Chapter VI: The succeeding articles, viz (2)

In the south-western part of this State, the river flows over the bedded rocks of the Cincinnati group, its waters alternately impinging on one side of its banks, and depositing its earthy matters, through the influence of sluggish currents and eddies, on the opposite side, and forming what might be termed accidental beds, as in the case of the Dayton sand-beach. The material deposited is an argillaceous substance; and, with the friction and influence of the water, is partly transformed into quicksand. The beds do not form a part of the river in low water, as depicted by the sketch in the last report of the Board of Health.

The sediment in the Mississippi water, at St. Louis, is nearly two per cent. of the bulk of the water; the largest portion (944 in 1,000) depositing itself within 24 hours. The Ohio River water, at this point, is, at times, almost as bad. The sediment forms a tenacious and impervious clay, so susceptible of solidification that conductors of river water are only kept open by a constant flow of water.

The volume of water passing down the Ohio River is an extremely variable one. No special gauging, however, has ever been made to ascertain the quality; but from the surface velocities, measured by the Chief Engineer of the Southern Railway, we can approximately arrive at the figures

At 3-foot stage, by Water-Works mark, the velocity was .97 miles per hour.
“ 6 “ “ “ “ “ “ “ “ “ 1.125 “ “ “
“ 18 “ “ “ “ “ “ “ “ “ 3.51 “ “ “
“ 21 “ “ “ “ “ “ “ “ “ 3.20 “ “ “
“ 27 “ “ “ “ “ “ “ “ “ 4.70 “ “ “
“ 31 “ “ “ “ “ “ “ “ “ 4.30 “ “ “
“ 41 “ “ “ “ “ “ “ “ “ 5.002 “ “ “

The slope of water surface, from water-works to bridge, was .367 of a foot for low stage; for average stage, .403 of a foot; and .415 of a foot per mile for high stage. The approximate flow of water in cubic feet per second at the Southern Railway Bridge is 5,000 feet for minimum stage, 100,000 feet for mean stage, and 400,000 for maximum stage. The minimum flow of the Schuylkill is 378 cubic feet per second; the Delaware, 2,000 cubic feet; the Merrimack, 2,100 cubic feet; and the Thames River, 700 cubic feet.

Investigations of the influence on our climate, by the removal of the forests, develop the fact that streams, utilized for water-power, have become less constant in their flow than formerly. The Ohio River has of late years exhibited greater fluctuations of levels than ever known, and has lost its prestige as a reliable channel of navigation. Prof. Newburg, in Vol. I of the Geological Survey of Ohio, records an instant where a large rock, at Smith’s Ferry, has recently become so fully exposed that on its surface inscriptions were found, that are ascribed to a race which once populated this country anterior to the nomadic Indians.

There are about 78 villages and towns and 13 cities on the Ohio River between Cincinnati and Pittsburgh, a distance of 460 miles. The population on this portion of the river, and its contributing streams, is over 3½ millions. The average population, per square mile of drainage area, on the Ohio River is 47; above Cincinnati, 35; on the Great Miami, 109; on the Delaware, 176; on the Hudson, 172; on the Merrimack, 92½; on the Susquehanna, 62; on the Connecticut, 78; on the Potomac, 54; on the Schuylkill, 45; on the Thames, above water-works, 300.

Considerable space has been devoted to River Pollution, to which attention is directed. The following remarks, however, afford comparative results for the Ohio River.

The comparative merits of river waters, as expressed in analytic results of pounds of sewage in each million gallons, are, for the Ohio water at Dayton sand-beach, .82; at Markley Farm, 1.00; at the pumping works, 1.81; at Eden reservoir, 1.78; at Eggleston Avenue sewer, 4.41; the Croton water, New York, .98; Glasgow, Scotland, water, .65; Thames River, 4.91; London supply, 1.33; Fresh pond, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1.50; Mystic River, Boston, 1.87; Schuylkill River, Philadelphia, 1.58; Merrimack, above Lowell, .93; above Lawrence, .90; below Lawrence, 1.03.

The Thames and Lea Rivers have been condemned by the Rivers Pollution Commission because, as they say, there is no hope of remedying their disgusting condition, notwithstanding the parliamentary laws for their protection against pollution.

