A simple method of sewage disposal

404 A

A SIMPLE

SIMPLE

METHOD OF DISPOSAL.*

METHOD SEWAGE

IT is proposed to have two sewage treatment works, o n e at H o u g h Side for the sewage of the WEEKLY

ANALYSES OF S E W A G E A N D EFFLUENTS F R O M S M A L E W E L L WORKS.

OF

SEW'AGE

DISPOSAL.

D e l p h E n d were finished in August, and since t h e n have been in regular operation ; and on the whole the result has been satisfactory. It must be kept in m i n d that the carrying on of such work must at first be m o r e or less experimental, and that experiDETAILS OF T H E W O R K I N G OF T H E S E W A G E W O R K S .

ATION ~S*

DATE.

FILTERS.

REDESCRIPTION, ACTION, When Sludged

I896

Sewage. . . . . .

[o. of Be, Working.

Last P©ried Whenlast of Re.st. Raked.

;OS, I

ydays each Sept.

klkalitx, No. I

Oct.

I(

Sept. I

After Precipitation Effluent. . . . . . Sewage...

I

No. 2

,,

I

Sept. x

...1Alkaline I No, I

Oct. I

After Oct. a'. Precipitation

.~cid ...

Effluent . . . . . .

~lkaline

Sewage . . . . . .

Alkaline

No. Oct.

After Oct. 3o Precipitation

t~

Effluent . . . . . .

~t

Nov.

Sewage . . . . . . Acid ... After Precipitation Alkaline Effluent . . . . . . ls

Sewage . . . . . . Alkaline After Ip Nov. 12 Precipitation Effluent . . . . . . Jl

~ O V . 19

I

5 days

Oct. I2

No. 2

Sewage . . . . . . !Acid ... After ,, Precipitation Effluent . . . . . . Alkaline

greater part of the town ; and the other at D e l p h E n d , chiefly for t h e sewage of Smalewell and Waterloo. N o steps have yet b e e n taken for the c o n s t r u c t i o n of the former. T h e smaller works at M.O.H. Pudsey.--A.R. x896.

I

t. z7

o. 5 pt. 17 0.6

?t, i8 0.5

pt. 17 o. 6

pt. x8 'O, I :t. 2 4

~o. 2

)v. 3

e n c e is necessary to arrive at t h e m e t h o d of working which will gi~e the best results. I t is also important to note that the works were only estimated to treat the sewage of 214 houses, with a population of about i , o o o people, and without making any

PRIVY M I D D E N S AND DISEASE. calculation for trade effluents. At present four times the quantity of sewage is treated, nearly all from mills and factories, and only about fifty houses contribute to the total. The surveyor, Mr. Cass, has kindly given me the following description of the Delph End sewage works: The works consist of two precipitation tanks having a total capacity of 68,~49 gallons. The tanks are so made that they can be worked continuously or on the "quiet rest" system, and either separately or both together. After the effluent leaves the tanks it is passed through filters made of three feet thickness of broken stone covered with fifteen inches of ashes obtained from the ashpits of dwelling houses, and which have been exposed to the oxidising influence of the air for some months. There are two sets of pipes in the filters, a lower set for the discharge of the effluent, and an upper set to carry air into the filmrs. The total filtering area is about 864 square yards, which is divided into six beds of x44 square yards each. It has been found that one filter will pass through it 34,x24 gallons per day, or about 237 gallons per square yard per day. So far the effluent has been fairly good, and the dye water has been decolourised. The filters appear to require halftime rest, or a little more, and need raking over once in each week. None of the filtering material has as yet been removed or cleansed, and the filters are as good, or better, after working five months, as they were at first. Alumino-ferric is used as a precipitant. The table attached shows the result of six successive weeks' analysis which I have made of the sewage and effÊuent, also notes on the details of the management of the works by Mr. Cass. The samples were taken every hour for eight successive hours and mixed together. PRIVY M I D D E N S AND DISEASE. * IT is not amiss at this juncture to put on record the reduction of mortality brought about by sanitation in Southport since our sewerege system was inaugurated. During eight years which elapsed between the first attempt to compile the Vital Statistics of the Borough, and the year i878, when the main sewers were completed and handed over to the Corporation by the contractors, the average gross death-rate of the Borough was 23"82 per i,ooo per annum. In I896 itwas x4"46. This is to say thatif the old death-rate had ruled in I896 as in the eight years quoted, 442 deaths would have taken place in the Borough in 1896 , which did not take place. That these 442 deaths have not occurred is humanly speaking the direct result of sanitary work. There is another factor at work here which ~to * M.O.H. Southport.--A.R., I896.

405

my mind is not duly appreciated here or anywhere else. I allude to the "midden privy." This unhappy store-place for human excreta and breedingground for germs of disease, so deeply rooted in the good graces of Lancashire and other parts of the north of England, is to my mind directly re sponsible for a share--and no inconsiderable one n in causing the greater prevalence of infectious disease amongst working-class populations than amongst populations with better sanitary conveniences. I think it acts in two ways--first by reducing the tone of health generally and undermining the resisting power against infection, and secondly by fostering the growth of the bacteria of such diseases as may happen to break out in a locality. The facts, as they affect this Borough, are very simple. On going through the Register of Midden Privies, kept in the Health Office, I find that the total number of these places left is x,r2r. Of these there are 483 in the four urban wards, or about 12 to every i,ooo inhabitants. In these four urban wards the infectious diseases rate per x,ooo, in 1896, was 13. In the two rural wards there are 638 midden privies--or rather over 88 to every i,ooo inhabitants. In these two rural wards the infectious diseases rate was 39 per ~,ooo.

C O N T I N U E D F E V E R - - W H A T IS I T ? ~ TH~ number of cases returned under this head is considerably on the increase. Cases are thus returned when the practitioner meets a fever that cannot with certainty be classed under any more accurate diagnosis. Enquiry with the courtesy of the notifier discovers that it embraces, along with possibly other things, three varieties that ought to be distinct. First, a simple febricula lasting a week to ten days, generally occurring in summer, and ending by recovery. Second, a condition Closely resembling Enteric Fever in its early stages which, instead of developing into that disease, seems to abort. Third, a condition showing a closer resemblance to Typhus than to anything else, though not completely marked, and appearing most frequently in poor localities, and destitute families out of work, particularly at Heselden, the most poverty-stricken part of the district. Several of these, beside some badly-drained ground, might with safety have been classed as Relapsing. I have not succeeded in detecting any evidence of its infectiousness. With increased numbers, the case mortality is very much less than that of previous years, being only three per cent. I shall make it the subject of careful observation and hope to obtain more definite information regarding its nature and the conditions of its existence. mM.O.H. Easington.--A.R., 1896.