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38
Colne Valley Company contained less than one-third
of the solid matters present in the water supplied by
the Kent Company and by the Tottenham Local
Board of Health, and less than one-half of that in
any of the river waters. This comparative freedom
from saline matters is secured by submitting the
water to Clark's process of softening, which consists
in adding to it a small quantity of slaked lime.
The proportion of organic impurity in the river
waters is shown in Table B, and in times of flood it
was so large as to make the water not fit to drink.
The Lea water throughout the year was of better
average quality than that from the Thames, the New
River Company's supply being in nearly every case
superior to that of any Company drawing from the
Thames.
Of the Thames waters the best average supply
was that delivered by the Lambeth Company. Of
all the water delivered in London, that supplied by
the West Middlesex and Southwark Companies contained,
as in the previous year, the greatest average
amount of organic impurity.
Paddington is supplied with water by the Grand
Junction and West Middlesex Companies,which draw
their supplies from the Thames, as do the Chelsea,
the Lambeth, and the Southwark Companies.