THE SEWERAGE OF THE Village of Geneva, NEW YORK. 1894. 6 Ale,-it THE SEWERAGE OF THE Vii.LAGE OF Geneva, ' » NEW YORK. Report of Sewer Commissioners, - March 22, 1894. Report on Plan for Sewers and Sewage Disposal, June 8th, 1893, J. J. R. Croes, C. E. Statement to State Board of Health, August 25th, 1893, J. J. R. Croes, C. E. Report on Disposal of Sewage in Seneca Lake, October i6th, 1893, G. W. Rafter, C. E. Report on Sewage Disposal, December, 28th, 1893, Allen Hazen, Chemist. PRESS OF QEO. GOTTSBERGER PECK WtfSRAY CT., N. Y. 3 $ 7 Report of the Sewer Commissioners. Geneva, New York, March 22, 1894. To THE Taxpayers of the Village of Geneva: The Sewer Commissioners of the Village of Geneva, appointed under the provisions of the General Village Sewer Act of one thousand eight hundred and eighty-nine, report that in compliance with the pro¬ visions of said law they employed Mr. J. J. R. Croes, a competent engineer, to make a map and plan for a permanent system of sewerage for the Village, with such specifications of dimensions, connections and outlets as would be approved by and filed with the State Board of Health, and that such map and plan have been so completed and approved, as will more fully appear from the reports of the engineer appended hereto, and that in compliance with the provisions of the law a copy of said map and plan was opened to public inspection at the Trustees’ rooms in the Village Building on the 13th day of March, 1894. This Board in presenting to the people of Geneva this system of sewerage for the Village desire to say that the people at large, as well as the members of this Board, are very largely indebted to Mr. J. J. R. Croes, the engineer in charge, for the ultimate approval of the system by the State Board of Health. : 3 r When the plans were submitted by Mr. Croes to the State Board of Health for their approval, that body after a careful examination of the proposed system was not satisfied with the plan for sewage dis¬ posal, and returned the plans to this Board for amendment in that respect. Mr. Croes thereupon presented fuller arguments in support of his position, and with the consent of this Board, called to his assist¬ ance two other sanitary engineers, who are eminent in their profession, and they after a most careful and thorough examination of the matter made separate reports in which they pronounced the plans fairly beyond criticism, and showed the objections made by the State Board to be untenable. The State Board finally, upon a rehearing, gave the plans as first submitted to them their unanimous approval. We are of the opinion that if the citizens of this Village shall intro¬ duce the system of sewerage as presented by the plans, they will have a system which will be entirely satisfactory to them. The Commissioners have, by resolution passed March 21, 1894, declared their intention to construct a portion of such sewer system, and have caused plans and specifications of the portion thereof pro¬ posed to be constructed, together with estimates of the maximum and minimum cost thereof, to be made and opened to public inspection. Such resolution is as follows: “ Resolved^ That the Board of Sewer Commissioners declare their intention to construct the sewers shown upon the Plan of a Permanent System of Sewerage for the Village of Geneva, New York, approved by the State Board of Health on February 9th, 1894, from the end of the outfall pipe in Seneca Lake, 900 feet from the wharf line at the end of Castle Street, west to the centre of Oak Street, a total distance of about 3,800 feet. “ That the estimated maximum expense of the construction of the outlet into Seneca Lake is $6,500, and the estimated minimum expense is $5,000; and that the whole of such expense shall be assessed upon the Village at large. “ That the estimated maximum expense of the construction of the said sewer from Seneca Lake west through Castle Street to the centre of Oak Street is $5,200, and the estimated minimum expense is $4,000; and that seventy-five per cent, of the expense mentioned in this last paragraph shall be assessed upon the Village at large, and twenty-five per cent, thereof shall be paid by local assessments upon the property owners specially benefitted. And that the area of such local assess¬ ment shall include all lands and places lying within 100 feet of the boundary line of Castle Street on each side thereof, from Seneca Lake to Oak Street. “ And that a special election for the purpose of determining whether the said outlet and sewer shall be constructed will be held at the Trustees’ rooms in the Village Building on the 17th day of April, 1894, from eight o’clock in the morning until sundown of that day.” D. B. Backenstose, President, Stephen Coursey, De Witt Hallenbeck, Daniel Moore, Millard F. Blaine, 1 I Sewer Commissioners. 4 Report to tlie Board of Sewer Commissioners on Plans for Sewers and Sewage Disposal. By J. J. R. Croes, M. Am. Soc. C. E., M. Inst. C. E. 68 Broad Street, New York City. June 8th, 1893. To The Honorable The Board of Sewer Commissioners, OF THE Village of Geneva, New York. I have the honor to submit plans for a Permanent System of Sew¬ ers for the Village of Geneva, prepared under your direction and to present in compliance with the requirements of the New York State Board of Health the following statement regarding the same : Topography. The Village of Geneva is situated at the northwest corner of Seneca Lake, which is about 35 miles long, averages about two miles wide, and for the greater portion of its length is from 300 to 600 ft. in depth. The outlet of the Lake is at the northeast corner into the Seneca River, about two miles distant from the centre of the Village. At the northwest corner of the Lake, and in front of the Village, the Seneca and Cayuga Canal furnishes an outlet for so much of the water of the Lake as is needed for navigating the canal, and this flows into the canalized Seneca River a short distance below the natural out¬ let of the Lake. The general depth of the water in the Lake for a mile from its north end is 30 ft. The beach of the Lake is of gravel sloping quite regularly from high water mark, so that at 400 ft. from the shore, the water is 10 ft. deep. At the extreme northwest corner, in front of the business portion of the Village and canal inlet, a channel has been dredged, so that