NOVEMBER BULLETIN. 105 An Announcement. COMMENTS. Owing to the constantly increasing demand for copies of the State Board of Health Bulletin, the number of persons requesting that their names be placed on the mailing list has become much larger than the number of copies that can be printed for the small appropriation available. The March (1911) number dealing with sewerage and sewage disposal is out of print. In order to supply the requests for the principal articles contained in that number, they have been reprinted with this issue, but omitted in binding all copies except those sent to the libraries of the State and to persons not on the mailing list in March, 1911. By this means four thousand bulletin-separates have been obtained for distribution among citizens applying for this special information. This incomplete copy contains the vital statistics and other reports in regular sequence, and the omitted portion will be forwarded to any one who does not have the March, 1911, number. The Dangers of the A very dangerous method of solving the immediate family problem of sewage disposal is unfortunately becoming prevalent in California. As communities are becoming large enough to provide themselves with town water supplies which cost less than the maintenance of individual wells, and afford the opportunity for having water piped throughout the house at a greatly less expense than individual pressure tanks can be provided for. Many of the people are abandoning their wells and connecting them with septic tanks and cesspools in order to dispose of their sewage effluent. An intercommunicating and direct system of sewage pollution of the water-bearing strata underlying many towns and residential districts is thus being established. The wells which still remain in use become an unknown factor in spreading water-borne diseases and constitute a potential source for explosive epidemies of typhoid fever or other intestinal disease. The Ohio state regulations do not permit even a "watertight cesspool to be located within 30 feet of any well or spring, nor a leaching cesspool within 100 feet of any dwelling or 300 feet of any source of water supply." The new water-pollution law of California authorizes the State Board of Health to protect well waters from pollution, and this problem is now being studied with the purpose of making regulations toward this end. There are many epidemics on record showing that underground communication has existed for years between a residence well and a neigh boring cesspool or privy vault without resulting in outbreaks of disease until a typhoid case developed in the house owning the privy vault. when the disease "germs" escaping from the body of the patient were thrown into the vault and found their way into the well-water, and thence into the intestinal tracts of the persons drinking the water. In some instances this well-water was used to wash milk cans and bottles and so carried the disease to customers of the dairyman many miles away. An unusually clear demonstration of this potential danger from underground pollution of wells occurred toward the close of the great typhoid fever outbreak at Ithica and Cornell University in 1903. The town water supply (which was drawn without filteration from a surface stream) became polluted with the typhoid fever discharges of some patients upstream, and several thousand cases occurred among the citizens as a result. During this epidemic hundreds of persons temporarily went to a private well in one part of the city to get their It was not known until after a typhoid case developed in a house having a cesspool within 100 feet of this well, that the cesspool and the well had an underground communication. This fact was found out through the sudden development of fifty or sixty more cases, all among the persons who had abandoned the city water for this supposedly safe well-water, in the hope of escaping the typhoid fever. Chemical and bacteriological examination of the water proved its pollution, and through other tests and methods this particular cesspool was proved to be the source of infection. The Problem of the The house without modern plumbing, and with insufficient water supply to operate a water-carrier system of sewerage is a common type in California towns as well as in the rural districts. Many of these houses are so situated, and have enough water to operate one or two toilets, if bath and kitchen tubs and sinks are not added. In southern California many suburban homes have all the comforts of bath, kitchen, and toilet plumbing under conditions requiring the greatest economy of water and precluding any soil-percolation of the human excreta portions of sewage. These houses connect the bath plumbing directly with loose tile laid a few inches below the surface of a small lawn. The kitchen trap is connected directly with perforated square tile (with removable top side for cleaning) leading to the loose earth of a small garden patch. The toilet is separately plumbed and connected with a cement water-tight cesspool, which has to be pumped out at intervals and the contents hauled away. By adjustment of the quantity of flush water and training the members of the family to conserve the water, a tank 6 feet by 6 feet by 6 feet or 8 feet has served an average family for a year before being pumped out. The charge for emptying a tank of the size mentioned varies from $3.00 to $10.00, depending on location and accessibility. Those houses which can not profitably adopt water-carrier systems should construct with equal care dry-earth toilets or sanitary privies. The cut printed on page 130 shows the type of privy being