The Schuylkill River is the principal source of supply for Philadelphia, but its water is very suspicious. Above Reading, it is unfit for manufacturing and culinary purposes, owing to the large amount of sulphuric acid. This acid is, however, neutralized and considerably reduced before the water reaches Philadelphia. The Fairmount pool is polluted by cess-pool and slaughter-house drainage. The following means to restore and maintain the purity of the Schuylkill water has been suggested by Dr. Cresson:

1. The diversion of all sewage, now flowing into the pool of
Fairmount dam, into another channel.

2. The diversion of all sewage, containing fœcal and animal matter,
flowing into the river below Flat Rock.

3. The filtration of the sewage from all mills, to exclude solid
matter, animal or vegetable.

4. The exclusion of ammonia waste and surface wash from gas-works,
cemeteries, etc.

5. The cultivation of fish and of suitable plant life in and upon
the waters of the river.

6. The erection of suitable cascades over the reservoirs, so as to
secure the benefits of aeration to as great extent as possible.

7. The employment of proper prophylactic and curative agents as
occasion may require.

Boston obtained legislative power to protect Pegan Brook from sewage pollution. Test cases, to compel manufacturers to provide some other means of disposing of their drainage, were carried to the Supreme Court, and decided in favor of the city. Similar cases will be brought against other offenders. In the meantime the pollution continues. The same authorities procured a law to protect Mystic Lake, and provide other channels for sewage. The provisions of the act were held to be impracticable, and the law is now a dead letter.

The self-purification of river water is not recognized by some authorities, but equally good authorities value its merits. The following observations on this subject are particularly applicable to Cincinnati:

“The most efficacious means to get rid of the sewage is not to put
it into the river at all.

“A chemist can tell you the amount of organic matter contained in
the water, but that covers an infinite variety of matters. He has
no means of discrimination as to what is really the ferment--the
infectious material--of cholera from a great number of other
organic matters.

“The question is, not whether the chemist would find out the
organic matter, so much as it is, whether the germs that
disseminate the disease still have their property further down
the river. This can only be solved by the effects. _You might
go on using the water for years, and it might not be discovered
until some outbreak of disease occurs directly attributable to the
water._”

The practical sanitary experiment would then be solved, but at the expense of a number of lives.

Dr. Klob, of Vienna, has discovered, in the evacuations of cholera patients, millions and millions of microscopic fungi similar in form to a mushroom.

There are, above the Cincinnati pumping works, six sewers discharging their filth into the Ohio River, besides the fœcal drainage of no less than five thousand privies, all within a radius of less than three miles. Now, the quality of such water is readily established, for we are putting the sewage into the water knowing there are no means to get rid of it.

OHIO RIVER STATEMENT, SHOWING THE HIGHEST, LOWEST, AND AVERAGE STAGES FOR EACH YEAR AT CINCINNATI WATER-WORKS.

=====+========================++=========================+===========
| || |AVERAGE FOR
YEAR.| HIGHEST STAGE. || LOWEST STAGE. | THE YEAR.
+-------------+-----+----++--------------+-----+----+-----+----
| DATE. |FEET.| IN.|| DATE. |FEET.| IN.|FEET.| IN.
-----+-------------+-----+----++--------------+-----+----+-----+----
1832 |February 18 | 62 | 11½|| | | | |
1847 |December 17 | 62 | 3½|| | | | |
1858 |June 16 | 43 | 10 ||October 3d | 2 | 5 | 12 | 10
1859 |February 22d | 55 | 5 ||September 19th| 3 | 3 | 17 | 7
1860 |April 16th | 49 | 2 ||October 3d | 5 | 4 | 16 | --
1861 |April 19th | 49 | 5 ||July 13th | 5 | 1 | 19 | 1
1862 |January 24th | 57 | 4 ||October 31st | 2 | 4 | 17 | 5
1863 |March 12th | 42 | 9 ||October 6th | 2 | 6 | 15 | --
1864 |December 23d | 45 | 1 ||August 6th | 3 | 1 | 16 | 8
1865 |March 7th | 56 | 3 ||October 19th | 5 | 8 | 21 | 10
1866 |September 26 | 42 | 6 ||August 17th | 4 | 9 | 19 | 2
1867 |March 14 | 55 | 8 ||October 19th | 3 | -- | 17 | --
1868 |March 30th | 48 | 3 ||July 21st | 5 | 1 | 18 | 8
1869 |April 2d | 48 | 9 ||August 21st | 5 | 4 | 19 | 8
1870 |January 19th | 55 | 3 ||October 4th | 3 | 10 | 17 | 10
1871 |May 13th | 40 | 6 ||October 12th | 2 | 8 | 11 | 10
1872 |April 13th | 41 | 9 ||October 14th | 3 | -- | 11 | 8
1873 |December 18th| 44 | 5 ||October 1?th | 3 | 8 | 18 | 5
1874 |January 11th | 47 | 11 ||September 22d | 2 | 4 | 15 | 8
1875 |August 6th | 55 | 4 ||September 19th| 4 | 3 | 18 | 9
1876 |January 29th | 51 | 9 ||September 4th | 6 | 2 | 18 | 2
1877 |January 20th | 53 | 9 ||October 9th | 3 | 3 | 15 | --
1878 |December 15th| 41 | 4 ||October 24th | 4 | 4 | 16 | 9
1879 |December 27th| 42 | 9 ||October 23d | 2 | 6 | 14 | 6
1880 |February 17th| 53 | 2 ||October 28th | 3 | 9 | 17 | --
1881 |February 16th| 50 | 7 ||September 18th| 1 | 11 | 16 | 11
=====+========================++=========================+===========

