Metropolitan lain Drainage.

REMAKES

BEFORE THE

JOIIT COMMITTEE OH IMPROVED SEWERAGE,

CITY HALL, MAY O, 1876.

LIBRARY

OF THE

UNIVERSITY CF ILLINOIS

By CHARLES F. FOLSOM, M. D.

BOSTON:

ROCKWELL AND CHURCHILL, CITY PRINTERS,

No, 39 ARCH STREET.

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METROPOLITAN MAIN DRAINAGE.

The Sewerage Commission have presented their report, and
with that their duties ended. I do not wish to say a single
word to urge" the adoption of the scheme which they have
proposed. The questions of the present necessity of im-
proved sewerage, of the ability of the city to undertake
expensive public works, and of the adequacy of the proposed
main-drainage system to meet in the best manner practicable
the demands of economy and of the public health, are not for
me to'discuss here. They must be decided by the proper
authorities, with a due regard to the wishes of the citizens
of Boston.	%

Mr.’ Bradley, our Superintendent of Sewers, has proposed
temporizing measures, which appear attractive to many per-
sons, inasmuch as they require the immediate expenditure of
^ much less money than is demanded by more radical treat-
•Cment of our sewerage difficulties. His suggestions have
£ received that careful consideration to which the known ability,
.^acquirements and practical knowledge of the author have
Tentitled them. I purpose discussing his criticisms somewhat
f briefly, as it is of importance that all practicable methods
^ should be calmly and fairly considered before any one is
^ adopted; and I will, for convenience, consider his objections
Z to the proposed main-drainage system in the order of impor-
^ tance given to them by him.

f First of all, it should be said that it is not the " popular
^ mind ” which criticises and demands remedies for our present,

9411384

bad system, but the most intelligent part of the community,
just in proportion as they have had opportunities of knowing
the present condition of our sewerage.

1st. Excessive Death-rate. — Little more need be said on
this subject, as it has been already so fully discussed. The
importance of improved sewerage, as a sanitary measure, has
been dwelt upon in all the reports of the State and City
Boards of He'alth, and in the recent report on the sanitary
condition of Boston, quoted by Mr. Bradley. Dr. Farr, who
has analyzed the vital statistics of England each year for
more than a third of a century, and wTho is now the first
living authority on that subject, says in his last decennial
report, 1875, " The most important sanitary work of London
is the new system of sewerage, which was adopted after
repeated inquiries by the ablest engineers.” That system is
virtually what the Commission have recommended for our
metropolitan district.

Last year there were in Boston 225 deaths from typhoid
fever, one of the most preventable of the filth diseases, one
which is the most call associated with, if not caused by,
foul sewer-gases, and in which one-half of the deaths occur
in the working time of life, between the ages of 15 and 40.
This mortality represents at least 1,300 severe non-fatal
cases (many of which left constitutions impaired for life),
and half as many more that were milder. It would be im-
possible to reckon in dollars and cents the suffering and loss
to society which might be obviated if even one-half of this
misery could be removed; and yet our death-rate would be
lowered only one-third of one per	by such improved

sanitation, — hardly an " appreciable effect.”

Among our foreign population, who are said by Mr.
Bradley to live " on such a high level that no change for the
better, is possible in the collection and discharge of their
sewage,” and who, he says, " now possess and avail them-
selves, as far as the city can make them, of the best drain-5

age facilities/’ the mortality is excessive. But is not this
practically saying of them, as one of the most illustrious
Greek physicians said twenty centuries ago, that there is
one hygiene for those who can properly provide for their
own health, and another for those who cannot do so?
Whereas modern sanitation says that the interests of all
classes are so intertwined that the cholera and small-pox
and diphtheria, which begin in insanitary localities, reach also
those who are able to command every means of preventing
disease in their own homes. If any class ,of people must
suffer from the bad drains of rapacious landlords, so much
the more important is it that the city should do her part by
providing that any sewer-gases which must enter their
houses should be as harmless as possible.

