View report page

42
SANITARY CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE AREA
WATER
Supply
Almost the whole of the area obtains its water from the Colne
Valley Water Company, coming from wells supplied by gathering grounds
in the Chilterns. Full particulars of the places at which the water is
collected and details of the purification processes carried out were set out
in the Annual Report for 1954.
The Minister of Housing and Local Government issued a report by
one of their Engineering Inspectors on the results of a supply survey of
Hertfordshire and adjoining areas. The survey included the areas of
supply of the Colne Valley Water Company and the Rickmanworth
and Uxbridge Valley Water Company. The report presented a favourable
position as regards present and future water supplies in the area under
review.
Safety
Responsibility for the wholesomeness of the water supply rests with
the Water Company. Following the outbreak of typhoid fever in Croydon
some years before the war, the results of pollution of the town's water
supply, responsibility for ascertaining the wholesomeness of the water
supplies in their districts was placed on District Councils by Section 111
of the Public Health Act, 1936. To this end the Council instructed that
samples of water be submitted periodically for chemical and bacteriological
analysis.
Apart from these routine analyses, samples are submitted for analysis
of water collected from houses in which there are persons suffering from
complaints which might have been water borne. Particulars of these
cases are passed by the Public Health Department to the Water Company.
The following is a summary of the chemical analysis of a sample
submitted in January (parts per million):—
Appearance: Bright with a few particles.
Colour: nil. Turbidity: less than 3. Odour: nil.
pH.:7.3. Free Carbon Dioxide: 10.
Electric conductivity: 600. Total Solids: 400.
Chlorine present as chloride: 42.
Alkalinity as calcium carbonate: 215.
Hardness: Total 275. Carbonate 215. Non-carbonate 60.
Nitrate nitrogen: 5.1. Nitrite nitrogen : absent.
Ammoniacal nitrogen: 0.000. Oxygen absorbed: 0.20.
Albuminoid nitrogen: 0.013. Residual chlorine: absent.
Metals: Iron: absent. Zinc: absent. Copper: 0.14. Lead: absent.
"This sample is practically clear and bright in appearance, neutral in
reaction and free from metals apart from a minute trace of copper. The
water is hard in character but not to an excessive degree ; it contains no
excess of salinity or mineral constituents in solution and it is of very
satisfactory organic quality. From the aspect of the chemical analysis
these results are indicative of a pure and wholesome water, suitable
drinking and domestic purposes".