A recent examination of the currents of the river passing the inlets was conclusive that the Eggleston Avenue sewer, 1,000 feet below, could have no effect on our water supply. Be this as it may, its proximity taxes our delicate tastes. The location of the inlet of the Shield aqueduct is not a desirable one, being at the revetment wall, past which all the shore water flows. The small aqueduct certainly can not be improved, its inlet being sixty feet beyond the wall, where the currents produce the best water obtainable.

The value of changing the location of the intakes can be illustrated to a good advantage by the experience of London during the cholera epidemic of 1854. After the epidemic of 1849, the Lambeth Water Company moved their intakes to Teddington, beyond the range of London sewage; while their competitor, the Southwark Company, continued to take its water close to one of the sewers. Their respective water-pipes interlaced each other; and of the 26,000 houses supplied by the Lambeth Company, there were only 294 deaths in 1854, while in 40,000 houses, supplied by the other company, there were 2,284 deaths.

SCOWDEN’S SURVEY OF MARKLEY FARM.

On the 29th of April, 1871, the Trustees of Water-Works, in response to the Council, submitted a report to them upon the necessity of a new water supply. On the ensuing 9th of June, the Council ordered that a competent engineer be employed to examine sites, and report upon the most suitable location for water-works, with plans, estimates of cost, etc. Mr. T. R. Scowden was accordingly appointed; and, on the 9th of September of the same year, he submitted a supplemental report, recommending, in the highest terms, the “Markley Farm” site. Upon his recommendation, the property was purchased for the sum of $22,321.50, consisting of 146 acres, with a river frontage of 2,000 feet. The principal points upon which the recommendation was based were:

“The site known as Markley Farm is a point where the water of the
Ohio River is deep and free from drainage or any other vitiating
influence to affect its quality, perhaps for a century to come,
if ever. The shore is bold, and, with the bed of the river, is
of gravel and rock formation, washed clean by an active current
at all seasons of the year. Pumping works may be located at this
point without any objectionable and expensive inlet-pipe; while the
adjacent hills afford an excellent site for a storage reservoir,
307 feet above extreme low water, and 75 feet above the Garden of
Eden Reservoir. On the lower level there is a fine plateau for
locating, not only the pumping house, but subsiding reservoirs and
filtering basins.

“The force-main extending from the pump house to the storage
reservoir will be short, or about 1,450 feet long, whereas, works
located on the second site, or any other sites examined, would
require force mains several thousand feet in length. By the first
site, water from the river would be lifted by the pumps and
forced to the reservoir with the least amount of power, friction,
and expense of fuel to do the work. This site also commands an
excellent and safe landing for boats supplying the works with coal.

“The analyses of waters lately taken at the Water-Works and at the
Markley Farm clearly indicate the superior quality, purity, and
healthfulness of the latter.

“It has been suggested that the offal from one or more
distilleries, said to be in operation at New Richmond, some ten
miles above the Markley Farm, would leave its taint in the water
reaching the latter point. My answer is, that in this case the
river, so slightly affected at New Richmond, and flowing ten miles
to reach the Markley Farm, would, from agitation and dilution, and
from the well-known self-purifying property of water, become pure.”

Regarding the other sites surveyed he said:

“The second, but objectionable, site for water-works was found some
three miles above the Garden of Eden reservoir, and about the same
distance below the mouth and offensive discharge of the Little
Miami River. This location, although favorable in many respects,
intercepts the drainage of the upper portion of the city, and all
of that from the Miami Valley emptied into the Ohio River, which
renders that site wholly inadmissible for water-works purposes.

“The valley of the Miami forms a water-shed of several hundred
square miles in area. Upon the surface of this vast plain is
deposited the dead carcasses of animals, and the droppings
from cattle of all kinds. The ground is covered with decayed
vegetable matter, and the soaking of stable-yards, hog-pens,
slaughter-houses, distilleries, stagnant pools, etc. The refuse
is washed off by rain storms into the Miami, which is the common
receptacle, and thence into the Ohio River.

“It is only necessary, first, to disease the water, then disease
the man; and it is clear, therefore, that water-works located
below the Miami would, by wholesale pollution, disease the whole
community.

