Volume 1

Report of the Commissioners appointed in 1898 to inquire and report what methods of treating and disposing of sewage (including any liquid from any factory or manufacturing process) may properly be adopted.

  • Great Britain. Royal Commission on Sewage Disposal.
Date:
1902-1915
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the Commissioners appointed in 1898 to inquire and report what methods of treating and disposing of sewage (including any liquid from any factory or manufacturing process) may properly be adopted. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    32/1256 (page 8)
    In this series of analyses it will be noticed that the bulk of the solids lie in— Rie | Product of - | Inor- : Relative Organic : Total |Relative| +; Cart 1 -7 | ganic : Volume Series Al. | Solids. Solids. Solids. |Volume. and Tata Solids. Gals. The First | 201:0 59°3 260°3 | 20,000 | 5,206,000 Steep. Spent Lime | 718°8 143°3 862°1 {| 1,600 | 1,379,360 from Keir. Grey Sour- | 187°3 | 297°7 485°0 | 1,600 776,000 Spent Ash- | 5564 802°1 | 1,358°5 1,400 | 1,901,900 The sum of the relative volumes of these liquors com- pared with the whole volume of waste is as 1 to 4. ’ If the relative volume of the water used in any particular step of the process be multipled by the total solids, the product will, of course, be the relative amount of solids carried out into the river by the water used in this step of the process. (To convert parts per 100,000 to grains per gallon multiply by °7 Estimated in this manner, the total solids contained in these four (Series Al) together, are to the total solids in the whole of the water turned out, as 9 tol4. Since then these liquors forementioned (Al) consti- tute only one-fourth of the whole, but contain nine- fourteenths of the solids, the question arises as to whether it should not be made compulsory to treat these liquors at least, and the option given as to whether the others be treated or not. It follows, too, that the remaining liquors amount to three-fourths of the whole, but only contain five-four- teenths of the total solids. The recommendation to. pass away as harmless the waste waters was made by Sir Henry Roscoe in the preliminary report submitted to “The Mersey and Irwell Joint Committee” to this by the Rivers Pollution Commissioners. It should also be pointed out that the ratio of organic to inorganic matter in the forementioned .A1, is as 16°5 to 13, and in. the remaining six as 21 to 37, which in- dicates greater liability to decompose in the series Al. The remaining six alluded to are— | Product | Mine ( of Organic | Total Relative} Relative — | 4 organic | ‘ Volume Solids. | ¢..5. Solids. ; Volume, and Solids. Total Solids. | | Galls. Wash out of Lime Keir - 35°74 29°6 65 20,000 | 1,300,000 Wash out of Grey Sour-| 327. | 461 | 78:8 | 20,000 | 1,576,000 Wash out of Ash Keir - 29°2 33°7 62°9 20,000 | 1,258,000 Spent “ Chemic” 41°3 | 122°9 164°2 1,600 262,720 White Sour - 54°6 | 127°7 182°3 1,600 291,680 Wash out of White Sour 23°3 ib il 34°4 20,000 688,000 After those liquors referred to as being the worst, come the “Spent Chemic” and “ White Sour” in order of contaminating tendency; and as the relative volume of these two is but 3,700, they would be advantageously classed with the first four as requiring treatment. But it should be borne in mind that in many in- stances bleach, dye, and paper works, are laid out in such a manner as to preclude the separation of the: liquors in this way without entailing considerable ex- pense. The keirs, becks, washing machines, etc., are placed sufficiently low to allow of being fed from the water supply by gravitation, and the outlets placed just sufficiently high to reach the water line of the river a little above its normal flow. Delivery pipes from the various machines are run here and there in every direction, dodging first one obstacle and then another according to circumstances,. but eventually reaching the river. In each of such cases, a systematic mode of concentra- tion or rejection of liquors for treatment would neces-. sitate the movement of machines, upraising of floors, or multiplicity of pipes to an extent beyond all reason, and no course is left but to subject the whole of the effluent (mixed) to treatment. In addition too, to the quantity of solids borne by a bleacher’s waste, the amount of organic matter therein also demands notice. Bleachers, I fancy, get credit generally for much purer effluents than they really turn out. The process of bleaching is essentially a process of washing, and the objectionable matter washed out is- more liable to decomposition than appears at first sight. Professor Hummel (Dyeing and Calico Printing): speaks on this subject as follows :— “Tn bleach works the refuse liquids consist of alka- line and soapy solutions, together with such as contaim calcium chloride, traces of bleaching powder, and free ~ acids. Here are all the elements necessary to mutual’ purification, if allowed to mix together in due propor- tions; the calcium will precipitate the soap solutions, while the free acids will neutralise and precipitate the alkaline liquids and decompose the waste solutions of bleaching powder.” With very great care this statement may no doubt be verified on the part of the bleachers, but, unfortunately, conveniences for the detention of one liquor until # favourable opportunity for its action upon another are: not always to hand, and there is certainly no case in the Ribble Watershed where such a course is followed. ‘The: idea, nevertheless, has been laid hold of and contorted into every imaginable form, until now one is often in-. formed with childlike assurance that bleach waste has: only to be admitted to the river, when it will purify itself and the river afterwards for miles. The reservoir or lodge immediately above the Pincroft Dye Company, Adlington, which is fed principally by water containing bleach waste from works higher up the: stream, in summer becomes neither more nor less than a huge, stinking cesspool, bubbling continually with’ The following analyses of bleach liquor indicate its: putrescent nature, though it will be noticed’ the organic nitrogen is small in quantity. *The lodge was let down on 9th March, 1893, owing to an accident to the dam, when I saw on the bottom 15,000 tons of sludge. Some years ago an attempt was made to empty it, but after a few days the idea was: abandoned.