The Penn's Grove record., 1915-10-29
4 NEW BOARD OF HEALTH
Action Postponed On Condemned Wells
Malignant Bacteria Very Few
EXTRAORDINARY HEALTH RECORD SHOWN

Grove Board of Health was held in the
Council room last Friday night. The
three new members-William p. Den
ny, DIR. e. N. Davidson and William A.
Summerill, met with the other mem
bers, Samuel M. Justice and Harry l..
Blohm.
Mr.. Blohm, the secretary, called the
meeting to order. Mr.. Denny was
elected president.
Inquiry was made asito who employ
ed and was to pay DR.. l. w. Knight
who was acting as sanitary inspector.
There is no record that he was ever
employed by the Penns Grove Board of
Health. He was sent here by D. C.
Bowen, chief sanitary inspector of the
State. A letter dated October 9th, from
Mr.. Bowen to DR.. c. L. Fleming, former
president of Penns Grove Board, stated
that he enclosed a copy of a letter to
Mr.. Pratt, of the DUPONT Company rel
: alive to the appropriation made by the
company toward the health officers sal
airy, that w. A. Hunt was custodian of
the Board<of Health fund and that the
money contributed by the company may
be sent to him. DIR. /. w. Knight, new
ly appointed health officer for the Bor-
ough, began work September 10th, and
arrangement to pay him monthly would
be advisable.
A letter from J. C. Price, director in
the Department of Health of the State,
addressed to DIR. Fleming, stated that
a communication had been received
from a resident of Penns Grove, COM
planning of an open ditch on Wilbur
Sparks land and asked the cause of
the delay remedying it.
A motion was passed that it was the
opinion of the Board of Health that the
surface drains in the Borough should
be cleaned out at once and that the
Council be requested to see that the
main drain bitches in the Borough be
cleaned out to take off the surface wat
err; that it is the opinion of the Board
of Health that the owners of properties
directly benefited pay a share with the
Borough Council.
DIR. Knight made an extensive report
Of his inspection and specified several
persons who had not complied with no
tees sent to either pull out their
pumps or close up their wells, and ask
ed the instruction of the Board.
On motion of w. A. Summerill, sec
onded by S. NJ. Justice, it was carried
that all action on the condemnation of
wells as being polluted be Indefinitely
laid over.
DR.. Knight made a report on the ne
cessity of collection of garbage. He
thought a man could be procured for
s. a day, for a year $1430. AS there
are $50 houses in the Borough, the ex-
pense would be $3.50 a year or about
four cents for each weekly disposal.
1t was the opinion of the Board that
the Borough Council should provide
the wagon and man for this disposal
and the h~ouseholders pay the man for
his services.
!, W. p. Denny, IS. NJ. Justice and W.
Y. Summerill were appointed a commit
Zee to wait upon the Council to recon-
hend that action be taken by them for
cleaning the main surface drains and
the means of disposal of garbage.
The regular time for the meeting of
the Mayor and Council was Tuesday
night. No meeting was held because
only two Councilmen were present.
WHAT is POLLUTION OF WATER?
In the strict scientific sense of the
word any thing is polluted if it be not
pure, even tho other things be in it
which are wholesome. Milk is scien-
tifcally polluted which has wholesome
water in it. Water is scientifically pol
luted if it has the minutest foreign
matter in it even tho it be in such
quantities as not to be dele9terious to
good health.
Penns Grove Sanitary Code, section 5
reads: whenever this Board (of
Health of Penns Grove) shall have sat
isfactory evidence that any well, the
water of which is used for domestic
purposes, has become polluted and rem
dered unsafe for potable use, notice to
d;oaOpffo,o fho @ IF coiJ no111fnd
water shall be sent to the owner or
party in charge of said well and at the
discretion of this Board (of Health of
Penns Grove) the owner may be. order
ed to close, fill up or withdraw from
the ground the said welly-etc.
Notices were sent t6k131 we'll owners
that in the opinion of a majority Of the
Penns Grove Board of Health as con
stituted three weeks ago that the wat
ers in these wells were unfit for house,
hold use.
1t is the opinion of a majority of the
Penns Grove Board of Health as now
constituted that these wells are not
polluted to any extent that makes the
water unfit for use, until further evil
dences are produced by some one to
convince them that wells should not be
condemned on something more than
suspicion that the quantltleS OF MI
~trates, salt and bacteria cola found are
injurious to health.
NITRATES.
Nitrates have been found in nearly
all the 81 wells analysed by the State
Board of-Health, in quantities of from
one in ten million to n in a hundred
million parts of water. Throw a double
handful of fertilizer, for which you
nave paid from $25 to $50 a ton down
your we'll land you will have about as
much pollution.
Samuel d. Sadtler, former Prof. of
Chemistry, University of Pennsylvania,
CONTINUED ON A g s