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9
(3) Sanitary Circumstances of the Area.
Water Supply.—The whole District, with the exception of a few
outlying houses which have private wells, is supplied by a constant
service from the mains of the Sutton District Water Company. The
water is obtained from wells in the chalk at Sutton and
Woodmansterne, and is softened.
Rivers and Streams.—The District Council have from time to
time taken action in respect of the discharge of polluting- or obstructing
matters into the River Wandle. Under the Surrey County Council
Act, 1925, the County Council have obtained powers to preserve and
improve the flow and purity of the river, by cleansing, widening, and
prohibiting the discharge of sewage or other offensive or injurious
matter into the stream.
Drainage and Sewerage.—The whole of the populated part of
the District, except the Woodcote area, completely detached to the
extreme south, and including the 72 Small Holdings of the Surrey
County Council and 15 other dwellings, is sewered. There are 16
scattered dwellings to the north of the District for which sewers are
not available. The District Council have endeavoured, as the
sewerage system has been extended, to secure the connection of the
drains of all houses within a reasonable distance of the sewers, and the
number of such unconnected houses has been reduced to 27.
In connection with the possibility of pollution of the water supply,
1 made a report in September upon the situation of cesspools in the chalk
relative to the Sutton well of the Water Company. There was no
cesspool within a quarter of a mile, but seven within half a mile ; it
appeared to be improbable, however, from the known direction of the
flow of water, that any of these could affect the water supply, although
possibly two were on the border of the zone.
As there was some doubt in a few cases as to the outlet of the drains,
Mr. Spi'cer, the Sanitary Inspector, made full enquiry into the matter,
and revised the list of unconnected houses. He approached the owners
of all houses within 100 feet of a sewer which still drained into
cesspools, and he reports that, at the end of the year, the drains of
one had been connected with the sewer, andi that good progress was
being made in the negotiations for the connection of nearly all the
rest.
At the Outfall Works the high level sewage is treated by
continuous flow through sedimentation tanks, the effluent from which is
treated on a specially prepared filtration area, folio-wed by passage
over the land. The low level sewage is pumped into tanks in which
it undergoes quiescent settlement for two hours, and is then treated
by sprinklers; the effluent passes into a deep tank, the top water of
which flows through humus filters.