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9
(3) Sanitary Circumstances of the Area.
Water—The water supply is obtained from bore-holes and an adit in
the chalk at the District Council's Water Works in East Street. The main
bulk of the water is derived from the adit, 90 feet from the surface of the
ground. The top of the chalk is 65 feet below the surface, the strata above
it consisting of sand, gravel, and a belt of clay 14 feet in thickness.
The water is pumped into two reservoirs, having a total capacity of
930,700 gallons. A constant supply is maintained to all premises up to a
height of 400 feet, and the plant is capable of giving a supply to a height of
550 feet. The amount of water delivered is calculated to be about 30
gallons per head per day, exclusive of waste.
In July, 1925, the District Council obtained the sanction of the
Ministry of Health to loans of £ 16,500 for the reconstruction and enlargement
of the buildings at the works, for the sinking of a new bore-hole from
the surface to the adit and the provision of additional plant, of £3,500 for
the erection of the Manager's house and offices, of £6,528 for the extension
of mains, and of £900 for land as a site for an additional reservoir. The
bore-hole had been completed and the buildings were well in hand at the
end of the year, and plans of the new reservoir, of a capacity of 2,000,000
gallons, were submitted by Mr. Vaux Graham.
In 1925 the District Council laid 4in. mains in three roads at Langley
Bottom, the only populous part of the District for which the public supply
had not been available, and connections had been made to nearly all the
houses in this neighbourhood by the end of the year. They also laid a new
main in Wilmerhatch Lane, and extensions elsewhere in connection with
building developments.
Bacteriological and chemical examination of the water were made from
time to time, with satisfactory results.
Rivers and Streams.—No instances of pollution came to the notice of
the Council during the year.
Drainage and Sewerage.—The whole District is sewered except some
roads at Langley Bottom, where the house drainage discharges into cesspools.
The sewers are on the combined system over a large part of the District.
The main system of treatment at the Sewage Farm is broad irrigation,
the underdrainage of the land being passed through contact beds before it
is discharged into the stream.
In 1923 and 1924, mainly in order to deal with the sewage from the
new West Park Mental Hospital, a scheme of disposal by the " Simplex "
Surface Aeration Process was carried out, and came into operation at the
end of the latter year. Mr. Capon, the Council's Surveyor, who prepared
the scheme, informs me that, since some alterations have been made in the
aeration tanks to overcome initial difficulties attributable to the exceptional
lightness of the sludge, the system has given most satisfactory results. The
effluent is passed through the contact beds before final discharge. The
whole of the sewage from the Long Grove and West Park Mental Hospitals is
treated in these tanks, which were designed to deal with 500,000 gallons daily.