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16
Re KENT WATER.
August 6th, 1914.
Dear Sir,
I think both for economic and dietetic purposes it is very
desirable that the water from the chalk wells in Kent should
be subjected to a softening process.
I quite agree with the extract from the " Lancet " which
you enclosed.
The cost has been the objection, and it has always appeared
to me somewhat unfair to the consumers of the Kent water that
they should have nothing spent on the well water while so
much is spent on filtration and sedimentation storage for the
river water.
It is true that it is an absolute necessity for the immediate
safety of the consumers that the river waters should be very
efficiently treated, but there is something to be said on the
economic question of domestic inconvenience and the undesirability,
for many persons, of the drinking of a hard chalk water.
I should consider that the time has come when a process of
softening ought to be adopted.
Yours faithfully,
J. S. TEW.
J. J. Brown, Esq.,
Chislehurst.
In view of the enormous expense involved, however, the Council
decided not to take any action in the matter. Subsequently a letter
was received from the local representative of the Metropolitan
Water Board stating that he was advised that if a softening process
estimated to cost ,£10,000 a year was adopted, there would be no
necessity to store the water for any lengthened period, and that the
expense of the enormous reservoirs now in contemplation might be
saved. He further stated that the Chief Engineers were reporting
on a scheme for providing a supplemental supply of 4,000,000
gallons daily to the Kent District from the River Thames, which
will probably involve an expenditure of £200,000. The works are
necessitated by the rapid growth of the population of the Kent area.
I give below a copy of the report received on a sample of water
taken from a stand-pipe supplying three houses in Mill Place, on
August 26th, and forwarded for analysis to the County Laboratory,
Maidstone.