View report page

carried out and brought into operation during the
course of the past year. The capacity of the precipitation
tanks has increased to 1,660,000 gallons by the
addition of two new tanks and the alteration and
extension of the existing tanks, which have more
than double the former capacity of those previously
in use, thus providing for an improved settlement of
the suspended matters in the chemically treated sewage
and to producing an improved tank effluent. In
addition to this, thirteen bacterial filter beds have
been constructed covering a total area of 3½ acres,
and fully capable of dealing with three times the
amount of the average daily dry matter flow of sewage.
The filling and emptying of the whole of the filtering
beds is controlled by automatic apparatus, and the
beds are arranged for single contact. The tank
effluent, after passing through the contact beds, is discharged
into the River Thames through a new outfall.
Motor Ambulance.
Your Engineer and Surveyor has kindly furnished
me with the following particulars. The ambulance
was used one hundred and sixty-seven times during
the year. Of these eighty-seven were for private
patients ; the longest distance travelled was 36½ miles,
when a resident who had met with a cycle accident
was brought home to Chiswick. The largest fee
received for the use of the motor was 3 guineas. It is
the practice, I believe, to remit the charges on occasions
when the patients are in needy circumstances. I am
informed that on 80 occasions it was used for
17