Evening star., 1948-01-05
By RonoId Richardson

mouse traps. Build q better oneI
and the world beats path to 30ui
door. That's what the District did
back in 1888; and visitors have
been coming to look at 1t ever since
The door, in lt1is case, is 5000
Overlook avenue S.W., better known
to Washington residents as Blue
Plains, site of the Districts. sewage
treatment plant. The name dates
back to q Colonial plantation.
Although few tourist maps point
out the sewage treatment plant,
more than 2,700 visitors have called
at Blue Plains in the last nine years
and signed the register Supt. Ralph
E. Thurman keeps on his desk.
World Attraction.
It carries signatures in two dozen
Languages left by sanitation experts
from nearly every State and most
major nations of the world. A party
of Russians turned up at Blue Plains
about a year ago and asked to be
shown through the plant. One said
he was q Moscow city engineer.
All were interested in technical
processes.
The Districts sewage treatment
plant is a highly complicated opera
ton capable Of standing on its own
merits. Constructed in the middle
1930s with assistance of PWA funds
at total cost of s., 400 900. the Blue
Plains plant was the last word IN
sewage treatment units when 1t went
into operation on August /, 1888.
The plant was designed to provide
primary treatment to sewage for a
city of 650,O00. Washington, since
that time, has become world cap
ital with a growing population in
excess OF that figure. The Blue
Plains treatment plant, modern
though it is, is hard put to provide
the required primary processing
treatment for the 130, ,000, 900 gallons
of sewage that flow at three-mile-
an-hour rate through more than
1900 miles of sewers each day.
Still Modern.
The plant is as modern as any IN
the Nation. Additions, some OF
(which are scheduled for construction
this fiscal year, will bring Blue
Plains facilities up to point where
even peak loads can be processed
adequately.
Mr.. Thurman Is q soft-spoken
Missourian who has been with the
District Sanitary Engineering De-
partment since the plant was built.
Before 1912 he was assistant super
intendent under Ellwood johnson.
now deputy director Of sanitary
engineering. Harvard-trained, Mr..
Thurman is one of that select group
of experts known as sanitary en-
gineers. The plant operates under
the general direction Of H. A. Kemp,
director of sanitary engineering.
Mr.. Thurman can double for the
census taker, second guess the
weather man or even tell you If
June II. 1943. was a holiday without
looking at the calendar. He does 1t
all with sewage flow statistics.
On an average day, 147,000, 900
gallons flow into the Blue Plains
plant. On sweltering summer days
the fiow exceeds 200, 900 900 gallons.
More showers, more baths, more
cold drinks" is the way Mr.. Fuhr-
man sums it up. He can interpolate
his sewage flow chart for summer
months into temperature readings
with uncanny accuracy.
Holidays Show Up.
As for holidays, they show up
every time. He can tell them from
the way sewage flows drop at the
Blue Plains plant.
I'VE charge up that decrease tc
the absence of commuters from Their
downtown offices and stores" Mr.
Thurman says.
First step through the 22-acre
plant is the grit chamber where
sand, gravel, glass and other heavy
materials drop out and are removed
It's here that Washington's lost cyl
glasses and false teeth turn up
Workmen say they cart away hun.