The independent. [volume] (Elizabeth City, N.C.) 1908-1936, 1921-10-21
STATE BOARD OF HEALTH TAKES
NOTICE OF INDEPENDENT EDITORIAL
Will Investigate Failure of City to Acquire Sew
erage and Enforce Law Requiring San
itary Type of Privies

| taken cOgn1ZanCe OF the editorial
in this newspaper, issue of Oct.
I, directing the attention of that
body to the failure of Elizabeth
City to comply with the state
wide sanitary privy law of 1919
or acquire an adequate sewerage
disposal system.
In a long distance telephone CONVEX
sation with the Office of this newspaper
yesterday, II. E. Miller, Engineer of
the State Board ofJHealth, said that he
would be in Elizabeth City in a few
days and unless the present Board of
Aldermen gave positive assurance that
the city would put in sewerage, the
sanitary privy law would Be rigidly en-
forced here.
exemption from the operation of the
sanitary privy law upon the represen-
tations of a former Board of Aldermen
that the city was about to buy the exist :
ing privately owned sewerage system
and extend it's mains to all streets,
or install a new municipal sewerage
system outright. The former admins
tration was honest in its representa-
tions, but it went out of Office before
it's plans ccould be matured.
The State Board of Health has no
agreement with the present Board of
Aldermen and was not even informed
that there had been a change of ad-
ministration. The editorial in this news
Rankin, Please Note!' opened the eyes
of the State Board of Health to the
fact that our present Board of Alder
men has sought to solve the sewerage
problem here by granting tho private
sewerage company the privilege of dou-
bling rates, with no obligation upon the
part of the sewerage company to- ex=-~
tend it's mains to those streets and sec
tions of the city where there is no sew
erage.
With no sewerage relief in sight,
Elizabeth City continues in the danger
Gus and disreputable plight of having
nearly 1000 homes with odoriferous,
unsightly, fy-breeding and dangerously
unsanitary open OF ground toilets. City.
auditor Mills e. Bell tells this news
paper that the number is actually about
1,6OO.
Under the sanitary privy law of 1919
the owners of these open toilets will
be compelled to repair or remodel
these toilets in compliance with sani-
tary specifications prescribed by the
State health authorities. The cost of
making over such toilet varies from
oh IN, fho Of
to $25 or $50, according to the pref
erence of the owners. The law has not
been enforced in Elizabeth City because
the State Board of Health believed
that Elizabeth City was about to pro-
vide sewerage for all it's Inhabitants.
The law, of course, does not apply
where there is sewerage. But Eliza
beth City is not likely to acquire sew
erage under its present administration
1t would be more reasonable to expect
a sewerage company to acquire the CITY,
The sanitary privy act of 1919 will
be found in Chapter II, Public Laws
of 1919, under the caption can Act To
Prevent the Spread of Diseases from
Insanitary Privies." Sections of the
Act of particular interest to Elizabeth
OlIy property OWueIS IulS Ilu1S dL
as follows:
'No person shall maintain or use a
residence, located within three hundred
yards of another residence, that is net
provided with sewerage Or with septic
tanks approved by the North Carolina
State Board of Health, or with a sani-
tary privy which complies in construc-
tiOn and maintenance with the require
ments of this act.
of
Health, thru it's officers and inspectors,
shall fasten a license on all privies with
in three hundred yards of the residence
of any person other than that of the
owner Or tenant thereof, during the last
three calendar months of every We
when on inspection, the said privy is
approved by the officer making the in
spection as constructed in a sanitary
manner and to be in good repair, in ac
cordance with reasonable rules and reg
ulations to be prescribed by the North
Carolina State Board of Health for the
sanitary construction and maintenance
of privies. The said license shall apply
to the calendar year following it's issu-
anee, except as hereinafter. provided.
every privy located within three
person other than that of the owner
and tenant thereof shall be maintained
in a sanitary manner and in accordance
with reasonable rules and regulations to
De prescribed Dy -Cne NOFCn CarOlna
State Board of Health and posted in
suitable form inside of the privy by an
officer of the said Board.
"The North Carolina State Board of
Health, thru it's officers and inspectors,
shall exercise such supervision over the
sanitary construction and maintenance
of privies as may be necessary to en-
force the provisions of this Act.
eff an officer or an inspector of the
North Carolina State Board of Health
shall find a privy located within three
hundred yards of the residence of per-
son other than that of the owner or
tenant thereof, which is not constructed
in accordance with the provisions of
Section 3 of this Act, he shall secure
ly fasten on the said privy a notice
reading. 'INSANITARY, UNLAWFUL
TO USE" and if the inspector or off
Ger of the aforesaid Board shall find,
in the course of his inspection a privy
not being maintained in a sanitary man
.ner and in accordance with the reason
able rules and regulations of the North
Carolina State Board of Health for the
maintenance of privies, he shall remove
the license from the. privy and secure