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49
SEWERAGE AND DRAINAGE.
The district is sewered on the separate system. The surface water is
conveyed into the Pymmes and Salmons Brooks, whilst the sewage proper,
together with that of the neighbouring district of Southgate, passes to the
Council's sewage farm of 233 acres, where it is treated by broad irrigation.
Mr. Frank Rackham is the farm bailiff. The whole of this land rests on the
blue clay at a depth below the surface varying from about 14 feet to about
40 feet; above the blue clay is a bed of gravel, supposed to have been washed
down from the Southgate Hills and deposited in the valley. The sewerage
which conies from the district of Southgate is brought by three main sewers
from the Southgate District to the Edmonton Boundary, and at the points
where these sewers cross the boundary there is in each case a provision for
measuring the flow of sewage from the Southgate District into the Edmonton
sewers. The three sewers are called the Northern, Middle, and Southern
sewers. The Middle joins the Southern in Edmonton, and all the mains
meet at the west end of Town Road, passing down Town Road in a common
outfall sewer to the pumping station. This outfall sewer, which is a brick
egg-shaped sewer, is joined at the pumping station by a low level iron pipe
sewer, which does not extend as far as the Southgate District, but takes the
houses built on the low-lying ground west of the Cambridge Main Line of
the Great Eastern Railway and those in the District adjoining Tottenham.
The sewage then falls into an underground covered reservoir. Next it is
pumped through the rising main into and through open tanks, from which
it is distributed over the surface of the land, where, after a few days' drying,
the sludge is ploughed in; the remainder is discharged into a sludge-bed,
and farmers are allowed to cart this away (when dry) for their own use.
In addition to the works which I have enumerated, there is a low-level pumping
station at Angel Road, which receives the sewage from the factories and
the few cottages which have been built on the east side of the railway, also
from a new estate lying between Dyson's Lane and the railway. The effluent
enters Salmons Brook near Angel Road, and, later, reaches the Lea below Tottenham
Lock, two miles further down, and well below any drinking -water
intake.
Sewage Disposal. During 1908 my Council have further improved
the outlets for their effluent from the sewage farm, but the effect of these improvements
is not so good as it would be if Tottenham were to widen that
portion of Pymmes Brook where the area is restricted before going into the
River Lea and to deepen the channel of the brook up to the Edmonton
Boundary. The improvements in our District for the same reason have much
benefitted Enfield, who have handsomely recognised the fact. During the year,
also the greater part of the sewage farm has been steam - ploughed and
cultivated, so as to freshen the ground and improve its filtering capacity.