The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1912-06-19

There Is no telling how many OF these
1000 are still sending out the disease
germs but no doubt there is a large
number. The only safe way to treat
them is to assume that all persons
who have had the disease are STILL
carriers and to act accordingly. tiltti
Many Cases below Gap ~
Last year in May about As cases
were reported in the city. In June
about dozen were reported. and a
good many were reported In July.
But in July reports OF cases from OUT
side the city began to come in. or
about 46 cases reported in the city
| from the first of July to the first Of
January "a We're traced to outside
sources OF infection. and OF the IL re-
naming there might have been sew
eral contracted from some outside
source.
| "Of II cases reported from outside
the city we traced their origin to
many causes. Instead of being, as 1t
was In the city. with the water very
| little to blame, we found that In near
! ~ every cases the disease was trace
able to drinking water from shallow
wells from irrigation bitches and
| from cisterns, some times to un-
sanitary conditions of premises and
! from contact
Many of the people below Union
Gap use water directly from the
litches, some of them have shallow
wells which draw water that Is easily
polluted by flow from the bitches or
from the river others have cisterns
into which they pump the water and
settle 1t before using.
| "Of the II cases from outside the
city. of course, not all We're in this
district below Union Gap. which uses
the Yakima river, few having come
! in from places above North Yakima.
a Pertinent Question
Some years ago residents of the
Cowichee wrote me a letter asking
that some of their neghbors. living
above them on the creek, be stopped
| from damming up the creek with
manure, and so pollutins their water
supply | wrote to the parties ~
once. calling their attention to the
matter and asking them to quit The
practice
"In reply I received a letter, asking
me IL 1t was any worse for them to
dam up Cowichee creek with manure
than It was for North Yakima 10
dump all of its sewage into the river
a llttlt lower down.
ION the same principle the county
doesn't like to invoke the law to pre-
vent people from letting their stock
run along irrigation bitches aud thus
po!uting the water that people USE
/ ba as that may be, when as a mai
| ter of fact the stock are only polluting
water that is already polluted By
sewage. 1t was this view of thu situa-
/ ton that led to the conference We
knew that the city was preparing To
rebuild the sewer system. but wanted
to have the business pushed through
| The city commissioners are unani-
nous In their willingness to push it,
Sewer Question Much Agitatcd
AT the same time that Investigations
were being made into the presence of
sewage In the Yakima river, and from
time TO time since, the matter of re-
building and extending the sewer sys-
| tenn has been discussed During the
administration of Mayor Schott ami
the last council, and previous to the
pa ssage of a bond issue for the West
, side drain, or main storm sewer. 1t
was the concensus of opinion that the
next bond issue should be made Tor
the sewer system. and that it should
supersede all other improvements.
| Plans for the new system had already
! been started in March, 1911, and on
the change of administrau ton the work
already done was continued by The
| present engineering force under CRY
| Engineer \. A. Gilman.
Drainage Presents Problem
| The question of caring for the sub
Irrigation water that underlies the
city with each irrigation season has
always been considered one of the
chief obstacles to the satisfactory So
! luton OF the problem of sewage dis
posal. IN account of the impossibilitT
of constructing sewers that could care
,4ur lne immense quantities of wafer,
and the fact that no sewers yet bniil
have been impervious to the drainage
water.
II was thought that the construction
of the West side drain would remove
! this obstacle but borings this summer
continued on page y