Evening star., 1937-05-21

TGS gTQnIe0 1DHen company TeDlSeG
plans King-Norton bill, retro
nctiue in its provisions, mould block
BY stringent regulation such indus
tries in Nations Capital.
Expert testimony from a Public
Health Service engineer showing that
drainage from proposed Gobel slaugh-
ter house operations in Benning would
prove serious pollution menace and
overload the city's costly new sewage
disposal plant by adding waste equiva-
lent to a domestic population of 140,-
600 persons was spread upon the rec
ords of the Senate District subcom-
mittee late yesterday.
The testimony given by Ralph E.
Tarbett, senior sanitary engineer, was
surprise sprung by c. Marshall Fin
nan, superintendent Of the Office of
National Capital Parks 1t followed a
general assault on nuisance operations
and the Gobel plant in particular by
Chairman Frederic A. Delano and two
other members of the National Capital
Park and Planning Commission.
Tarbett's damaging statements re-
manned unrefuted as the subcommittee
recessed its hearing until further
notice" A recess was necessary to en-
able Chairman McCarran, Demo-
crat, of Nevada. to help prepare the
adverse report from the Senate Judi
ciary Committee on the President S
Supreme Court reorganization bill.
Based on 3,152 Animals Daily.
The Public Health Service ex, ,rt
based his statements on the results of
An investigation he made Of the Gobel
plans, If run to their maximum ca
pacity OF 1852 animals slaughtered
per day The only refutation that D
Edward Clarke, attorney for the pack
ing house, sought to make was claim
that the plant would not be expected
to run at full capacity.
The Districts S4l25.000 sewage
disposal plant, now nearing COM
pletion, Tarbett said, will have a
capacity to handle a population OF
$50, 900 people. The addition OF an
equivalent load of 0,O00 people, the
expert testified, would take up the
full capacity of the sewage plant and
would require more in time"
Finnan sought to elicit from the
witness the extra cost per capita to
the taxpayers of the District from
the additional load on the sewer plant
from the supposed drainage The
per capita cost was never definitely
stated by the witness, although Fin
nan pointed out it was q simple
matter of mathematical computation.
The estimated cost of operating
the sewage disposal plant next fiscal
year was given by Tarbett as s2l6,OO0.
He indicated that the cost for han
ding the additional burden from
slaughtering operations would be q
large percentage. "
Commissioner Sultan Attends,
Col. Dan I. Sutton, District Engineer
Commissioner. who has charge Of the
sewage plant, was an interested but
Bilent attendant at the hearing. The
room was packed with large and
at times impatient crowd Of specta-
tors.
Tarbett followed J. G. Nichols OF
Kansas City and Henry Y. Hubbard
OF Boston, members Of the National
Capital Park and Planning Commits
sion, who had stoutly defended the
King bill designed to protect Wash
ington from the threat Of nuisance
industries. At one time Senator
Austin of Vermont suggested perfect
ing" amendments which Nichols and
Corporation Counsel Elwood H. Seal
said would have the effect of extract
klg teeth" from the bill.
Testimony bearing on pollution OF
the Potomac and other streams from
animal waste was given by Tarbett in
bis discussion of the effects that might
be expected from a slaughter house
m the Benning area.
1T would be impossible to keep pol
mt1on from Piney Run, especially In
the Summer" he said. Piney Run,
be explained, afforded . natural
drainage basin for waste from the
Union Stockyards and cattle cars in
the freight yards as well as for the
proposed packing plant.
Sees Pollution rs Certain.
according to the records the max
mum capacity of the plant would be
$500 animals killed per day." he said
Making certain allowances, we esti-
mated 3,l52 animals to be killed each
day. That number of animals around
8 stockyards and the freight yards
would make it practically impossible
to keep pollution from Piney Run"
The effect probably would not be so
great on the Anacostia River, Tarbett
testified, but the general pollution
dumped into the Potomac River
through the sewage plant would be a
serious matter,
He pointed out that for each animal
killed, there would be a water usage
ranging from 500 to 600 gallons.
The present sewage plant as con-
structed would give only one-third
publication to the waste it treated
Tarbett explained. Furthermore, the
primary plant would remove only
about SO per cent Of the solids, he
added. This in itself presented a prob
lem, it was developed.
Tarbett explained that the operat-
Ing capacity ct the sewage plant was
80,ooo0oO gallons per day He and
Finnan tried to estimate from the
number of animals killed per day the
amount Of water which it would be
necessary to obtain for operations.
Water Rent Cited.
Clarke attempted to interrogate the
witness about this. "You know the
Gobel Co. will have to pay water rent
for all the water used" he said
Don't you know there is a complete