advocated throughout the south in connection with the campaign against the hook-worm, typhoid fever, and similarly spread diseases. When earth pits are dug they should be made tight, except for a proper vent, and fly-proof. The provision of a box of dry pulverized earth for covering each deposit of bowel discharges and the use of fine toilet-paper will practically eliminate odors, and to some extent reduce the dangers of water-supply contamination and fly transmission of disease. Small Sewage The two excellent articles reprinted in this issue. Disposal Works. of the bulletin cover the essential factors to be considered in connection with the sewage disposal problem; but they can of course only present the general subject without going into construction details. It is to be regretted that the State Board of Health is not equipped with the means for making local preliminary surveys for small towns, summer resorts and growing suburban communities, in order to supplement theoretical discussion of their sewerage needs by definite advice as to just what should be done. It is desirable (and necessary if success is to be assured) that competent sanitary engineers should draft the actual plans for final adoption and should supervise the construction of all sewerage systems, but before the bond issue is voted upon or a contract let the people should have the advantage of intelligent, disinterested, specific advice upon which to base their action. Unfortunately it does not often happen the people put money into preliminary investigations and advice along such lines. The money wasted annually by cities, towns and individuals in blindly experimenting with their sewerage systems would provide the salaries and expenses of a competent engineering division, capable of advising helpfully all the towns and citizens of the State. It is to be hoped that the next legislature will again appropriate funds for an advisory engineering division of the State Board of Health, and that the Governor will then sign the bill. Previous numbers of this bulletin have contained suggestive drawings and estimates of the cost of constructing small sewage disposal works, but it has been found that the errors in applying these suggestions without first consulting a sanitary engineer have been so frequent. and serious that it is doubtful whether anything more than general articles such as the ones published below should be circulated. Relative to the cost of constructing a septic tank disposal system for an average family (six members or less) it may be stated that, where porous ground with a low ground-water level exists, the cost should not be over $100 to $150 for the tanks and necessary distribution tiling. Probably $250 to $1,000 will cover the costs of disposal plants for larger residences and our mountain hotels. Extracts from an excellent article on residential sewage disposal by the chief engineer of the Ohio State Board of Health have been added to Mr. Baker's article. THE SEWAGE PROBLEM AND THE LAW. By W. F. SNOW and E. K. MIDDLEHOFF. California's sewage problem presents an interesting study. In 1910 61.8 per cent of the population lived in seventy cities of over 2,500 inhabitants each. Of the remaining 38.2 per cent a considerable number, namely, 153,000, or 6.4 per cent, lived in 128 towns of sufficient size to be incorporated, and a smaller number lived in villages. The number of incorporated towns has now increased to 213, and many additional unincorporated communities have been built up. It is desirable that the health of all of this urban population should be safeguarded by the installation of adequate sewerage and sewage-disposal systems. At the present time many of these cities and towns are situated on important watersheds of the State and sewer directly into rivers. Some of them are crossed by great irrigating ditches into which much of their sewage and garbage finds its way. Others sewer directly into the Pacific Ocean, or one of the salt-water bays. A few are situated on fresh water lakes. Finally, many of the smaller cities have developed in the great level valleys of the State far from any surface-water course, but only a few feet vertically above water-bearing gravels, into which both wells and cesspools have been plentifully dug by uninformed citizens. Californians love their mountains and from May to September they fill the great canyons at the headwaters of all the rivers with populous camps of a constantly changing citizenship. The lumber and mining industries provide many other summer cities on the banks of the mountain streams. The long, dry summer months, followed by the heavy autumnal rains that wash suddenly the accumulated débris and sewage of the creek beds into the rivers, present a problem very different from that of a state in which frequent summer storms drench the watersheds and flush the creeks. The flooding of various sections of the State by rivers overflowing their banks and levees is a frequent occurrence. The steamer traffic on the great waterways of the State-notably the San Joaquin and Sacramento rivers-is an important factor in the sewage-pollution problem. The "intake" pipe of one river community of 1,000 inhabitants is passed daily by a floating population of more than 600. The long, dry season mentioned precludes in California the use of cisterns for rain water. Consequently, the domestic water supplies are from shallow and deep wells, springs, rivers, open ditches, and pipeline supplies from mountain watersheds, and a few lakes. Wells and the mountain watersheds supply the majority of citizens, but each of the other sources is widely utilized. There are many