the line of 10 ft. depth comes very near the shore. The Village Limits include about 1,400 acres, within which there are laid out, and more or less occupied, about 23 miles of streets. Directly north of the Lake, there is a tract of nearly level ground rising to an elevation of about 10 or 12 ft. above the Lake, and extend¬ ing back three-quarters of a mile to the north line of the Village. S The drainage from this tract and also from a strip of land to the westward, about one-half of a mile wide and rising to an elevation of 6o ft. above the Lake, is carried off through Marsh Creek, which enters the Village from the north and empties into the Seneca and Cayuga Canal, 2,000 ft. from the inlet lock. This stream is a feeder to the canal, and it is liable to freshets which overflow its banks and inun¬ date about 40 acres of land within the Village Limits. At the extreme northwest corner of the Lake another creek enters the canal. It flows through a ravine, crossing the streets diagonally, and takes its rise about one mile to the northwestward. About 500 ft. to the south of this creek, Castle Creek enters the canal basin outside of the guard-lock. This stream has quite a large drainage area to the westward and flows through a ravine, crossing the streets diagonally. Its channel is generally from 8 to 10 ft. below the streets which it crosses, passes through back yards, and in many cases has been covered over and buildings have been erected immediately over it. 1,000 ft. south of Castle Creek and in front of the main business portion of the Village, Cemetery Creek enters the Lake, flowing from a generally westerly direction through the centres of blocks and diag¬ onally across them in a deep ravine for nearly a mile. South of Cemetery Creek and along the Lake shore, the ground rises rapidly to a height of about 100 ft. above the Lake, but a quarter of a mile from the Lake another depression occurs in which a stream flows to the south and empties into the Lake at the south end of the Village at Mile Point, where it is joined by another stream which flows from the west and north, about one-half a mile west of the Lake, extending up to the divide of the Cemetery Creek Valley. Natural Water Courses. These various streams traversing the Village, afford excellent opportunities for surface drainage and the carrying off of the rain water which flows from the steep slopes of the streets without injury to prop¬ erty or expensive construction for rain water sewers. The ravines through which these streams flow are not suitable for carrying off house- wastes, although they have been utilized for that purpose to a consider¬ able extent and several sewers have been built discharging directly into the open channels of the brooks for more than half a mile from their outlet into the Lake. The channels of these streams are tortuous, their beds are gravelly and irregular, their course is through private property, and the streams are liable to sudden and extreme fluctuations; consequently their adaptation to the purpose of carrying off house sewage would in¬ volve enormous and unnecessary expense, both in acquisition of prop¬ erty and the construction of masonry channels large enough to carry 6 i the flow even of ordinary summer rainfalls. The rectification of the channels of these streams and their regulation so as to prevent damage from freshets and the keeping of the open water courses free from im¬ purities may properly be considered a part of the duty of the Sewer Commissioners of the Village. Sewerage System. The first step towards the purification of these streams and pre¬ venting them from becoming a nuisance, must be the removal from them of all possibility of their being polluted by house sewage and waste, and with this in view, the plan presented provides for a complete sys¬ tem of pipe sewers of sufficient size to carry off safely all house drain¬ age and discharge it at a point where it can do no damage. The size of sewers best adapted for carrying off the house sewage of a town is no longer a matter of experiment. A large number of cities and towns in the United States have been sewered on the Separ¬ ate System, as it is called, and it has been found that the most effective service has been rendered and the least number of stoppages of sewers have occurred where the least size of sewer pipe is 8 inch diam¬ eter. In the plan submitted for Geneva, the smallest sewers are made of 8 inch diameter, and the sizes of all other sewers have been so propor¬ tioned that a discharge of 225 gallons an hour from every 100 ft. of street tributary to the sewer will cause the sewer to flow one-half full. To ensure proper cleansing of the sewers at the upper ends of the lines, where the number of houses is small and at no time is there any possibility of an 8 inch pipe running half full from the sewage collected from the houses, it is necessary to provide for a periodical flushing of the sewer by other water. This is accomplished by means of flush tanks into which water from the public supply is allowed to flow grad¬ ually until the tank is filled, when an automatic arrangement provides for the sudden emptying of the contents of the tank into the sewer, flushing out all deposits which may have taken place. There are a number of such automatic apparatus in the market which have worked very successfully in many cities and towns. Another important matter is that full provision must be made for the circulation of air through the sewers without any sewer gas entering the dwellings. Full provision must also be made for inspection of the interior of sewers and the removal of stoppages, which are inevitable in consequence of the carelessness of householders in permitting im¬ proper substances to enter the sewer. To accomplish these objects, man-holes are placed at all intersec¬ tions of sewers, and at all changes of grade and direction lampholes are provided. 