Evening star., 1937-05-24
IG0BEL PLANT PLAN
UNDER NEW PROBE
|0F D. c. OFFICERS
Sanitary Engineers Study
Burden Likely for Sewage
Disposal Facilities. :
ESTIMATES REVISED
ON WATER TO BE USED
500 to 600 Gallons Per Animal
Per Day Believed to Be More
Nearly Correct.

District sanitary engineers are
conducting another investigation into
the plans of Adolf Gobel, Inc, New
York packers, it was learned today,
for the purpose of affording every
protection possible to the city's new
S4,125,O00 sewage disposal plant from
the sewage OF proposed slaughter.
house operations at Benning.
A Public Health Service engineer
told the Senate District subcommittee
that this extra burden on the sewage
plant, II the slaughterhouse Is run at
full capacity, would be equivalent to
taking care Of population Of 14o, 900.
The new study is being made, ac-
cording to j. B. Gordon, director Of
sanitary engineering, as a recheck Of
the earlier examination made BY
District officials at the time the
Gobel company applied for a build.
ing permit last Fall
Shingler Directs Study.
Capt. Don G. Shingler, assistant to
the engineer commissioner, is in
charge of the new investigation, but
the study actually is being made by
David Aud, a sanitary engineer.
In testifying before the Senate Dis
trict Subcommittee, Ralph E. Tarbett
Of the United States Public Health
Service, based his estimate of waste
that would be discharged into the
sewage disposal plant on the plants
maximum capacity to slaughter 3.l52
animals per day. Tarbett is cooper.
ating with District officials in tho
present inquiry.
Formerly the District sanitary en-
gineers had based their own calcula-
tions OF sewage discharge from the
Gobel plant on an estimated 1,5oo
average daily kill"
officials pointed out today that no
one can tell with certainty Just how
many animals will be slaughtered
each day, as the maximum number
will depend entirely on business de-
mand. Gobel officials contended 6.
the hearings on the King -
nuisance bill that the pla~
not be run to Its utmost
Interstate Shipments
The company intends y
in interstate shipments, hom-.er, els .
it would not come within the scope of
the United States Bureau of Animal
Industry, which has approved the
Benning plans.
District officials said they were sat
isfied now that their earlier estimates
OF the water to be used at the slaugh-
terhouse was "low" and that the fiz-
ure given by Tarbett, ranging from
500 to 600 gallons per animal per
day, was more nearly correct.
In the original checking OF the
Gobel plans, it was learned, one Of
the conditions for issuing the building
permit was to require the slaughter
ing firm to reduce fats discharged in
the sewage to rs parts per million.
This condition has been complied with
in the revised plans and should ease
the burden on the sewage plant, it
was explained.
For purposes Of comparison, the
District sanitary engineers are using
a large slaughter house in Baltimore.
Pollution Of Popes Run from the
Union Stockyards, they said, Is q
matter which would be difIicult to
control The stockyards are owned
by another company, but the number
OF animals kept penned there, II the
Gobel plant Is erected, would largely
be controlled by the needs OF the
slaughter house.
Creek Provides DRAINAGE.
Popes Run is creek that flows
through the property Of both the
Gobel plant and the stockyards and
affords natural drainage system for
the waste from the yards. The yards
are not now occupied by animals.
This creek empties into the Anacestia
River short distance above the pow
er house Of the Potomac Electric
Power Co.
THE pollution from the stockyards
particularly would be very bad If the
slaughter house runs to anything like
near capacity" it was said at the
District Building. There are rigid
sanitary precautions imposed in the
plans for the slaughter house, but, as
Tarbett testified Thursday, there
would be considerable pollution from it,
District officials also wish to in
quire more fully into the use that
would be made Of proposed paved
runway or alley between the Gobel
property and the Union Stockyards.
Unless this is kept swept clean, they
| said It would drain waste matter