instances of serious pollution of water supplies in all these classes. California's population is rapidly increasing, and every effort should be made to prevent further pollution of the water supplies. The State Board of Health is exerting the extent of its authority, under the new stream-pollution law, to remove the more serious sources of pollution already existing. There are certain factors which operate to reduce the probable danger from all these sources of water pollution. The rivers of the State are relatively low in volume and run very sluggishly during the summer, the absence of rains precluding pollution except by materials directly discharged into them. The larger streams receive so much fine silt that a steady sedimentation goes on throughout their course through the valleys. This "muddy" condition also leads to more or less effective filteration plans for the majority of users. In winter the volume of rain and mented snow water is very great compared to the amount of pollution present. Many of the well waters contain such a high percentage of temporary hardness" that some of the water used for drinking and cooking is boiled to "soften it," and this effectively reduces the danger from contamination, but does not eliminate all danger. California to-day stands on the threshold of her water and sewage problem. Her promotion committees are advertising the wonderful agricultural and commercial resources of the State, and are bringing in thousands of new citizens each year. With this increased density of population will come a repetition of the pollution tragedies of the Hudson, the Ohio or the Mississippi watersheds, which were enacted at a time when science could not offer a warning. To prevent this misfortune the State law covering the pollution of water supplies was so amended by the 1911 Legislature as to give the State Board of Health the necessary authority to supervise the installation of all sewerage systems designed to discharge the final effluent in any surface or underground source of domestic water supply. The important provisions of this new law are as follows: What constitutes stream pollution. Section 2. It shall be unlawful to discharge or deposit, or cause or suffer to be discharged or deposited, any sewage, garbage, feculent matter, offal, refuse, filth, or any animal, mineral, or vegetable matter or substance, offensive, injurious, or dangerous to health, in any springs, streams, rivers, lakes, tributaries thereof, wells or other waters used or intended to be used for human or animal consumption or for domestic purposes; or to discharge or deposit, or cause or suffer to be discharged or deposited, any such offensive, injurious or dangerous matter or substance upon the land or place adjoining such waters so as to cause or suffer such matter or substance to flow or be emptied or drained into such waters. It shall also be unlawful to erect, construct, excavate, or maintain, or cause to be erected, constructed, excavated, or maintained, any privy, vault, cesspool, sewer pipes or conduits, or other pipes or conduits, for the discharge of impure waters, gas, vapors, oils, acids, tar, or other matter or substance offensive, injurious, or dangerous to health, whereby any part of such matter or substance shall empty, flow, seep, drain, condense or otherwise pollute or affect any of such waters so intended for human or animal consumption or for domestic purposes; or to erect or maintain any permanent or temporary house, camp, or tent, so near to such springs, streams, rivers, lakes, tributaries, or other sources of water supply, as to cause or suffer the drainage, seepage, or flow of impure waters, or any other liquids, or the discharge or deposit therefrom, of any animal, mineral, or vegetable matter, to corrupt or pollute such waters. It shall also be unlawful for the owner, tenant, lessee or occupant of any houseboat or boat intended for or capable of being used as a residence, house, dwelling or habitation, or for the agent of such owner, tenant, lessee or occupant to moor or anchor the same or permit the same to be moored or anchored in or on any river or stream, the waters of which are used for drinking or domestic purposes by any city. town or village within a distance of two miles above the intake or place where such city, town or village water system takes water from such river or stream; provided, however, that in the transportation of any such house-boat on any such river or stream nothing herein contained shall prevent the owner, agent, tenant or occupant of such house-boat from mooring or anchoring the same when necessary within the limits herein fixed and established; provided, such house-boat shall not remain moored or anchored within such limits for a longer period than one day. Must obtain permit to discharge sewage in stream. SEC. 2. Section 3 of said act is hereby amended to read as follows: Section 3. Whenever any county, city and county, city, town, village, district. community, institution, person, firm or corporation, shall desire to deposit or discharge, or to continue to deposit or discharge into any stream, river, lake, or tributary thereof, or into any other waters used or intended to be used for human or animal consumption or for domestic purposes, or into or upon any place the surface or subterranean drainage from which may run or percolate into any such stream, river, lake, tributary or other waters, any sewage, sewage effluent, or other substance by the terms of section 2 of this act forbidden so to be deposited or discharged, may file with the State Board of Health a petition for permission so to do, together with a com |