7 \ With a sufficient number of such man-holes and lampholes judiciously located, the inspection of any line of pipe and the removal of any obstruction therein are easily accomplished. The irregular topography of the most thickly settled portion of the Village of Geneva and the intersection of a great many of the blocks by natural watercourses considerably below the level of the adjacent streets, make the arrangement of a system of sewers to carry off house wastes and following the lines of streets alone a somewhat difficult task. In one or two instances, it has been found necessary to place the sewers at a greater depth than that which is necessary for proper house drainage, namely, from 8 to lo ft. below the surface. One of these cases occurs on Castle Street between Oak and Main Streets, and another on William Street between Pulteney and Main Streets. In the one case a cut of 13.5 ft. and in the other a cut of 18.5 ft. are required for a short distance. r To avoid deep cutting on Castle Street, it would be necessary to acquire land and lay an additional sewer 1,000 ft. along the line of Castle Creek from Oak to Main, and to avoid the short deep cutting on William Street, it would be necessary to purchase a right of way and lay an additional sewer for about 750 ft. along the line of Cemetery Creek. In the territory south of Hamilton Street, there is a natural valley, the outlet of which is at Mile Point at the southern end of the Village. It will be necessary to acquire a right of way and lay outlet sewers in ravines near the natural course of the brooks. This property is not built up as yet, nor is it thoroughly laid out in streets, so that the same objections would not apply to the diversion of the sewers from the present lines of streets, as occur in thickly settled portions of the Vil¬ lage north of William Street. The newly laid out sections of the Village lying north of North Street drain mostly to the north into Marsh Creek, which enters the Village at its north line at Exchange Street. To convey the sewage from this district to its outlet, new streets will have to be laid out, or a right of way acquired along the general course of Marsh Creek from the north line of the Village to the Lake. To render the district for at least 500 feet on each side of Marsh Creek at all habitable, it will be necessary to raise the grades of the streets and the surface of the ground several feet. Sewage Disposal. The question of the disposal of the sewage of Geneva is import¬ ant. It will not do under any circumstances to allow the crude sewage to discharge into Seneca Lake along its shores, nor should it be so discharged into the Seneca and Cayuga Canal with its contracted V channel, lateral lagoons of marsh, and sluggish currents of one-third to one-half a mile per hour. The present population of the Village is about 9,000, and it is pos¬ sible that there may be the sewage of 20,000 people discharged before many years. While the sewer outlets are made capable of discharging 500,000 gallons per day, of which 300,000 gallons would pass through the Castle Street sewer and 150,000 through the Marsh Creek sewer, the actual outflow from all the sewers cannot for many years to come be as great as 250,000 gallons per day. By discharging this into the lake at such distance from the shore that the water will be at least ten feet deep, and the bottom sloping rapidly towards the south and east, the outlet of the lake at Seneca River being two miles distant, and the intervening expanse of Lake being twenty to thirty feet deep, agitated by wind and wave currents from the great and deep volume of water to the southward and swarming with fish, no damage or injury to health of any person will be likely to occur. 1 have made provision for the discharge of the sewage into the lake in this manner by the laying of submerged pipes at the sewer out¬ falls, discharging the sewage into water at least ten feet deep and out¬ side of the breakwaters and piers. By a connection with the city water mains, the outlet pipes can be flushed thoroughly as often as necessary. Construction of the Sewers. The total length of sewers shown on the plan is 22.6 miles, com¬ prising all the streets laid out on the Village map in which sewers are needed. It will not be necessary nor desirable to construct all of these sewers at once. The district south of Hamilton Street is now provided for by a sewer which discharges into the Lake at Mile Point. No additions to this district are needed at the present time. The population is small, and no offense is created by the sewer which has been there some years. A considerable district tributary to Cemetery Creek is now provided with sewers discharging into the Creek. Very little information is to be had concerning the location or depth of these sewers, or the manner of their construction. It is probable that they will suffice for the present for the streets in which they are laid, but their outlets should be diverted from the creek as soon as it can possibly be done, as the dis¬ charge of sewage from them even now renders the creek channel offen¬ sive in dry weather. There are also sewers laid which empty into Castle Creek at Oak 9 I Street and between Oak and Main Streets. These outlets should also be changed as soon as possible. It is very desirable that the whole of the more thickly populated portion of the Village lying east of Oak Street and Pulteney Street, and between North and Washington Streets should be sewered at as early a date as practicable. This will involve the construction of about six miles of sewers vary¬ ing from 8 to i8 inches diameter, together with the Castle Street outlet. In Castle Street, a 24-inch sewer has been laid from the dock to Elm Street at private expense. It is possible that if this sewer should be found on examination to be in good condition and properly laid, it may be utilized for a portion at least of its length for carrying off the sewage from the district west of Main Street, but it is not laid deep enough to suffice for the new buildings on Castle Street. The plan and estimates provide for the construction of an entirely new sewer here if it should be found necessary. The estimated cost of this section is $36,000. Next in importance is the drainage of the territory draining into Marsh Creek east of Sherrill and Genesee Streets. The complete drainage of this territory will require the construc¬ tion of about 53^ miles of sewers, including the Marsh Creek outlet. The estimated cost of this section is $30,000. To complete the whole system shown on the plans, would cost approximately $44,000 more, making the total cost of the system, $110,000, J. J. R, Croes, C. E. The Plans and Report of the Engineer were adopted by the Sewer Commissioners of Geneva on June 8th, 1893, and