“There is no city in the civilized world so regardless of the
cleanliness and health of its citizens as to adopt a plan of water
supply to foist upon them the concentrated filth from sewerage and
the impurities of a stream, the water of which is only fit for
mill-power, manufacturing purposes, and for cattle to drink; and I
did not think that Cincinnati was emulous of setting the example.

“With regard to intermediate points between the county line and
the mouth of the Little Miami River, I found the Ohio River lined
with sand-bars, some of which projected from the shore nearly to
the middle of the river, miles in length; while the bottom or bed
of the river was, for the most part, covered with logs and craggy
stones.”

His plan embraced the construction of pumping works for raising the water, first, from the river into subsiding and filter reservoirs, and then pumping it a second time into storage reservoirs. The water was to flow, through 10⅓ miles of 42-inch supply mains, into Eden Reservoir. The capacity of the pumps was estimated at 60 millions daily. The recapitulation of cost was:

For Engine-House and Grounds $ 312,790.00
For Pumping Engines 750,000.00
For Force Mains 92,130.00
For Storage Reservoirs 521,529.45
For Subsiding Reservoirs 560,252.00
For Clear-Water Well 14,669.60
For principal Supply Main, two lines 1,811,078.00
Miscellaneous expenses 60,500.00
------------ 4,131,949.05
Add ten per cent 413,194.90
-------------
Total cost $4,545,143.95

In conclusion, he said:

“I, therefore, regard the first and best site, known as the Markley
Farm, as one commanding all the advantages sought, where works may
be erected combining greater simplicity of construction, economy of
cost, and maintenance when put in operation, than could be built at
any of the other points mentioned.”

No. 7.

MOORE’S SURVEY.

On the 23d of January, 1882, Mr. A. G. Moore, Superintendent of the Cincinnati Water-Works, submitted a communication to the Board of Public Works relative to the present condition of the pumping works and its future requirements. From it we arrange the following:

“The present pumps are deficient; that during the summer of 1881
the daily demands exceeded, at times, their capacity; and on one
particular day there was a deficiency of over six million gallons.
The engines are generally of light construction, and not sufficient
for any increased loads. They are expensive in operation and
maintenance. First-class engines of to-day would save two-thirds of
the fuel used. The principal reliance, during the summer, is the
large “Shield” engine, which is most extravagant on fuel, and has
a wrought-iron force-main, of weak material, intrenched 35 feet
below the surface of the street. Some of the boilers are of an age
that require them to be treated with the greatest care, and should
be condemned. The principal buildings do not afford protection or
access to the pumps in case of derangement during average high
water. The hill-top service is inadequate, and a larger and more
comprehensive system should be adopted for the supply of the
increasing territory.

“The subject of increasing capacity requires immediate attention;
and should the removal of the works be deemed inadvisable, it will
become essential to at once proceed with the erection of machinery,
buildings, aqueduct, and aqua-fort at the old works. The cost of
these improvements is placed at $1,394,000; reserve engine for
1884, $618,000; and sewer in Front Street, to carry the sewage
below the works, $1,600,000. Total, $3,612,000.”

His plan for Markley Farm provides for one lift of 305 feet, with three compound pumping engines of 100 million capacity, subsiding and storage reservoirs, and one effluent-main 62 inches in diameter.

The estimate is condensed as follows:

Aqua-fort and buildings $ 410,000.00
Engines and boilers for 100 million capacity 1,255,000.00

Three subsiding reservoirs of earth and masonry }
embankments, with 90 acres of water surface } 1,836,500.00

Effluent-main, including 55,000 feet of 62-inch pipe, }
from the Farm to Eden Reservoir, and 18,000 feet } 1,804,000.00
of 48-inch, from Eden Reservoir to Harrison Avenue }
Contingencies 460,000.00
-------------
Total $5,725,000.00

The important question is presented by him, which the public must decide, namely, whether it is a prudent policy to expend four millions of dollars to improve the old works, and retain all the expensive and unreliable machinery, and still supply an impure and turbid water; or to expend an additional two millions for an entire new system, from a source where a supply of pure and clear water can be secured, commensurate with the growing city.

He also embodies, by way of comparison, the following estimate for locating the works on the Kentucky side of the river:

For right of way and property, State and municipal 500,000
Aqua-fort and buildings 410,000
Three engines, with boilers complete 1,255,000
Subsiding Reservoirs 1,836,000
Effluent-mains, 23,000 feet 533,000
Tunnel for pumping main 270,000
Tunnel under the Ohio River, 3,000 feet 825,000
Thirty-inch main to Eastern Avenue, 22,500 feet 201,000
Contingencies 550,000
----------
Total for Newport plan $6,381,000