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The greatest variation is exhibited by the water of the Grand Junction
Company, which, of the Thames supplies, contained both the smallest
and the largest proportions of organic matter. This Company is still
unprovided with adequate storage capacity for unfiltered water, but
having constructed works for the collection of water from the gravel
beds, is less dependent on the river itself when the latter is in a
flooded condition.
The summer of 1885 was very dry, and the absence of heavy floods in the
basin of the Thames secured for its waters an exceptional freedom
from organic matter during a large part of the year. With heavy
rainfall and floods at the return of autumn, there was a large increase
in the amount of organic matter. The river was in a bad state in
November and December—as indicated by the proportion of organic
matter being greater than in any month during the last three years;
but the water supplied by the Companies was, almost without
exception, clear and free from any turbidity, the result of improvement
in storage, subsidence, and filtration arrangements. Improvement in
respect of freedom from excessive amounts of organic matter has been
practically continuous since 1868, when systematic analyses were first
undertaken; but in the winter months of 1885—both in the beginning
and at the close of the year—the proportion of organic matter in the
river waters rose so considerably that the average proportion for
the year was somewhat greater than that for 1884.
It was stated in a former report that several of the Companies
are now impressed with the necessity of ultimately abandoning
the rivers Thames and Lea as sources of water-supply, and some
of them have already completed works for utilizing underground
waters which have undergone natural filtration through great thicknesses
of gravel and sand, whilst others are sinking deep-wells in the
chalk. In 1884 it had to be remarked that the protection provided by
the common law to rivers was denied to subterranean sources of water,
which, it appeared, as the result of a decision by Mr. Justice Pearson
in an important case (Ballard v. Tomlinson), might be polluted or
poisoned to au unlimited extent without legal redress. Happily, in
the interests of public health, this judgment was afterwards unanimously
reversed in the Court of Appeal.
A. marked and undeniable advantage of spring water is its evenness of temperature.
The mean temperature of the Companies' waters is