The area of the original Boston comprises about 670 acres ;
excluding Beacon Hill and the territory occupied by stores,
warehouses and manufactories, it may be seen by a glance
at the map that there is only a very small tract of original
soil available for dwellings of the poorer class, whereas a
large part of the more than 3,000 acres of filled land will
be found to be covered with them.

Dr. Buchanan, of London, chief medical inspector of the
Local Government Board, has shown that by improved
water-supply, drainage and sewerage, 1,300 lives a year
have been saved in a number of English towns, containing
in the aggregate about 600,000 inhabitants. His final ob-
servation with regard to the results of this improved sani-
tation is that " the progress made by the inhabitants of most
of the towns in decency, cleanliness, self-respect and moral-
ity, was, at the least, as striking as the improvement in
their health, measured by the mortality returns.”

The city of Birmingham, England, had, in the middle of
the year 1873, 355,540 inhabitants with a mean density of
population more than double that of Boston. Their death-6

rates per 1,000 for the last five years, of which the Registrar
General has published the returns, are as follows : —

1869

1870

1871

1872

1873

23.1

23.0

24.0

23.0
24.9

Mean

23.8

In 1874 the mortality reached 26.78, the excess haying
been due to an epidemic of small-pox; in 1875 the death-
rate declined to less than 23. One of the most potent causes
in maintaining this moderate mortality among a population
which is largely of the manufacturing class is, by general
consent, to be found in their admirable, self-cleansing
sewers.

Now, haying, by improved sewerage and other measures,
reduced their mortality to a point belowr that of Boston, the
people of Birmingham are not satisfied even then; but,
under authority recently given to them by Act of Parlia-
ment, they have decided to borrow two million pounds
sterling, to improve a part of the city occupied by artisans
and laborers, where the "death-toll” is excessive. This
district embraces 93 acres, contains a population of 16,596
in not quite 4,000 houses, with a density per acre considera-
bly less than we have in parts of old ward three and the
Suffolk-street District, and is to be entirely rebuilt with the
exception of a few manufactories and better-class houses.
The work will be done slowly, so as to furnish new tenements
before the people are turned out of those to be demolished.
The actual cost to the city of this great sanitary movement is
estimated by the mayor at five hundred thousand pounds, or
three million dollars. The Birmingham Council are of
opinion that the "boldest policy in such a matter is the7

wisest, instead of attempting piecemeal improvements.”
The scheme only awaits the approval of the central govern-
ment to be at once carried out.

With a similar object in view, Ihe "Metropolitan
Artisans’ and Laborers’ Dwellings Association” has just
been chartered in London, with a share capital of three
million pounds.

In the two cities just mentioned the first step has been to
supply good sewerage ; the second, to abolish privies, cess-
pools and bad drains. Mr. Bradley would have us pursue the
opposite course in Boston, although it seems to me that the
results which have been got in England justify the wisdom
of their course.

Sir Joseph Bazalgette, for the past twenty years Chief
Engineer of the Metropolitan Board of Works in London,
stated at the annual meeting of the Institution of Civil
Engineers, in 1864-5, as follows: —

" The metropolis had suffered severely in the cholera
visitation of 1831-2, and again in 1848-9, and lastly in
1853-4. In 1849, the deaths were 18,036, and in 1854
nearly 20,000; and, although great differences of opinion
existed, and continue to exist, as to the causes of the dis-
ease, yet an inspection of the houses in which deaths
occurred was sufficient to show that however occult might
be the connection between death and defective drainage,'the
places formerly most favorable to the spread of the disease
became quite free from it when afterwards properly
drained.”

If it has not been demonstrated that complete and speedy
removal of filth lowers death-rates, then sanitary science has
proved nothing.

