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36
REPORT OF PUBLIC HEALTH COMMITTEE ON
REFERENCE re LEA AND RODING VALLEYS
MAIN OUTFALL SEWER.
To the Hackney Vestry.
"Gentlemen,
"Your Committee have to report that your reference to them and
"the General Purposes Committee dated 1st February, 1899, on the
"Report of Mr. G. Chatterton, M.I.C.E., and Major L. Flower,
"R.E., Sanitary Engineer to the Lea Conservancy Board containing
"schemes for a Main Outfall Sewer for the Lea and Roding
"Valleys, has been fully considered by both Committees, and in
"submitting their report thereon your Committee desire to refer to
"the past efforts of the Vestry in the purification of the River Lee.
"The Vestry are aware that the foul condition of certain parts
"of the River Lea as it passes through the Hackney District for
"many years gave rise to complaints of nuisance, originating
"chiefly from the Tottenham sewage, and your Public Health
"Committee having bought the serious state of things to the notice
"of the Board of Works, representation on the subject was made
"to the then Sir Charles Russell, M.P. for South Hackney, who
"gave it his untiring attention. A Select Committee of Enquiry
"was afterwards appointed. Subsequently, in 1886, the Lea
"Purification Act was passed.
"This Act empowered and required the Hackney District Board
"of Works and the late Metropolitan Board of Works respectively,
"to admit the effluent water from Tottenham sewage into their
"sewers during four months in each year for three years; the
"object of limiting the time being in contemplation of a compre"hensive
scheme for dealing with the sewage of the Districts
"situate in the Valley of the Lea.
"No steps having been taken to carry out such scheme, application
was made by the Hackney District Board of Works to the
" Metropolitan Board of Works to extend the time for two years,
" which was refused, but a subsequent application in October, 1888,
" was successful in obtaining an extension for one year only.