Report on an outbreak of typhoid fever at Omaha, Nebr. - (1909-1910) / by L.L. Lumsden. The water supply of Williamson, W. Va., and its relation to an epidemic of typhoid fever / by W.H. Frost.

  • Lumsden, L. L. (Leslie Leon), 1875-1946
Date:
[1910]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Report on an outbreak of typhoid fever at Omaha, Nebr. - (1909-1910) / by L.L. Lumsden. The water supply of Williamson, W. Va., and its relation to an epidemic of typhoid fever / by W.H. Frost. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    of whatever pathogenic organisms chance to be suspended in the A water. The process may be regarded as one of natural filtration; J the sand in this instance streams through the water, and so is the 1 reverse of the process in artificial filtration, where the water streams through the sand. LOCAL SEWAGE POLLUTION OF THE OMAHA WATER SUPPLY. Besides the large volumes of sewage known to enter the river at points farther upstream, the investigation revealed evident and gross | pollution of the water with human sewage at points within 8 miles above each intake for the city’s water supply. The mouth of Mill Creek empties into the river at a point about 500 feet above the Flor- | ence intake. This creek carries into the river the drainage from a 1 number of cesspools or privies and from a number of stable-manure dumps, etc. (See Map No. 4.) About 12 of the cesspools or privies are located on the banks of the creek within half a mile—1 within 40 feet—of the creek’s mouth. Considering the proximity of the creek’s I mouth to the intake and the evident direction of the currents in that part of the river, the contents of this creek undoubtedly constitute a I dangerous source of contamination for the water entering the Florence I intake. Below the Florence intake and above (upstream from) the Burt street intake the river was found to receive gross sewage pollution from several different sources. (See Map No. 4.) (1) The main sewer from Florence passes under the Florence stor- age basins and discharges the sewage of several hundred persons into the river at a point about 1 mile below the Florence and about 9 miles above the Burt street intake. (2) The North Omaha sewer, conveying the sewage from about 5,000 persons, including the occupants of a hospital, living in the northwest section of the city of Omaha, discharges into the river at a point about 8 miles above the Burt street intake. Previous to June 8, 1909, this North Omaha sewer discharged into Florence Lake. On that date a ditch (see Map No. 4) was completed, and since then the sewage from this sewer has been conveyed through the ditch directly into the river. Hence the winter of 1909-10 was the first winter in which the water at the Burt street intake had been pol- luted with the discharge from this large sewer. (3) An extensive dumping ground of Coucil Bluffs, Iowa, on the east side of the river, drains certainly to some extent, and at times of heavy rains to a very considerable extent, into the river at points from a half to three-quarters of a mile upstream from the Burt street intake. This ground receives the usual dumpings from a city, such as ashes, rubbish, etc., and also dead animals and the night-soil from a large number of privies. At one place in the dumping ground there