2d. Entrance of sewer-gases into houses. — There is
scarcely any part of the city, if any at all, of which it can
be said, that " no change for the better is possible in the
collection and discharge of their sewage.” Houses on high8

land suffer equally in some*respects with those on low. The
filth putrefying in the sewer on Charles street sends its foul
gases as well to the top of Beacon hill; Roxbury canal is
connected directly with the residences in Boston Highlands.
In both cases large quantities of organic matter deposit and
remain where the continuous flow of sewage is interrupted by
rising tides or by closed tide-gates, namely, in the fiat grades ;
and the slow subsidence of the water does not create sufficient
current to scour out the sediment. It is this layer of filth
at the bottoms of the sewers, sometimes too several inches
thick on their sides, that generates the poisonous gases
which are driven forcibly through traps by wind or rising
tide, and from which few houses in the city are secure,
whether on high land or low, provided they be connected
with the sewers. Wherever these gases go, into the streets,
on the tops of houses, or through our traps into sleeping-
rooms, they are poison. This is a serious and confessed
difficulty in Boston; and, in order to partially obviate it,
several hundred " pockets?? have been placed in the bottoms
of the sewers to intercept, as far as possible, the sediment
from our sewage, and from which the sludge must be
removed by hand at an extravagant cost.

There is no remedy for this condition now or in the future,
except in so constructing our sewers that there will be a con-
stant, uninterrupted flow of sewage in them, getting all
offensive matter away to a safe distance, before it becomes
dangerous from putrefaction.

Of course, it will be necessary to have skilfully devised
and carefully constructed house-drains, soil-pipes, etc.,
under any circumstances; and the Sewerage Commission
have very fully and distinctly so said in their report. While,
however, human work is imperfectly and often dishonestly
done, sewer-gases must occasionally get into houses; and
there is certainly a difference between comparatively harm-
less, inoffensive gases, and the products of putrefaction of9

the most dangerous kind. To accomplish the best results,
sewers must be both clean and well ventilated.

Mr. James P. Kirkwood, one of the first authorities now
living, says, in the last report of the State Board of Health:
" It is very important that the flow of sewage should not
at any time be brought to rest, because then the heavier
portions will become deposited, and will accumulate and
fester so as to generate the dangerous gases which belong to
putrid sewage, but which in the case of fresh sewage are sim-
ply offensive. It is desirable always that the sewage gen-
erated in a city should leave the city on the same day, within
twelve hours at most, and that it should never be retained
long enough to become putrid. The interruption of sewage-
flow leads to a filthy deposit, growing with each day, and
which cannot be removed by the rate of original flow which
would have kept it in motion to the pump-wells and pre-
vented its deposit. If it is allowed to subside and get firm,
it can only be carried off thereafter at intervals by storm-
water, or by flushing or by manual labor; in either case after
it has become very offensive.”

3d. Flooding of cellars of South Fnd in heavy rains. —
It is difficult to see how one can read pages 8, 10 and 25 of
the report of the Sewerage Commission, together with the
Appendix referred to on page 10, and say that this is a ques-
tion which they even appeared to desire to evade.

It is unquestionably true that cellars built below the perma-
nent or even occasional level of the soil-water must be damp,
if not actually wet; and the sooner this fact is generally known
and acted upon, the better will it be for the occupants of
such houses ; there are comparatively few such in Boston, and
the only remedies are filling, boxing, concreting, asphalting,
cementing, etc., if water is always to be kept out of them.
Cellars now low, if raised to grade 8, can hardly fail to be
kept dry by the new system, provided the local sewers are
properly constructed, and where no unsuitable method or*
2 .10

material has been used in filling in. Where the present
sewers are not large enough to carry off the rainfall by a
continuous flow, larger ones could be built, or separate con-
duits at high grade for the surface-water alone. The Com-
missioners’ estimate of $300,000 would be probably sufficient
to cover any work of this kind which may be needed for
some years.

As sewers for surface-water are needed hereafter, they can
be easily built.

