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"Further, it appears from a Return handed in by the Engineer of the
"Lee Conservancy Board, at the request of your Committee, that
"that Board have passed through their locks a much smaller
"quantity of water than they are entitled to take in priority to
"to either of the two Water Companies, viz.:—the New River
"Company and the East London Company, whose supplies are
"largely derived from the Lee. There is therefore, should the state
"of the River require it, a large quantity of water available for use
"by the Lee Conservancy Board, and your Committee hope that the
"Board will duly exercise their rights during the dry season of the
"coming Summer."
That under the provisions of the Lee Purification Act, 1886, the effluent
water, etc., from Tottenham Sewage was admitted into the Sewers for a
limited period, and that upon Memorial this period was extended by the late
Metropolitan Board of Works.
That subsequently in contemplation of a comprehensive scheme for
dealing with the Sewage of the districts situate in the valley of the Lee, the
discharge of the Tottenham Sewage effluent into the Metropolitan Sewers
was made, and allowed as a temporary measure.
That no such steps have yet been taken to carry out such scheme, and
it is absolutely necessary for the health and sanitary condition of this district
that action should be at once taken for dealing with this most serious matter.
That the back water of the river is very much polluted by the effluents
from the Walthamstow and Leyton Sewage farms, and are two of the chief
causes of the bad condition of the river Lee, between Lea Bridge, Clapton,
and the Lee Cut Hackney Marsh, and flows along the banks of the said
Marsh, on the north and eastern side thereof.
That offensive effluvia from the back water is perceptible at times to
persons in the immediate neighbourhood of the river, and that such a
condition is dangerous to the health of such persons and especially to
bathers in this part of the river, and the frequenters of the Marshes for
recreation purposes.
That the bad condition of the river Lee has been brought to the notice
of the London County Council from time to time as shewn by the reports of
the Public Analyst for the Parish of Hackney, upon analysis of the water of
the river.
That some remedy for this state of things might be found in the
diversion of the said effluents from the river into some system of sewers,
preferably the Metropolitan Main Drainage system, failing which that some
methods should be adopted by the interested districts, to obtain pure effluents
before passing them into the River Lee.