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79
That part of the river is not in the condition which it should be.
I notice that the banks of the River Thames are clean, and that
shows that the County Council at their works at Barking and Crossness
are taking away the sludge. They are taking away about two
millions tons of sludge every year, so that the mud cannot come from
the Thames. If you will trace the River Lea round, you will come
to an old Board School, and the river there is nothing else than
simply mud. I have reported that there is a very offensive smell
from that mud. In Bow Creek the whole of the river banks at low
tide are covered with mud, a settlement of sewage. Next you come
to the outfall of the West Ham District. On Wednesday we went
up at high water, and we just caught the West Ham people turning
their sewage out. It was turned out in a very crude state. We
noticed that excrement was floating on the top of the water. There
were other sources of pollution which were minor compared to West
Ham. Then we come to Bromley Mills, and that is where the Bow
Creek and the Channelsea River come in. We saw there simply
mud. The condition of the Waterworks River is simply a ditch
with a horrible smell. The Hackney Cut and the Navigation Cut
are in a fairly good condition, and sources of pollution were noticed
from the Old Ford Lock to the Bromley Mills, but it is the back
rivers which we noticed were polluted most. I must think that the
condition of the River Lea, from the Bromley Mills to the mouth at
the Thames, is in a disgraceful and horrible state. They would be
horrified to see the river at low water. The men working in the
gasworks opposite the West Ham outfall complain that when the
wind blows westward the smell is very bad.
The Chairman : We have one other expert here, Mr. Leo Taylor,
the public analyst for Hackney. I shall ask him to state candidly to
you what is his opinion of certain samples of water from the river
submitted to him.
Mr. Leo. Taylor said: I can only speak generally that I have
had samples submitted to me of Lea water and water from the
tributaries, and the analyses that I have made have been published
and circulated. They are all of a similar character. The water is