What is plainer than this statement of the Commission ?
"We also propose so to graduate the inlets of the lateral
sewers into the main and branch intercepting sewers, that no
more than the sewage and the due proportion of storm-water
shall be allowed to enter; otherwise, the storm-water would
interfere with the proper action of the main and outfall
sewers. The details for effecting this (i. e., for regulating
' the due proportion of storm-water ’ to remedy the defects
spoken of on pages 8 and 10 of the report), though simple
in themselves, are, like others, necessarily omitted from this
general report.”

There are other questions affecting the flooding of cellars,
which would not materially influence the main-drainage
scheme, and which the Commission did not feel it necessary
to discuss, as being details which would be worked up in
future, in case their plan were to be carried out. Among
them may be mentioned the insufficient size of some of our
present sewers, and the advantage to be got from keeping
the flood-water of the high levels out of the sewers of the low
localities by separate outlets. The object which the Sewerage
Commission desired to attain is well expressed by Sir Joseph
Bazalgette, in his statement of the results to be expected
from the Main Drainage Works of London; namely, the
" interception of the sewage, together with so much of the
rainfall mixed with it as could be reasonably dealt with,”

4th. Height of ground-water in soil. — The question of11

lowering the water in the soil, that is, of draining it, by
means of the proposed scheme, is one which has called forth
a variety of opinions. It is confidently expected that this
result will follow to a considerable extent, as it has already
followed the building of the culvert under the track of the
Boston and Albany Railroad, in whose drainage-area the
water has already been brought as low as grade 5. Grant-
ing, however, for the sake of the argument, that the Com-
mission are in error on this point, they do not maintain that
it is anything more than one of the many advantages of the
new plan of drainage; it is not one of the most important,
nor do they claim it as such. Even if it fail entirely, the
other benefits which we should get from improved sewerage
are sufficient to make some change desirable.

The commissioners state definitely (page 40) that they
do not hope to lower the ground-water below grade 5, at
the outside, where such a result is desirable and reasonably
attainable; namely, in most parts of the South End and
Back Bay. No danger would thereby result to piles, if cut
off five feet below high-water mark, as is required by the In-
spectors of Buildings. In all those sections of the city,
which " have been filled in with such bad material that the
tide actually ebbs and flows in some parts,” namely, in parts
of the South Cove, Mill Pond and Otter-street Districts, the
commissioners do not offer a radical remedy for that condi-
tion. Its cost would probably be much greater than could
at present be justified by any benefits to be got from it. The
only thing to be done there is to follow the example of
Amsterdam, which is built entirely upon piles, and protect
the cellars and basements by boxing, filling, or cementing, at
the same time ensuring them against flooding by storm-
water or overcharged sewers.

In that part of this district referred to by Mr. Bradley,
namely, between Essex and Dover streets, the old wharves
extended to Harrison avenue, formerly called Front street.12

They were mostly left standing during the process of filling,
and have, therefore, allowed the formation of channels
around the piles, through which the water can flow to some
extent. The material used in filling was chiefly marsh land
from the upper part of the South Bay, and is not entirely
impervious; for even the toughest clay can be drained, as
has been shown in Judge French’s standard work on farm-
drainage, and as is now an accepted fact among farmers.
The area which, according to Mr. Bradley, would be exposed
to danger from rotting of the piles, lies between Albany
street and Harrison avenue, and extends to the line of solid
land between Essex and Beach streets. Throughout this
whole section the foundations of the houses have been
placed on single instead of double rows of piles; the piles
have been cut off only one or two feet below mean high-
water line; rotting has already largely taken place, and
those buildings which have not already required underpin-
ning, will most of them be likely to need it, at all events,
at some future time. But, even if the apprehended danger
is a real one, it can be very easily obviated by placing the
branch intercepting sewer in Harrison avenue, instead of in
Albany street.

For all these water-sogged portions of the city, which are
not cut off, from the harbor by the intercepting sewers or
their branches, any remedies for the present must be chiefly
local; they will probably at no distant day be largely used
for warehouses, stores, manufactories, etc. The proposed
driveway back of Beacon street, if built in a suitable
manner, would relieve that district.

