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53
PART II.
ADMINISTRATION.
Water Supply.
1. Iq June, 1908, I reported, as follows: —
Plumstead Well. Last year the Metropolitan Water
Roard informed the Rorough Council that investigation should
be made as to the unsatisfactory condition of the Plumstead
"Well. The Water Examination Committee now reports that
the well has been kept under close observation by the Roard's
officers, who find that the water is much influenced at periods
"when excessive pumping is being carried out. Arrangements
were made by the Chief Engineer to work the pumps at a
slower rate, and as the result of this action the chlorine present
in the water has been reduced from about 10 parts to 6 parts
per 100,000. The Committee reports the opinion of the
Director that neither chlorine nor hardness can reasonably be
considered prejudicial to health, and that the well is in every
respect chemically satisfactory and bacteriologically a good
water. It must be remembered, however, that the importance
of the presence of chlorine is due not so much to its being
prejudicial in itself as to its being frequently an indication of
the access of foreign matter to a water-supply. It was suggested,
by an Officer of the Metropolitan Water Eoard, that the
cause of the excess of chlorine in the Plumstead Well was that
water was being drawn through from the river into the chalk
by excessive pumping. As Thames water is impregnated with
sewage, this is a very unsatisfactory condition of things, and
the Water Roard should not be satisfied until the proportion of