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Drainage System, thereby causing the sewage and drainage of Acton
to flow into the Metropolitan system of sewers. No difficulty arose
until the district developed towards the late seventies, but in 1882
an injunction was obtained to prevent the district of Acton from sending
any further soil water into the Stamford Brook. The population
of the district at that time was estimated at 18,000 inhabitants.
In consequence of the injunction, a provisional order was obtained,
which authorised the Local Board of Health to acquire landsand
to construct and maintain thereon works for the purification and
disposal of the sewage and drainage coming from part of the parish.
These works, when they were opened, provided for the treatment of
the sewage by the International Sewage Purification Company's process.
The sewage was precipitated in tanks by ferrozone, and wasfiltered
through a polarite filter. These tanks—3 in number—had a
capacity of about 500,000 gallons. Subsequently the works were
altered, and the tanks were utilised as septic tanks, in which the
sewage was first treated. It was then distributed over coke breeze
filters, and the effluent discharged into the Thames. For a time,,
this system answered well, and produced good results, but as the
district developed, the amount of sewage passing through the tank
and filters increased, and the results became less satisfactory. The
Council was unable to enlarge the tanks or the filters, but under the
Act of 1905, power was obtained to send the whole of the soil sewage
into London, and to discharge the storm overflow water into the
Thames. The contractors at the present time are engaged in altering
the works and constructing a large storm water sewer through Acton
and Chiswick into the Thomas. The works are under the direction
of Sir Alexander Binnie, and will probably be completed in about a
year's time.
REFUSE DISPOSAL.
A small amount of refuse is taken daily to the Brentford
Destructor, where it is burnt, but the larger portion is deposited on
land to the north of the Great Western Railway, near the cemetery,
This land has been used for this purpose for many years, and a more
ungainly heap does not exist in the parish. Throughout last summer
the houses within a radius of half-a-mile were pestered with flies
generated partly on this refuse heap. Refuse accumulations in this