ordered to be trans¬ mitted to the State Board of Health for approval. At a meeting of the State Board of Health held July 27th, 1893, the Plans and Report were presented together with a report from the Consulting Engineer to the Board, Mr. J. Bogart, approving the plans of sewerage, but declining to express an opinion as to the advisability of discharging the crude sewage into Seneca Lake, un motion of Dr. Perkins the Plans were referred back to the Sewer Commissioners of the Village of Geneva for the addition of some plan for purifying the sew¬ age before discharging it into Seneca Lake. At a meeting of the State Board of Health, held August 25th, 1893, the following statement was presented to the Board by the Engineer, Mr. J. J. R. Croes : 10 August, 25th, 1893. statement to the State Board of Health. The Sewer Commissioners of the Village of Geneva received with considerable surprise notice that the plans for a system of sewerage for that Village had been referred back in consequence of the lack of any provision for purification of the sewage, and have requested me to ask that the State Board of Health will give further consideration to the plans before requiring any different system from that which is pro¬ posed in the reports, and which we believe to be based upon scien¬ tific principles and to be in accordance with all sanitary requirements. The entire question of tlie proper disposal of sewage of towns is still in an experimental stage. Various methods have been proposed and tried for the purification of sewage. One of the most effective of these, is filtration through land, which requires the acquisition of a large tract of ground of gravelly material, underdrained to a depth of five or six feet. The effluent from these drains is in some cases satisfactory, in others not, and complaint is made of the the effluent flowing into streams. Another method is that of chemical sedimentation, in which certain chemicals are added to the sewage; the solid matters are deposited quickly while the effluent is partially purified and is allowed to flow off; the sludge which is deposited being either carried away, or by mechanical means compressed into cakes and consumed, as at the Columbian Exposition at Chicago, in a Cremator. Another method which has attracted attention recently is that of purification by Electrolysis. This method is still in an experimental stage entirely, and while good results are claimed by its advocates, its efficiency is not acknowledged by all. All of these methods involve a considerable expenditure. Another method, and the one we have decided to adopt in the case of the Geneva sewage, is purification by high dilution ; that is to say : the introduction of the sewage into a large body of fresh water at such a point, and in such a manner that offense will not be created, and the natural action of the winds and the waves will produce com¬ plete purification. Before the conclusion was reached to adopt the method of high dilution for the purification of sewage, all other possible methods were carefully examined, and it was found that the adoption of any one of them would involve a very large preliminary expenditure, amounting to at least $30,000 to $40,000. After having discarded for this reason all systems which involved carrying the sewage a distance of two or three miles and distributing it over land, or treating it with chemicals and producing an effluent of doubtful purity, application was made to the constructors of the recently designed method of purifi¬ cation by Electrolysis, but it was found that even for this method ap¬ plied to the purification of only 50,000 gallons a day, an expenditure would be required equivalent to about $40,000. That is to say, the plant would cost $5,000, but the operation of it would cost $5 a day, which is equivalent to the interest at 5 per cent on $36,500. Now, Geneva, an old Village of'about 9,000 inhabitants, contains a very large proportion of taxpayers and voters who are loath to incur any great expenditure for public improvements which are innovations upon the customs of a century. It was with difficulty that a Sewer Commission was obtained, and the decision reached to have plans pre¬ pared for a system of sewerage, and to have the work properly inaugu¬ rated. Before the commencement of the works, it will be necessary for a vote of the town to be taken. The Sewer Commissioners feel that it will be utterly impossible to procure a grant of any very large sum for preliminary expenditures. Possibly the sum of $12,000 or $15,000 might be raised to begin the work, which would be enough to construct the sewers most needed for the relief of the more populous part of the town, in which the necessity for some other method of disposal of house wastes than the present is imperative for sanitary reasons. I then investigated the method by high dilution, and concluded that the only objection to its adoption was a purely sentimental one based upon insufficient data and general impressions which were not substantiated bv the facts. The modes in which offense may be created, or injury to health be caused, by the introduction of sewage into a body of water, are thus summarized by Messrs. Hering, Gray and Stearns in. their Report on the Sewerage of the District of Columbia, June, 1890, Ex. Doc. 445, 51st. Cong. p. 22. “(i.) The whole body of water may be made offensive to the senses by the insufficient dilution of the sewage and its subsequent putrefaction. (2.) The particles of suspended matter in the sewage may be de¬ posited where they will putrify and give off bubbles of offensive gases. (3.) Sand, gravel and other heavy substances carried along by the currents in the sewers may deposit near the outlet and obstruct the waterway, or may become offensive because of the putrescible matters precipitated. (4.) The coarser substances floating in the sewage or upon its surface may strand on the shore.” In cases where there is a possibility of water being taken for drink¬ ing or domestic uses from the body of water into which the sewage is 12 i discharged, or from a stream fed by it, there must be added to these specifications a fifth one, viz.: (5.) The germs of disease may be transmitted from the sewage to the water taken for drinking. With reference to the first of these methods, the Report above quoted goes on to say : “ It has been found by experience that when sewage is mixed with a sufficiently large volume of water, it is entirely inoffensive, and chemical changes at once begin which will in time purify the whole mass. This process of purification is not very rapid, but being mainly a process of oxidation, no offense is caused thereby." In the case of the proposed discharge into the Seneca Lake at 600 ft. from the nearest wharf or shore line, with an expanse of water two miles wide and thirty five miles long in front of the outlet, insufficient dilution can hardly be claimed. This water, moreover, is in a constant state of circulation. The rapidity of this circulation depends mainly on the atmospheric conditions at the surface of the water. The wind is one powerful agent in promoting circulation, but its influence is rarely felt at a greater depth than 20 ft., and below that the temperature of the air at the surface is the effective agent in producing an interchange of the lower and upper strata of water. The investigations made by the Massachusetts State Board of Health with reference to the circulation of water in lakes, establish the fact that in large and deep bodies of fresh water, the temperature at and below 20 feet beneath the surface of the water does not rise above 45*^. When the temperature is higher than 45*^, the underlying water, except to the limited depth at which the wind produces agitation and circulation, is stagnant and cannot receive air enough to keep it pure. When the surface temperature falls below 45°, a vertical cir¬ culation is established and continues until the return of warmer weather checks this movement, and then the lower strata, even in many very pure lakes, become foul and offensive. Now at such times, the introduction into the cooler, lower strata of a volume of water of higher temperature from a sewer will by warming the bottom water create a circulation and consequent pro¬ gress towards purification. It is noteworthy in this connection that it is not the foul sewage itself which will at first tend to rise to the surface, but the water which is warmed by it, for the reason that the specific gravity of the fresh sewage is much greater than that of the lake water surrounding it and into which it is discharged. The specific gravity of the Lakes in Central New York as ob¬ tained in the course of the examinations which I made for the water supply of Syracuse in 1887, averages about i.00015. 13 From the analyses of sewage of several towns, made by the Mas¬ sachusetts State Board of Health and the statistics of the sewage of numerous English cities and of Berlin, published in the Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, the specific gravity of crude sewage averages i.00122. The difference between the two may be more easily comprehended by saying that one million gallons of lake water weighs 3,719.8 tons, while the same quantity of sewage weighs 3,723.6 tons, a difference of 3.8 tons for each million gallons. In the case under consideration, it is proposed to discharge the sewage under a head into the lake at a depth of 15 ft. at a point where the bottom is hard and smooth and sloping about one foot in one hun¬ dred in the direction of the discharge. In calm weather there appears to be a very slight surface current outward at this point. The introduction of the warmer and heavier water from the sewer into the cooler strata of the Lake water in this manner, must tend to produce circulation and a gradual intermingling of the two waters until a uniform temperature and specific gravity are obtained. This process will be moreover aided and accelerated by the frequent passage of the steamboats which ply on the Lake, and which approach and leave their dock on a route between the basin at Castle Street and the site of the proposed outfall of the sewage. The waves and currents produced by these boats will tend to carry the sewage away from the inlet to the Cayuga and Seneca Canal and towards the main body of water in the Lake. Under these conditions there does not seem to be any possibility of offence being created by putrefaction of the effluent, which is by the design and construction of the sewer system limited to fresh household sewage free from heavy or coarse substances such as are carried off from street and yard surfaces by the flow of rain water. As regards the effect on the health of riparian residents, either on the Lake, or along its outlet, the Seneca River, there does not appear to be any possibility of disease germs being transported from the point of discharge of the sewage to the only two points from which a supply of drinking water is drawn from Seneca Lake or River, the intake pipe of the Geneva Water Works Co., in 25 ft. water, 600 ft. from the shore three miles to the westward, and the pumping station of the Waterloo Water Co., on the canalized Seneca River, seven miles from Geneva. Between the sewer and the outlet of the Lake into Seneca River, there are two miles of Lake surface, the general depth of the water being 25 ft. for most of the distance. The entire drainage and sewage of Geneva now passes into the Canal, which runs along the north shore of the Lake for two miles and then joins the river. The canalized river from thence to Seneca Falls is bordered by swampy lagoons. The supply for Waterloo which is used to only a very limited . extent, if at all, for domestic purposes, is drawn from the canal into a smaller basin and thence pumped to a stand pipe. The water in the canal is turbid and unpleasant looking, and the intake basin at Waterloo is filled with an abundant growth of algae. The entire diversion of the drainage of Geneva from the Canal into the Lake would be beneficial to the water supply of Waterloo. If for no other reason, it would be so by retarding the passage of the water over the intervening space by passing it through the Lake instead of the Canal. In the self-purification of water, time is a vital element, for the reason that recent investigations show disease germs to be short lived in large bodies of water, and they do not increase even in sewage pol¬ luted water. As is stated by Mr. Hiram F. Mills, the engineer in charge of the Lawrence Experiment Station of the Massachusetts State Board of Health : “ The short period of existence of typhoid fever germs in such waters presents the probable reason