The main intercepting sewers and branches are to be laid
at so low a grade that it is not desirable to have them drain
the soil to that depth. They are, therefore, to be con-
structed in a way " that no water will leak into them through
their bottoms or sides.” In themselves they will not directly
aftect the level of the soil-water. They will do so indirectly,13

however, because the sewers already built are so constructed
as to be pervious, and must act also as drains. One of the
first results observed from their construction is the lowering
of neighboring wells. Their point of drainage of the soil
by the general laws of hydraulics is regulated by the levels
of the fluids inside of them. As their walls are not open
enough to permit the level of the water in the adjacent soil
to follow closely the rise and fall of their contents with high
and low tide, the level of the soil-water is governed by a
point somewhat below the highest level, which is reached
regularly and often, that is, where the sewage ordinarily
stands at mean high tide. This level would not be seriously
influenced by exceptional storms of moderate duration, and
depends somewhat upon the perviousness of the soil, being
comparatively lower in gravel than in clay. At present,
near some of the sewers, the soil-water stands above the
spring of the arch. Water seeks its own level under all cir-
cumstances. It will run downhill and find the lowest outlet,
the lowest drainage-point. Its normal level, when not in-
terfered with, may lie considerably below the very small
sewers, and therefore be chiefly affected by the larger ones,
especially when the small sewers are of clay pipe, impervi-
ous and incapable of acting as drains for the soil-moisture.

In the loose gravel of the Back Bay there is so little
resistance, comparatively speaking, to the water in seeking
its level that it is difficult to pump dry any hole sunk bplow
the level of the soil-water, so rapidly is the emptied space
filled again by the surrounding pressure. To take an ex-
treme case for comparison, it would be not unlike sinking a
leaky hogshead on the flats of Charles river and then
attempting to pump it dry before the tide fell.

In a word, as regards this matter of drainage proper, that
is, removal of soil-water, the intercepting sewers are expected
to serve the purpose formerly gained for the South End by
using the old " closed basin, ” now happily abolished. They14

will simply furnish a low point to which our present sewers
can steadily drain,—that and no more, but an important
function. This result precisely has already been got by the
intercepting drainage-system of London, and the same causes
would be in operation here.

5th. Odors at low water from flats at sewer-mouths. —
Mr. Bradley states that the new system " will remove the
smell from the flats of the South Bay, but not from the
Charles river.” He forgets that the Commission in proposing
to keep Charles river clean, provide for a time when the
population will be more than double its present limit, and
not for the present condition alone. It is difficult to see how
the sewage from the north side of the river can now be a
source of serious offence to Boston; or how it could become
such for many years. The flats in Cambridge are absolutely
free from sewage-odors at low tide, except close to a few foul
sewer-outlets. Long before they become offensive to us,
Cambridge and Somerville will be driven into activity by a
nuisance at their very doors. It seems to me that this point
should be distinctly kept in view, that it will be years before
any necessity of constructing the northern main intercepting
system will be felt in Boston. East Boston and Charlestown
can be otherwise relieved for the present.

If " almost all Suspended matter in the river finds its way
sooner or later to the corner of the sea-wall by the boat-
house,” as Mr. Bradley affirms, a simple calculation only is
required to show that from the sewage of the metropolitan
district alone there would be deposited in that place at least
twenty tons of filth a day. On the contrary, it would be
difficult to prove that the ordinary flow of Charles river is
sufficiently foul at present to admit of any serious deposits
on the flats from any other sources than the sewers in the
immediate vicinity.

As to the statement that our own experience and that of
London before the embankment of the Thames show that it15

is the mud banks alone that are offensive, one need only take
a boat and spend an hour at high tide in summer on the
Roxbury canal, or in the midst of the foul gases which he
will see bubbling up back of Beacon street or below Dover-
street bridge on the last of the ebb tide, to prove that the
mud banks are the greatest but not the only sources of vile
odors. The files of the " London Times ” and "Lancet” and the
blue books published by the English government between
1856 and 1866 will show that the water of the Thames itself
was formerly very offensive, while similar evidence can be
got from the third-story windows over the Lifiey at Dublin,
and Spree at Berlin, or from the high bridges over the Clyde
at Glasgow, and Seine below Paris, where there are no flats.

