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in suggesting to the Committee that they recommend the
London County Council to include in the proposed By-laws
certain amendments referring principally to the advisability of
causing all persons, carrying out any drainage work, to deposit a
plan showing the course of the drains, requiring all methods of
doing work which would be considered by the London County
Council as being done "in an efficient manner," to be ratified
by the Sanitary Authority in writing, together with some minor
details relating to the material required and to the method of
carrying it out. In the view also that it would be the duty of
the Local Sanitary Authority to see that these By-laws were
carried out, we recommended that they should have the power to
dispense with the provisions of an intercepting trap in cases
where they thought it would be desirable, and that in each case
their consent should be given in writing.
The report was presented to the Committee, but they
decided to make no recommendations to the Council.
Speaking, however, entirely for myself, I think it a
great pity that the London County Council should in these
By-laws have so uncompromisingly committed themselves
to the absolute principle of the necessity for the provision of
an intercepting trap to all house drains, no matter whether the
fall of the pipes be good or bad, and taking no account of the
class of house. It must be within the knowledge of all who
have to do with poor property (especially tenements) that the
drains are frequently blocked, and that this stoppage most
often occurs at the interceptor. "What happens in such a case?
The drains are subjected to a prolonged water test in the event
of the obstruction not being removed ; if perchance they should
be sound, well and good, but if not, the sewage must flow away
under the house, and for months or years be polluting the soil
until either the drain gets so completely choked that the. stoppage
shows itself at the gullies, or the drains are exposed
and examined. It may, of course, be said that this might
happen in any house, but speaking from personal experience,
I say that a drain that is intercepted is far more likely to stop
up than one which is not, particularly if the fall be slight.
The idea of the interceptor was originally based on the theory
that sewer air is much more harmful than the air in the house