The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1920-12-24
STATE SUPERVISION
OF WATER SUPPLIES

Without attempting to discuss the
whole question of Sanitation in it's re-
lation to public health, the need of a
State Sanitary Engineer at the pres
ent time may be shown very conclu-
sively by glancing at the recent his
tory of water supplies for cities and
towns and noting the rapid growth of
the public interest taken in water pur-
ification in general.
1t has not been so long ago that the
purity of the water used by commun-
| tiles was matter of far less con-
cern than its. appearance and taste.
Unless there was a local epidemic or
marked increase in the disease rate,
which, in the absence of any other
probable cause, could be attributed to
impure water, most communities
looked upon their water supplies as
satisfactory enough, although some
towns might enjoy a softer, clearer or
better tasting water than others.
Less than twenty years ago it was
the practice of the majority of engi-
neers to advise communities to bring
water long distances from unpolIutsd
sources, rather than to undertake the
publication of contaminated supply
at their doors. Fortunately for the
development of the science Of water
publication, comparatively few cities
were so situated that it was practical
BILE to impound water from virgin
areas or to reach natural pure water
supplies, so that they were perforce
obliged to resort to some method of
water treatment, however unwilling
they may have been to do so. Thus
research in sedimentation, filtration
and sterilization was and is still being
carried on in hundreds of places and
| by scores OF skilled students and OBJ
servers.
| 1t is now almost universally con-
ceded that all surface waters are sub
| ject to contamination and where they
have to be used as municipal water
supplies, some method of publication
or sterilization or both should be re-
sorted to. Filters properly construct
ed and operated undersexpert super
vision can be depended upon to turn
out safe and potable water.
| But there are many filters through
out the country that are not adapted
to the water hey are filering and also
many that are far from being properly
operated. For this reason the use of
liquid chlorine as a sterilizing agent
after filtration has grown from it's
original use as an emergency meas
ure to continual and common prac-
tice. Chlorine treatment of clear wa
ters that supposedly do not need fill
tration or where the community cam
not afford or is not ready to build
filters, is very effective, if directed by
some competent person.
But neither filtration nor steriliza-
ton will prove efficacious as health
measures unless these processes are
continually supervised and directed
by some one skilled in the practice of
water treatment, and who is backed up
with the authority Of the state SO that
his recommendations can be enforced.
! is estimated that at least % mil
lion people in this country are using
filtered water and that more than O.
500 cities and towns are using chlorine
treatment. This leaves a vast5multi.
tude Of people and thousands of com !.
munities who are using water that is
to say the least of it, unsafe. Health
authorities everywhere realize these
facts, but on account Of the chronie
shortage in funds, and because Of tn
many urgent other demands on thei
time and resources, unless there i
special provision made for supervi
sion over water supplies, they ca
give but scant attention to this In
ocrtant subject. This IS particular.