As a test experiment would it not be advisable for the
sewerage committee themselves to examine the sludge in the
Berkeley-street sewer, the accumulated filth between Church
street and Park square, the layers of sewage-deposit on the
sides of the Union Park sewer, the sewer of Dover street at
high tide, and finally the sewer in Hay market square, in
which drainage area, on low land, live many of the foreign
population, who drain into a choked sewer, and whose dwell-
ings, if not properly drained, are not only unwholesome
themselves, but also starting-points from which disease may
spread in all directions. As a means of comparison, self-
flushing sewers may be readily seen in Brooklyn.

" The growth of population and wealth will depend greatly,
in the next few years, upon the extent of the tax-burdens laid
upon the business property; ” but will it not also be largely
influenced by the degree of freedom from nuisance and of
security to health, of which men of intelligence and enterprise
wish to be tolerably well assured, before establishing them-
selves and their families in any city ?

At the present time, there are owners of real estate in
Boston who do not willingly tell the whole truth with regard
to the bad drainage of their property, simply because of the16

influence on its commercial value of such statements. Nor
can they entirely, or in some cases partially, remedy these
defects until the city authorities furnish better drainage.

Mr. Bradley’s temporizing measures will require : —

1st. A sewer three miles long to relieve the Stony Brook
and Parker-street nuisances without adding to that in
Charles river. -

2d. The construction of a long sewer from Eoxbury
canal.

3d. Extending the Otter-street sewers and others to deep
water.

4th. Frequent dredging of immense areas of the flats, —
a costly operation.

5th. Filling in the flats and rounding the " corner ” near
the outlet of the Otter-street sewer.

Now, if his statement is correct that the intercepting sys-
tem will " remove the smell of flats from South Bay, but not
from Charles river,” will not his less effective measures still
less do so ? — inasmuch as our filth, being deposited on the flats
as before, only under water, will generate foul gases, which
must come up to the surface as they do now.

The general results of his policy would be as follows : —

1st. Expenditure of a large sum of money for work
only a part of which will materially help toward the fulfil-
ment of a comprehensive plan, which must be carried out
sooner or later.

2d. Affording relief from the stinks on Charles river,
except what would come from the foul water, and from the
storm-overflows, opening, as they do now, about mid-tide
level.

3d. Eelief of the nuisance of the open basin near Parker
street, if enough money be spent.

4th. Establishing a nuisance in the South Bay; for it is
hardly practicable to frequently dredge the immense area of
flats in that part of the city.17

5th. No relief to weir cellars, unless separate sewers be
built for surface-water; and no effect upon the drainage of
the soil.

6th. Comparatively little help in removing the causes of
disease and mortality in the city.

7th. No prevention of the deposit of filth in our sewers,
to remain putrefying there.

8th. No diminution in the foul character of the gases now
generated in our sewers.

9th. No constant low drainage-point (like that formerly
furnished by the "closed basin”), by which our sewage
and most of the rain-fall can be always discharged without
delay.

10th. No remedy for the force-pump action of the rising
tide, which drives the foul sewer-gases forcibly into every
crack where they can find a vent.

If Boston maintains her previous rate of increase, there
will be a million inhabitants within our present limits, in
about a third of a century. It therefore behooves the tax-
payers to consider all these points with proper care; the
city authorities fully realize the great responsibility which
rests upon them.

London spent twenty-three million dollars in draining their
one hundred and seventeen square miles, and, to quote their
chief engineer again, found that "it is easier and more
economical to originate a new and complete system of drain-
age,” than to adopt temporary expedients. Are we
not certain of finding that the same thoroughness of action
would prove the cheapest in the end here also ?