View report page

85
It has been shown by the Royal Commission on Sewage Disposal that the liquid
escaping from these storm overflows is at times exceedingly foul, and one that
bacteriologically differs little from crude sewage.
Clearly, as long as these stormflows exist, there is risk of contamination whatever
the process of treatment of the sewage at the outfall may be ; and that further, the
Sewage Disposal Works are unable to deal with more than a certain quantity, and that
the surplus is either discharged after no treatment at all, or after passage through " storm
water tanks," or is simply passed at an accelerated rate through the filters.
Beyond this there is the fact that—
"Obviously shipping as a possible polluting factor is most likely to be mainly
"a source of anxiety in estuaries such as the Thames and the Mersey, which
"large liners carrying sometimes many hundreds of passengers and crew are
"accustomed to traverse, or in estuaries like the Medway and harbours such as
"Portsmouth, where large vessels, each carrying population of village or small
"town dimensions are to be found at anchor.
"But the same source of pollution is by no means negligible in smaller
"places, where the shipping consists of a few steamers and some coasting craft,
"or even in centres where there is a considerable fishing fleet.
"It is clear that in places such as those where, perhaps, extensive sewage
"purification schemes have been undertaken that vicarious pollution by shipping
"may not improbably lead to condemnation, bacteriologically, of shellfish or water,
"or to the involvement of such shellfish in an epidemiological sense."
The report gives an outline sketch indicating the chief centres of the mussel and
cockle industry in England and Wales, with descriptions of the methods of collection
and cleansing of these shellfish and the degree of control at present exercised over their
manipulation.
MUSSELS.
It points out that the practice at times adopted of bringing the mussels back to the
harbour or town to wash and pack is at times a disastrous one for their purity, since
mussels collected from localities where they are little if at all exposed to the risk of
specific contamination are brought back and in not a few instances washed in close
proximity to sewage outfalls.
"It would seem, indeed, as if some of the mussel gatherers had supreme
"contempt for the sewage of towns, since they may be seen over and over again
"either raking for, hand picking, or washing mussels actually at the very mouths
"of sewers or drains."
"At the present time such control as is exercised over the collection of mussels
"has relation solely to the commercial aspects of these shellfish, and it is exercised
"through the medium of byelaws made and enforced by the several Sea Fisheries
"Committees."
These bye-laws relate to size and close season only.