why typhoid fever may be readily carried down a river from city to city using the water for drinking, while a polluted stream may enter one end of a large pond whose waters are changed only after months, and a water supply drawn from the opposite end may be continually free from the disease pol¬ lution.” In fact, the proposed method of introduction of the sewage into the Lake seems to fulfil the conditions prescribed by Dr. Thomas M. Drown in his report on the aeration of natural waters, where he says : “ In cases where it would be possible to bring about a circulation of an entire body of water during the warmer months, so that the lower layers would be brought to the surface and stagnation prevented, we would have an effective aeration of the water with the prevention of the accu¬ mulation of products of decomposition.” If further confirmation be desired of the correctness of the prin¬ ciples on which the proposed disposition of sewage is recommended, it may be found in the action of the Massachusetts State Board of Health in advising in June, 1891, that the sewage of West Springfield be discharged into the Connecticut River by means of a pipe extend¬ ing to deep water, and that the sewage of Springfield be carried by submerged pipe outlets into deep water, in the Connecticut River, from which the City of Hartford takes a considerable proportion of its water supply some miles further down the stream. J. J. R. Croes, C. E. 4 15 To obtain additional testimony as to the correctness of the prin¬ ciples on which the plans recommended were based, the Sewer Com¬ missioners, at the request of the Engineer, had examinations made by Mr. George W. Rafter, C. E., of Rochester, and Mr. Allen Hazen, Chemist to the Massachusetts State Board of Flealth. whose Reports were as follows : Report of G. W. Rafter, M. Am. Soc. C. E. Mt. Morris, N. Y., October i6th, 1893. To the Sewer Commissioners, of the Village of Geneva, N. Y. Gentlemen ; Pursuant to arrangement, I visited Geneva on Friday, September 29th, for the purpose of looking over the proposed method of sewage disposal. In the forenoon I had the pleasure of meeting in company with Mr. Croes, members of your board and a number of citizens in¬ terested in the success of the sewer project, and from them gained a knowledge of the general features of the case. In the afternoon Mr. Croes and myself looked over the Village and surrounding territory in detail. The plans for sewerage are fairly beyond criticism and the only question needing special discussion is as to the adequacy of the method of disposal which has been proposed. It appears unnecessary to con¬ sume time in any preliminary statement, and we may at once approach the main question, which is presented in essentially the following form, namely, can a limited amount of sewage be discharged into Seneca Lake at the points proposed—a distance of 600 ft. or more from the shore line—without danger to the health of either the citizens of Geneva, whose water supply is drawn from the Lake at a point about three miles from its foot, or the health of the citizens of Waterloo, whose water supply is drawn from the Seneca River at a point which is dis¬ tant about five miles from the foot of the lake and about seven miles from the point of proposed discharge, there being two miles of broad lake between the point of discharge at Geneva and the point where the Seneca River issues from Seneca Lake. The general principle governing the relation of public water sup¬ plies to sewage discharge may be enunciated in the following form : “ Crude sewage should never be discharged into any body of water used as a public water supply within the influence of the sewage.” The principal thus announced recognizes that there are certain self- purifying agencies through the operation of which sewage is in due course rendered innocuous, and the foregoing may be taken as the amended form of the statement that “ Crude sewage should never be discharged into any body of water which at any point whatever in its career is to be used as a water supply.” In Massachusetts, the legislature has formally recognized that streams may become purified through the action of various natural forces, and in the 8oth Chapter of the Public Statutes of that State it is accordingly provided that crude sewage shall not be discharged in any stream used as a public water supply within a distance of 20 miles; beyond 20 miles there is no prohibition on the discharge of crude sewage into streams also used as sources of public water supplies. The Massachusetts statute, while interesting as illustrating the practical solution arrived at in that state, is still philosophically defec¬ tive, for the reason that it neither recognizes degrees of pollution nor distinguishes between running streams and lakes, although it is clear that entirely different conditions may obtain in a lake from that found in a river. In the present case, I am informed that the discharge will not exceed 250,000 gallons in 24 hours for some years to come; and the inquiry is further narrowed so far as the immediate future is concerned, to considering the effect of this daily discharge upon the potable qualities of the waters of Seneca Lake and River. , For illustrative purposes, we will assume that the assumed 250,000 gallons daily discharge represents the house sewage of 5,000 people. Let us determine the relation of this to the volume of water included in an area of four square miles at the foot of the Lake. We will throw out of consideration kitchen and manufacturing wastes, which so far as the present case is concerned are unimportant, and confine ourselves entirely to considering the effect of the excre¬ ments of 5,000 persons on the area in question, According to the researches of Wolff and Lehmann, the total excrements, liquid and solid, of the average person of a mixed pop¬ ulation amounts to 843.9 pounds per year, or 2.31 pounds per day. The total excrements of 5,000 average persons of a mixed population will therefore amount to 11,350 pounds per day. The average depth of the lower two miles of the Lake may be taken at somewhat over 30 ft., and we have the number of pounds of water in four square miles of area equal to about 210,000,000,000 pounds. Into this amount of pure lake water, it is proposed to pour daily 11,350 pounds of human excrement. Assuming