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34
four hours of lowest water. The alternative to this would
appear, from some newspaper reports, to be the construction of
1,200 acres of reservoir 40 feet deep, and the passing into the
tideway of the water most suitable for domestic supply.
The Commissioners do not discuss the reasonableness of
local objection to a 25 acre lake being cut in the Old Deer Park,
nor express an opinion as to whether, as Mr. Birch told the
Commission, the same result could be effected by the manipulation
of the weirs; but they venture to predict that, whoever in
future may own the London water works, the time will never
come for passing on the best of the water by means of
works including 1,200 acres of special reservoirs, although
the 400 acres of reservoirs suggested by Messrs. Hunter and
Fraser as desirable in future, so that the Companies may avoid
taking in flood water, will, of course, be made as rapidly as the
increased demands upon the works require them.
The conclusion of the Commission is most distinct that
there is ample supply of water derivable from the Rivers
Thames and Lea, from wells in the chalk in the Lea Valley,
and also in the district of the Kent Water Works Company,
which will be sufficient to meet the requirements of London for
fifty years to come. As to the purity of these supplies, the
chemical and bacteriological evidence of Dr. Frankland, Dr.
Odling, Frofessor Crookes, Professor Ray Lankester, Dr. P.
F. Frankland and others, is most satisfactory ; and no evidence
submitted as to impurity could stand the test of the investigations
and inquiries of the Commissioners. In their report,
however, they very properly advise that further efforts shall be
made to keep pollution of all kinds out of the Rivers, and
maintain their purity in every possible way.
The report of the Commissioners, given below sums up the
evidence and gives a general outline of the whole enquiry and
is followed by the conclusions at which they finally arrived and
their consequent recommendations.