New Britain herald., 1924-09-04
E. ". Pelton Explains Why Im-
 prOYenentS Must Be Made
CAPACITY NOW TOO LOW
System should Be Able to Care For
 8,0O0,00O Gallons Daily and 10,-
 100000 Gallons Maximum When

Works at the usual weekly lunch con of the Rotary club today. Mir. Pelton spoke as an engineer. He pointed out that the city has prac- tically doubled It's population with In the past 20 years and said, in part:
 "In spite of the efforts of the city officials 1t has been impossible to keep pace with this increase. There are about 125 miles of streets. The water consumption per capita is very large, due to the large fac- tory use and this means very large amount of sewage to be handled. This will run from three and one-half to five million gallons per day, about three times the gall Ions per capita of 8 non industrial city.
 History of Sewage System
 '"The construction of sewers was begun in 1878, and up to 1902 the city was severed on the combined plan. The combined sewage at that time was discharged into Piper brook and numerous complaints arose from the fouling of the stream. In 1898 Samuel M. Gray was retained as consulting engineer to report upon conditions of stream pollution and methods of remedying the same. As a result, the sewerage was changed from a combined to @ separate system, and between 1902 and 1904 the present sanitary sewers were constructed and the house connected with them. Most of the industrial wastes from the factories and sur- face drainage continued to dis charge into the old system. Some factory connections, however, were not disconnected from the sanitary sewers and at the present time .in- dustrial wastes, in addition to the domestic sewage, reach the sanitary sewers.
 Tn 1920 there were 72.5 miles oi sanitary, sewers ranging from tc A inches in diameter and 36.2 mile. of storm sewers ranging from tc Sl inches in diameter. The sani. tary sewers lead to the present sew age disposal plant, and the storm sewers discharge into Piper brook On March 31, 1928, there were 78.4 miles of sanitary sewers and 36.6 miles of storm water sewers and in the following year three ad. ditional miles were added.
 The present sewage disposal plant is located in the town of Berlin about one-half mile east ot the main line of the New York New Haven and Hartford railroad It originally consisted of beds, of one acre each, the filter media being natural soil provided with under. drains. The plant was built fir 1902-0S and put into operation some time in 1904, the effluent discharg- Ing Into Willow brook leading tc the Sebethe or Mattabessett river Considerable difficulty was exper. fenced in operating the plant from the start and 1t was generally at- tributed to the industrial wastes particularly those containing iron which clogged the beds and under. drains. An addition of about five acres of beds did not help any.
 Tn spite of the efforts made the conditions at the disposal plant grew worse, and there were many complaints about the disposal plant, and the condition of the Mattabes- sett river, where the unconsumed sewage was deposited. Some law suits followed and damages were awarded against the city, and many other cases were settled out of court. Conditions are no better now. From 1914 on, several en- gineers were called in to investi- gate, and make recommendations. They found the beds inadequate for the volume handled, and also that the beds were inefficient and inade- quate, due to clogging with factory wastes. On Sept. 1S, 1919, the city officials asked the industrial wastes board to help solve the problem.
 Their engineer found conditions as above, and recommended that the industrial wastes board cooper ate with the city in, building and operating sewage experimental station, to try out different methods of sewage disposal. Also that a survey be made to eliminate all waste that clogged and destroyed the proper working of the sewer beds. Some harmful factory wastes were found coming into the sewers,
 "The city voted to accept the sug- gestion of the industrial wastes board, and an experimental station was started. This was first operat- ed on May "A, 1920, and operated without much Interruption till June 6, 1921. Many measurements were taken to determine the gallons per day in different seasons of the year, and in dry spells and wet spells. The flow varies from two and one halt to three million gallons per day minimum, to 10, 12 or 16 mill Hon gallons per day maximum, dur Ing prolonged storms.
 Must Increase Capacity.
 "A disposal plant should be built with a capacity of six million gall Ions per day, and peak load of 10 million gallons per day.
 Because the choice of the prop CT disposal, system. and the proper (ContinuAd on PaRs III