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It so happens that your Medical Officer was also consulted recently about this question by the
Right Honourable The Lord Mayor who had been appalled by his own observations on Thames
pollution.
Your Medical Officer subsequently sent His Lordship a copy of the above extract and also
information which he had obtained from Mr. J. Rawlinson, the London County Council's Chief
Engineer, as to the progress of the County Council's schemes for the betterment of the sewage
effluent which flows into the Thames from Northern London at Barking and from Southern London
at Cross Ness.
The scheme for sewage disposal in Northern London is already well advanced and should be
completed by the end of 1958. The contract is for £8 million. Already one-third of the sewage
from Northern London is under full treatment so that its effluent approaches the standard laid
down by the Royal Commission on Sewage Disposal in 1913. The contract for the Southern area
of London has now been let for £10 million and it should be completed in nine years time. This,
again, will result in the sewage effluent from Southern London approaching the Royal Commission
standard.
POLLUTION OF THE THAMES BY THE RIVER WYE
The question of the pollution of the Thames by the River Wye having been raised by an Honourable
Member, your Medical Officer got into touch with the Corporation's Representative on the
Thames Conservancy in the matter, and the following is a copy of a lettet received from the
Secretary of the Thames Conservancy:—
"Dear Mr. Sykes,
WYE STREAM AT BOURNE END
Thank you for your letter of the 17th instant. The question of the pollution of the Wye
Stream has been before the Conservators for many years past, the main trouble being
the concentration of a number of Paper Mills on the five mile stretch of a small stream
to which the Mills discharge their effluents.
"The effluents are sampled regularly and, over the years, the Mills have spent very
large sums of money in an endeavour to meet our requirements.
"The difficulty is mostly the suspended matters in the effluents as, even if they
always complied with the generally accepted 'standard' of 30 p.p.m., the combined
amount passing to the stream with the large volumes of the effluents would be very considerable.
These suspended matters settle out at the head-waters of the Mills where
decomposition of the organic matters takes place and when the Mill sluices are drawn,
they pass downstream and the effect on the lower part of the stream at Bourne End,
which receives the accumulations from upstream, is very bad indeed on occasions.
"The only solution to this difficult position, we consider, is the Woo^burn Valley
Drainage scheme which will take the Mill effluents away from the stream to a modern
sewage works at Marlow. We have been pressing for this scheme for years; it has been
before the Ministry, details have been prepared and tenders obtained and the Council
concerned, the Wycombe Rural District Council, are now awaiting the Minister's final
approval before they can proceed, which they hope to do next April.
"We are still hoping the scheme will be allowed to start although, as you know, the
restrictions on expenditure have held up a lot of such work.
"I trust this will give you the information you want but if not please do not hesitate
to write to me further.
i Yours sincerely."
CLEAN AIR ACT, 1956
During 1956 the above-named Act, parts only of which come into operation on the 31stDecember,
1956, was still before Parliament as a Bill and, in order that tugowners might have an opportunity
.of discussing the provisions of the Bill so far as they relate to River craft and also of meeting
representatives of Government Departments dealing with smoke abatement and coal supply, your
Medical Officer convened a meeting at the Port Health Office on Thursday, 9th February, 1956.
Apart from the principal tugowners in the Port of London, the meeting was also attended by the
Association of Master Lightermen and Bargeowners; the Director and Chief Research Engineer of
the Fuel Research Station; and Engineers from the National Industrial Fuel E fficiency Service.
Mr. E.H. Mould of the City Remembrancer's Department and officers of the Port Health Department
were also present.
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