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7
Old Ford. 4th April, 1870.
I have this day visited the Old Ford Works of the East London Waterworks
Company, with Mr. Liddle, the Medical Officer of Health for the Whitechapel
District, Messrs. Gladding and Jacobs, Members of the Board of Works for the
Whitechapel District, and Mr. Greaves, the Engineer of the Waterworks Company.
The covered reservoirs at Old Ford which were referred to in my Report of the
27th day of May, 1867 are now out of use, and are in process of being—the Eastern
reservoir filled up altogether—and the Western reservoir filled up with ballast and
gravel to the height of 2 feet G inches, and covered with a concrete floor with an
additional thickness of eighteen inches. This concrete is being mixed with lias lime.
The water is not again to be admitted until the Western reservoir has been made
completely tight from leakage or soakage.
It is stated that these reservoirs have not been used since July, 1869. By that
time the Company had completed their arrangements for a sufficient extra supply of
engine power at Lea Bridge to enable them temporarily to do without the covered
reservoirs at Old Ford. They expect to have the Western reservoir ready to work
again early in the coming autumn.
The open ponds referred to in the same Report have now been nearly filled up.
The Company have been increasing the size of their storage reservoirs at Waltliamstow
by sixty additional acres with a depth of water of 10 feet, and they have
employed portions of the material excavated from the Walthamstow reservoirs to fill
up the open ponds in question. The work is still going on. The ponds will bo completely
filled up in the course of a few months, and the parts which are not yet filled
up are those which are farthest from the river and from the covered reservoirs.
The vibrios detected by Dr. Frankland in the sample taken from Mr. Slater's
Lampblack Works, Old Ford, on the 10th January, 1870, as referred to in the Registrar
General's Report for the week ending 22nd January, 1870, could not have been drawn
from the Old Ford reservoirs. Neither those nor any other underground reservoirs
were in use by the Company, and they had not been used for six months previously.
The only explanation that has yet been given in regard to the appearance of these
vibrios, and to the general condition of the sample of water on the 10th January from
Slater's Works, is to the efEect that, great additions having been made to the
Company's mains from Lea Bridge, within the last two years, a deposit of sediment
in an old main which had been laid for more than fifty years, was disturbed by
alterations of current and pressure, and certain impurities which would otherwise
have been dormant were thus stirred up. It is possible that such may have been the
case, and as no further complaint of the same description has been made, it seems
probable that the instance was exceptional. If such complaints should again be
made it will be necessary to make a more detailed inquiry, and to ascertain definitely
the causes to which they may be due.
The Gentlemen of the Whiteehapel Board of Works, finding that the time allowed
by the Company's Act of July, 1867, for the completion of their Works has not yet
expired, and will not expire until July, 1870, consider the present inspection to be
somewhat premature, and they would prefer that a definite report be not made until
after the Works have been finally completed, and then inspected previously to their
being brought into use.
(Signed) H.W.TYLER.
From Captain Tiler's Report the public may feel satisfied that every
thing is being done by the East London Water Company to supply the
inhabitants of the East of London with pure water, so far at least as any
contamination of the water, supplied from the "Works, by soakage from the
River or otherwise, in the vicinity of the reservoir at Old Eord is concerned.
I am glad to have this opportunity of expressing my sense of the courtesy
shown by Mr. Greaves, the Engineer of the Company, to us at the time of