thorough dif¬ fusion throughout the whole of the four square miles under consider¬ ation, the ratio of the number of pounds of lake water to daily sewage discharge is represented by the quantity 0.000,000,054,050, that is to say one pound of lake water would contain 0.000,000,054 pounds of excrement, providing the self-purifying agencies act rapidly enough to prevent any accumulation from day to day, and that they will so act under the assumed conditions there seems no reason to doubt. As assisting judgment on this point, let us further consider that 0.000,000,054,050 pounds of excrement per pound of water means only 0.003 grains per gallon, or expressed in another way it is equivalent to 0.0054 parts per 100,000 parts. ^ It will be noticed that the foregoing computation is based upon the total daily weight of excrement both solid and liquid. But a portion of both is mineral matter, sodium chloride forming, for instance, a considerable part of the urine. Again a major portion of the excre¬ ments is water. If the proper deductions are made for these elements, the weight of organic matter actually remaining is so small that it will be hardly appreciable when thoroughly diffused by the most delicate chemical tests. In the foregoing the relation between the amount of sewage to be disposed of and quantity of water available for its dilution has been presented. Let us now consider the agencies available for its reduction to innocuous forms after thorough dilution. The self-purification of streams, ponds and lakes is effected through the agency of the minute plant and animal life which we now know inhabits all natural waters in countless myriads. First among such agencies we may place the nitrous and nitric organisms^ whose office in the economy of things is to effect the reduction of com¬ plex nitrogenous matter from its original, and so far as the present case is concerned, dangerous form to the simpler form of harmless mineral nitrites and nitrates and innocuous gases. These organisms develop in all soils and are carried therefrom into streams and lakes by every rainfall, where, so long as organic matter is present, they continue to exist, multiply and perform their appointed task in the way of reduction of the same to harmless forms. The nitrifying or¬ ganisms are entirely without effect upon human beings. So far as the writer is informed, no examinations have yet been made as to the number of nitrifying organisms present in the waters of the Central New York Lakes, but enough is known to justify saying that they exist there in quantity. In addition to the nitrifying organisms which are exceedingly minute in size, there are other classes of life of larger size, chiefly ani¬ mal ; as for instance, the infusoria, rotifera, and entomostraca, all of which have been studied in these waters and found to exist abundantly and whicli are the natural scavengers of fresh water. Among these the entomostraca are especially important by reason of their prevalence in vast quantity in all these waters Fresh sewage appears to be the natural food of this class of animals, and when present in not too great quantity in the water which they inhabit, they devour it with avidity. All these various classes of animals continue in active existence through¬ out the whole year. The nitrifying organisms also exist through the whole year, but are somewhat less active in winter than in summer.. We come now to the final question, namely; even admitting the continuous action of the self purifying agencies in the manner detailed, are they still certain to destroy all disease germs should such be present before any can reach either the intake at Geneva or Waterloo ? In answer, it must be stated that we have as yet no way of absolutely de¬ termining when the self-purifying agencies have completed their work. In the present case, the amount of matter to be cared for with 250,000 gallons daily discharge is so small in comparison with the forces acting to reduce it, that there are strong reasons for assuming complete reduc¬ tion within the limits of the two mile area which we have been specially considering. As a matter of judgment, therefore, the undersigned is of the opinion that sewage may be discharged into Seneca Lake in the manner proposed by Mr. Croes, up to the limit of daily quantity of 250,000 gallons without prejudice to either the Geneva or Waterloo water supplies. It is even probable that a somew^iat greater quantity than 250,000 gallons per day could be discharged without extending the limit of influence of the sewage to either the water works intakes. Respectfully submitted. Geo. W. Rafter. Report of Allen Hazen, On Plans for Sewage Disposal at Geneva, New York. J. J. R. Croes, C. E., 68 Broad Street, N. Y Lawrence, Mass, Dec. 28, Dear Sir: —Yours of 19th is at hand, with enclosed copies of your reports of June 8th and August 25th, and G. W. Rafter, C. E.’s, report of October i6th,and maps of Geneva and Seneca Lake, showing proposed discharge of sewage, water works intakes, etc., and also other memoranda in regard to the proposed disposal of the Sewage of Geneva, N. Y., by discharging it into Seneca Lake through submerged sewers, extending outside of the breakwater and piers, into water at least ten feet deep. In the first place, it is perfectly obvious that there will be no local nuisance caused by the proposed discharge of sewage and, the drinking water question aside, there can be no damage to the residents of Geneva or other towns in any way. As I believe there is no question in regard to this point, we may at once consider the question as to the possible effect of the proposed discharge of sewage upon the water supplies of Geneva and of Waterloo, In regard to the water supply of Waterloo, your point is well taken, that the diversion of the drainage of Geneva from the canal to the lake, thereby delaying its passage to the river and in the mean¬ time subjecting it to the purifying influences existing in the lake, would be beneficial to the water supply taken from the canal or river some five miles below the lake. The one disease which can more frequently than any other be traced to polluted water, is typhoid fever and in the present state of our knowledge, the amount of typhoid fever in a city when it can be traced to the water supply affords the best, in fact the only tangible index