy could be more sat-
 isfactorily located and with little ex- , pense.
 At the Daniel Leff1ngwell place on the south side of the brook and about
 a mile and half from the pumping station, the sink drainage goes to a i spring brook which passes within a few feet of the house. The privy is on the edge of a slope about sixty 1 feet from a small tributary and about 1 a hundred feet from the main brook. | Drainage from the barn follows the 1 course cf the road distance of about | brook The pasyy here should have l a watertight vault and be moved a little farther from the slope. The sink drainage should go to a cesspooi
 and the brook near the house sr,ouio l be piped to the brow of the hill north
 of the house If the manure pile at the barn is covered and kept dry, there should be little danger of con 1 tamination from this source.
 The. .Maplewood and two other small
 cemeteries located on the drainage area are, believe, not near enough seriously to menace the supply.
 In addition to the sanitary inspec- ton of the above places, two sam ples of the brook water submitted by l Dr. N. B. Lewis have been examined
 and reports on these are submitted 1 herewith It will be seen that in i int iGr1oc of the
 bacillus coli type were found in small | numbers.
 1 Easing my opinion on these results l and the fact that at some of the places visited direct pollution of the stream 1 was evident, while at others there is undoubtedly more or less contami- nation of the stream during wet
 weather, I believe this supply should
 not be used under the present cond1-
 tions without purifcation.
 l Regarding the advisabilfty or prac- i ticabiIity of improving sanitary con- ! ditions on the drainage area l believe ] that those places where direct con- 1 tamfnation of the stream is evident 1 should be eliminated. More stringent ] measures would reduce but would by
 no means eliminate the danger from 1 the use of a small running stream draining an inhabited area.
 l When a stream is impounded with ] dam and a large reservoir formed l where the action of sedimentation, sunlight and other purifying influ- 1 ences act on the water for a consider l able period of time before 1t reaches | the consumer chance contamination i of the stream does not usually pre- 1 sent a serious menace to the public health. With the use of a small run ming. stream however, conditions are 1 different Contamination of the stream l even at a considerable distance above ! the intake pipe would be likely to
 reach the city mains within few hours and might have serious results i The theory that running water purf- 1 fies himself has long ago been thor 1 oughly disproved by the disastrous re- suits obtained where cities have used l contaminated streams onAtllis assunp- 1 tion. Safety in the use Of such | stream, therefore lies in the adoption of some metkod of purification before l it is pumped into the mains.
 1 Very truly yours
 l JAMES A. NEWLANDS, 1 Chemist State Board of Health. ! Necessity. Feasibility and Cost. 1 In regard to the necessity. feasibil- ] ity and cost of purifying the Trading Sove brook water, as asked for bY Supt Corkery, Chemist Newlands wrote as follows:
 l MT. J. J. Corkery. Supt. Water Dept, i Norwich, Conn:
 1 Dear Sir Replying to your ques- l tions 'egarding the necessity feasibil- 1 ity and cost of purifying water from l Trading Cove brook by treatment with ] calcium hypochlorite, as it was pro- : posed for the Yantic river water. I l have the following to report: |. i While Trading Cove brook is by no means so grossly polluted as the Yan- l tic river, there is sufficient drainage l contamination reaching the stream to make it's use, without some form of ! purifcation, rather dangerous, conSid- ering the fact that the water is to be pumped directly from the stream. ] By the elimination of certain sources l of contamination on> the drainage area l and the construction of a large reser- i voir where the action of sedimenta- tion, sunlight. and other purifying in 1 fiuences would ordinarily care for chance contamination of the stream, | this water could be used without fur , ther purifcation. Such extensive 1 changes, however, would be prohibit i tive for temporary supply, and a l permanent supply can probably be ob-
 tained where the cost of pumping may l be eliminated.
 l As an emergency measure the use | of calcium hypochlorite is very satis- 1 factory and it is the most economical
 method possible where filtration is the 1 only other alternative. However, if l this supply is to be used for perhaps
 one hundred and fifty days in the year,
 as has been suggested, and this wers 1 to be continued for two or three years. or until a permanent additional sup ply is obtained. one or two factors
 would have to be considered.
 1 A running stream varies consider ably in it's organic content and tur- | bidity, both of which. affect the action of the llypochlorite solution on the
 bacteria. A water high in organic content will sometimes devlop an ob- jectionable but harmless cdor when 1 treated with hypochlorite in amounts l sufficient properly to remove the bac- 1 teria- This is of no consequence in | the case of treating an emergency sup l ply, but there would undoubtedly be considerable objection to the use of l water with a noticeable odor for more than short time. Such results might l never be experienced in treating the Trading Cove brook water, but this could only be proven by experience.
 ] The combination Of rapid filtration and hypochlorite treatment the for rner removing suspended matter tue latter oxidizing or burning up the lJac-
 teria. is an ideal arrangement if the
 cost for filtration is justified, and as
 much smaller amounts of hypochlorite 1 solution can be used the chance fo1
 getting odors in the water Is greatly
 reduced. In the present case, however I believe it would be advisable. te in-
 stall a hypochlorite plant first, so ar
 ranged that filtration may be added