[Report 1919] / Medical Officer of Health, Bath City & County Borough.

  • Bath (England). City and County Borough Council.
Date:
1919
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1919] / Medical Officer of Health, Bath City & County Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    lO RIVERS AND STREAMS. It has not been necessaiy to take any action during the year with regard to pollution. DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE. With the few exceptions referred to below, the whole of the sewage of the City is dealt with by a combined water-carriage system, which in the first place conveys it to the Pumping Station at Twerton. From here it passes through a 30 main for a distance of over 5 miles to the Sewage Disposal Works at Saltford—partly by gravitation from a high level system of sewers by way of a tower at the Station, but mainly as a result of direct pumping action. The Saltford Works w^ere opened a few weeks before the outbreak of war and are thoroughly up-to-date in every way. They occupy 56 acres and provide for a population of 80,000. The purification involves, amongst other processes, the use of (a) Six Dortmund Tanks, 50' wide and 44' deep, with a total capacity of 1,505,000 gallons. (b) Sixteen bacterial percolating filter beds, 100' in diameter, fitted with automatic sprinklers. The total area is 14,000 sq. yds., and there are 36,870 cubic yards of filtering material, chiefly coarse broken granite. (0) Two humus tanks and an aerating weir down which the effluent passes to be dischaiged into the Avon. (d) Storm tanks to hold 500,000 gallons. (e) Pumps for dealing with storm overflow and also with the sludge. (/) Filter beds for drying the sludge. This modern method of disposal replaces the old system by (which sewage was discharged directly into the river by some 148 separate outfalls along its course through the City. In some of the outlying parts a certain number of earth closets still remain, and there are a few premises where cesspools are in use. Where the cesspool is sufficiently accessible, it is cleared out periodically by the City by means of vacuum pipes.