[Report 1905] / Medical Officer of Health, Staffordshire County Council.

  • Staffordshire (England). County Council.
Date:
1905
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1905] / Medical Officer of Health, Staffordshire County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    13/158 (page 5)
    As regards the other important polluting Authorities on the upper tributaries of the Tame, I may mention that plans of sewage disposal works have been practically completed for Tipton and Willenhall, and are about to be submitted to the Local Government Board for approval. In the north of the County very satisfactory progress has been made. The new works at Hanley are being pushed on, and already 2-| acres of filters are in operation, an area which nearly suffices to deal with the dry-weather flow of sewage. The excellent results obtained from the experimental plant— upon the lines of which the main works are being constructed—- are also being obtained from that section of the main works already in use, and, with efficient management, I am con¬ fident this high standard of work will be maintained. During the year under review, I have made further use of the experimental sewage filter plant at Hanley with the view of determining more precisely the actual changes which take place at different depths of the filters and tracing what becomes of the suspended solids in the septic tank effluent discharged on to the filters. These extended observations have led to very important results, which have been set forth in a report to the Sanitary Committee, which formed the basis of evidence I gave, for the third time, before the Royal Com¬ mission on Sewage Disposal. In this short summary it is impossible to go into detail regarding the results, but one important fact was demonstrated, namely, that, in the case of the Hanley sewage, at any rate, the work of purification is practically completed in the superficial layers of the filter, where the suspended organic solids are also liquefied by aerobic organisms. It follows from this that the sewage filters at Hanley need not be constructed so deep as was originally intended, a fact which the Corporation may avail themselves of in carrying out the remainder of the work. I must not omit to mention the fact that a very complete little scheme of sewerage and sewage disposal for the village of Brewood, in the Cannock Rural District, has been com¬ pleted, the works having been opened in December last. This was a very economical scheme, provided for out of current rate, and it is much to the credit of the District Council that they determined to find the money in that way and so