The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1913-10-28
SEWAGE DISPOSAL PLANTS.
Ought To Be Examined Carefully by
Competent Superintendent.

In Europe the sewage disposal plan
which is not carefully maintained by
competent superintendent is the rare ex
lception. In fact there are none. Thi
bis in effect the statement made to us re
GENTLY by an American engineer, who ha
had wide experience with and has per
sonally studied many such plants, no
only in Europe but in this country also
| Possibly he eNaggerates; but not very
greatly, if we may Judge from our owl
! knowledge OF the matter. We have il
mind three of the plants which hav,
been widely advertised as examples o.
| the most recent improvements in the ar
I and science of sewage disposal, none o.
which is operated as it was designed Il
operate, because less trouble and eX
lpense tehiefy the former) are sufficient
to give good enough" results.
| There seem to be several reasons fol
I this condition of affairs. Perhaps the
most important is lack of incentive Ii
large proportion of cases the object
OF constructing the plant was To protect
some community other than the one OPP.
Grating it, and the only inducement to
effective operation is pressure exerted
i've do not consider possible altruism
of the city operating the plant In gem
eral, municipal corporations, like private
ones, "have no souls.
A secondary reason is the lack of in.
terest taken in the plant by any re-
sponsible official and the low order of
intelligence usually found in the super
ntendent or other individual in immedi-
ate charge Too often the latter is
merely u laborer What a contrast to
England. where 40 much interest is
taken in the matter that there has ex-
sted for years a national society com
posed exclusively OF such superintend-
ents!
If the state or federal government
finds the tier of sewage treatment so
important that it appoints commissions
to secure and regulate the construction
of disposal plants, then it is equally its
duty to order and authorize these com
missions to see that tire plants are eff
fectivelv operated. If the careless OPP
Grafton of an expensive plant of high
efficiency produces satisfactory results,
then money has been wasted in CON
struetion. for cheaper plant properly
operated and would have produced as
satisfactory an eiiiuet. As well place a
high efficiency pumping plant in the
hands of an ordinary fireman to operate.
age disposal plants. We expect to pub
The country contains hundreds of sew
age disposal plants. I'VE expect to pub
fish next week list, with details, of
744 plants in one state.l Many states
could well keep one high-grade man con-
tinuallv occupied in inspecting existing
plants and not only detecting ineffective
operations but also studying the several
plants and instructing those in charge
how TO improve ON the economy and eff
Cheney of operation. We firmly believe
that lust now this is much more inn
portant than experimenting to discover
how to design and construct more eff
Gent processes and apparatus; unless
the aim of their experiments be to dis
cover one more nearly "foolproof" rather
than more complicated. One instance
comes to mind of On experimental plant
which is located AT an existing disposal
plant where the expense could easily be
cut in two by proper management and
the effectiveness is so low that we doubt
if any difference could be noted in the
stream receiving the efiluent if the
plant were shut down entirely
Our state boards of health and sani-
tary Offices must see and realize the inn
portance of this condition of affairs. In
many cases they nave no authority TO
interfere with the maintenance of the
plants which they can order constructed.
But they should have such authority,
and it is to be hoped that they will