of the effects of the pollution. It is altogether probable that the pollution of a water supply affects the health of many of those who do not have typhoid fever, but there are as yet no reliable statistics available upon this point except for Asiatic Cholera, and that is well known to dis¬ seminate itself in precisely the same way as does typhoid fever, and the places where typhoid fever is abundant are the places most likely to suffer from cholera. It may fairly be said that if the pollution of the water supplied to a community does not produce typhoid fever among some of those who use it, there is no reason to suppose that it injures their health in any way. I have had occasion to investigate the relations between the pol¬ lution of a number of water supplies and the typhoid fever among the users of waters, and in every case which has come to my knowl¬ edge where the health of the community has been affected, the water has been infected in s*uch a way that the infection was able to pass from the point of pollution to the consumers of the water in a direct manner and in a moderately short space of time. The quantity of infectious material necessary to produce disease is extraordinarily small, but all the facts available point to the conclusion that it must be conveyed speedily to its destination if it is to do its work, and that delay and exposure in the water of the lake will very rapidly reduce the powers of the infection until it disappears. The epidemics of typhoid fever in the cities drinking water from the Merrimac River have resulted from infections which from the nature of the supplies were capable of finding their way promptly, although in a much diluted form, into the public water supplies, and. 20 so far as I have been able lo ascertain, the same is true of other epi¬ demics from the use of polluted river waters. In the cases where bad results have followed the use of lake waters also, the pollution has usually been gross and the water intakes have been near the sewer outlets. At Chicago, the sewage of a popu¬ lation of perhaps 300,000 is discharged directly into Lake Michigan, and the Chicago River, which receives the sewage from nearly a mill- lion other people, often discharges into the Lake. Until December 8th, 1892, water for drinking was drawn among other places from a point less than a mile from shore, and from the mouth of the Chicago River with its discharge of enormous volume of sewage and the results were unquestionably bad. During the past year, since the completion of the four mile tunnel, no water has been taken from points nearer than two and a half miles from the mouth of the Chicago River, or nearer than one mile from the outlets of other sewers and as a result there has been a reduction of 60 per cent, in the typhoid fever death rate of the city, showing conclusively the advantages of increased dilution and reduced chances of the sewage flowing directly to the water intakes. This of course is with an enormously greater volume of sewage, probably a hundred times as much as will be discharged at Geneva, and can only be used as showing that danger rapidly decreases as dilution and time increase. There are as yet no figures which show at what dilutions and after what intervals the infectious matter of sewage loses its power, but so long as there are no cases on record where bad results have been obtained from dilutions at all comparable to the one proposed, with a small population three miles from the water works intake and with a broad and deep lake between, it is but fair to suppose that in this case the danger of infection of the drinking water will be extremely small, too small to justify the construction of costly sewage purification works. In regard to the treatment of sewage by chemicals, it is possible to disinfect sewage by using excessive quantities of lime or other dis¬ infectants, but the ordinary chemical precipitation of sewage does not do so. The bacteria are not even injured by the chemicals em¬ ployed. A considerable portion of them are often carried mechani¬ cally to the bottom with the sludge and are so removed from the sew¬ age and the effluent is then less dangerous than crude sewage, although still capable of infecting a water supply when crude sewage would do so. In case the sewage of Geneva should be treated, as a precaution against the pollution of its water supply, a land treatment so arranged as to remove all bacteria from the sewage would, in my opinion, be the most effective and desirable method. in regard to the infection of the water by canal or excursion boats, I should say that if the sewage from the canal boats is discharged into the canal, the danger of infection to the water in the canal would be infinitely greater than that from the entrance of the highly diluted sew¬ age from the lake after passing the two miles of lake from the sewers to the entrance of the canal. In the same way, a single excursion steamer passing the intake of the Geneva water works might easily infect the water in a way that would result in more harm than would be caused by the sewage of the entire city discharged three miles away. In conclusion, I am of the opinion, from the data presented and from my knowledge of infected water supplies, that in the proposed discharge of sewage at Geneva, the danger to the health of the users of water taken from the present intakes is too small to justify the con¬ struction of expensive purification works. Respectfully submitted. Allen Hazen. The above Reports were presented to the State Board of Health at a meeting held at the City of Albany on January 14th, 1894, and were referred to the State Engineer, Mr. Campbell W. Adams, and the Consulting Engineer, Mr. John Bogart, who presented a verbal report at a meeting of the State Board of Health held at the Murray Hill Hotel, New York City, on February 9th, 1894, to the effect that there would be no danger of injurious effects from the proposed method of disposal. On motion of Dr. Cyrus PMson the Plans and Specifications, as presented by Mr. Croes, were unanimously approved by the Board. 22 f A ) I \ ( \ \ ) J. James R. Croes, M. Am, Soc. C.E.; M. Inst. C. E., 68 BROAD STREET, NEW YORK CITY. Examinations and Reports made on Projects for Water-Supply and Sewerage of Towns. Plans and Specifications prepared and Work of Construction superintended.