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30
Before the Ttoyal Commission on the London water supplies, the
following evidence was given on this point by Dr. Turner, who had
been specially employed by the London County Council to inspect the
Biver Lea and its tributaries above the intake of the East London
Water Company, with a view of ascertaining the contamination that
river is exposed to.
, An inspection of the rivers, made for the purposes of this report, showed
that about 95,000 persons living in towns and villages discharge sewage
effluents after more or less purification into the river. The effluents from
85,000 of these may be regarded as efficiently purified; a pretence of purification
is made in regard to the sewage of the three villages, with an aggregate
population of 5,500, while five others with a total of 7,000 inhabitants run
unpurified sewage into the streams.
There remain about 50,000 people living within the area, in villages or
scattered farms and cottages, who would not generally be considered to
pollute the river, their places of residence being too far from the banks. But
the possibility of at least occasional pollution from farms and houses at a
very considerable distance is much greater than I supposed until I had paid
particular attention to the question, and then it became evident that during
rainy weather the drainage from many of the cottages, etc., could be traced
of course greatly diluted, through ditches until it reached the river.
I have observed and taken note of pollution from 397 houses, 24 mills,
21 farms, 6 public-houses, 2 soliools, and 5 slaughter-houses or places where
pigs are occasionally slaughtered. The inhabitants of these houses, mills,
farms, etc., cannot amount to less than 2,000 persons.
In addition, at various places, such as Stansted, Standon, Braugliing,
Aspeden, Widford, Hormead, etc., sewage evidently enters the river through
ditches and rain-water drains, but as the premises are not directly connected
with these drains it is impossible to state how many persons actually contribute
to the pollution, but probably at least as many more, i.e. 2,000 do so.
In round numbers, sewage, sewage effluent, or slop water, from 100,000
persons reaches the Lea and its tributaries above the intake of the water
companies.
The only manufacturing process which requires consideration as fouling
the river is that of malting. And I find that, leaving out of consideration
those maltings which drain into sewers discharging on to sewage farms, etc.,
no less than 8,896,250 gallons of malting water are turned into the streams.
In addition to the above-described impurities, the river is fouled
at various places from the Water Company's intake down to the point