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44
On or about the 14th June, the West Ham Corporation having
begun to dig out the foundation of their pumping station at the
Abbey Mills, which is to deliver the West Ham sewage into the
metropolitan northern outfall, the Committee directed that the West
Ham Council be strongly urged to proceed with the works as rapidly
as possible. The works by the West Ham Corporation ought to have
been commenced before June nth, 1894.
With the Chairman of the Sanitary Committee, Mr. A. G. Malins,
I attended a conference at the Hackncy Town Hall, on 21st July,
on the subject of the pollution of the River Lea.
The conference was adjourned until the 13th October. On the
6th October, the Chairman of the Sanitary Committee, the chief
officers of the Board, and representatives from the Hackney Vestry
inspected the River Lea and its backwaters. On the 13th October,
together with Mr. Malins, I attended the adjourned conference and
gave evidence at the Town Hall, Hackney re the pollution of the
River Lea. The following resolution was the outcome of the meeting :
"That this conference is of opinion that a full enquiry into
the condition of the whole of the River Lea, as to its sources of
impurities, should be undertaken by the Government, in continuance
of the report of the Select Committee of 1886."
It is a very easy matter for a source of pollution to exist in connection
with a river and the nuisance to be unknown. During an
enquiry into the removal of "fish offal" at the Bromley Railway
Station, St. Leonard's Street, it was found that the offensive water
which came from the vehicles conveying such offal was poured down
a gully in the railway yard, and this gully drained into an old drain
or culvert which eventually emptied itself into the navigation portion
of the River Lea above the Bromley Lock; a most horrible pollution
and one which the Lea Conservancy were glad to be informed of.