[Report 1934] / Medical Officer of Health, Worcestershire / County of Worcester County Council.

  • Worcestershire (England). County Council.
Date:
1934
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1934] / Medical Officer of Health, Worcestershire / County of Worcester County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Rivers and Streams. Severn and Stour. 173. The County Analyst (Mr. C. C. Duncan) continued his surveys of these rivers. 174. Mr. Duncan’s report states that at two points, Corngreaves Bridge and at Stourport as the Stour enters the River Severn the dissolved atmospheric oxygen figures were low, showing a percentage deficiency of 37.8 and 23.9 respectively. 175. The Upper Stour appears to have contained more iron than in several past surveys. This may be due to less dilution as the Stour was on the low side owing to the continued dry period. 176. There was however no evidence of gross contamination with acid waste as the samples of river water were with one exception alkaline or neutral in reaction. 177. On the 14th May 1934 I received a communication from the County Medical Officer for Staffordshire referring to the increase in trade waste, presumably due to better trade conditions. 178. The general pollution of the Stour comes from the Wor¬ cestershire side and it is of little use for Staffordshire to take action unless Worcestershire acts similarly. 179. I met representatives of Staffordshire at the river on the 29th May. There can be no question that pollution from acid waste is again increasing and that the improvement in recent years is the result of poor trade rather than better methods of disposal. 180. Apart from this one inspection my time has been much too fully occupied to enable me to devote attention to the pollution of the rivers and watercourses in the County but with the recent appointment of a County Sanitary Officer I hope some real progress may be made in dealing with this problem. 181. I do not think that the birds-eye pictures of the state of the river which are obtained from occasional inspections will ever result in any appreciable improvement. It seems only fair to the trade as a whole that some uniform procedure appertaining to both sides of the river should be adopted. Avon and Arrow. 182. The County Analyst reported on the 16th October 1934 that as a result of his survey he had found both rivers to be in a better condition than at the time of his previous survey.