UNDERGROUND DRAINAGE

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13676, 19 August 1908, Page 6

UNDERGROUND DRAINAGE

SOUTHERN ObTFALL. ■ SEPTIC TANK DEMANDED. A public meeting (convened by Messrs W Donaldson and A. Hay) was held w tire South School last evening to discuss the proposal of the drainage engineer to substitute for a septic tank at the southern outfall a smaller liquefying tank. >n connection with a proposal to construct the southern intercepting sewer of ferroconcrete, and of much larger s>ze than tfe stoneware pipes originally The Borough Council had obtained, a written/ approval of the proposal from tttir consulting engineer, Mr Cuthbert, ol Christchurch, and a verbal ™d provisional approval from Dr Mason, Chief Health Officer (so far as the sanitary aspect: ot (he, matter is concerned), and the Council had deferred formal acceptance of the alteration pending the receipt of Dr Masons opinion in writing. There were about forty present, and Mr W. Hewson was voted' to the chair. ■ The chairman said the newspapers uacl been telling them the southern P eo P- e were all satisfied because no one hart made any complaint, A lot of them, however, had a grievance. When the drainage scheme was started, there was to be'a septic tank, and the guarantee ttey had for its success was the reputation of the engineer. Lately he had brought in another scheme, and again they had the reputation of the engineer as a guarantee. They had been told that there was no nnisance on the beach npw. He took. a. walk alongsit that morning, a very nice day, and all the way from Queen street to the tip there was nightsoil. in some places quite thick. They would like the beach at Que<m street at, all events to be clean, and a septic tank was the only thing to keep it clean. took it that) this meeting was not held, in opposition to the Council, bußjust,.to, Ist them know what the south end 'people thought about it. Senior Councillor Hiwkey was th'tn requested to give the history, of the drainage scheme. Mr Hawkey apologised- for V . the absence of Councillor Sealey on thd " .„ ground of illness. He " supposed they -V" only wanted to hear, about the southern outfall. The original plan was to have an intercepting sewer of 12 and lt> inch glazed pipes, with a" fall of 1 in 700, with a septic tank at the powder magazine. A little while ago .Mr Marchant submitted a modification of this to the Council, to. substitute an egg-shaped concrete sewer 27 inches by 18.for the glazed pipes, • and to do away ■ with the septic tank and put down what, he called, a liquefying' tank. His- reasons for this were: First, that he might get a greater fall; instead of I in 700 he would get 1 in. 660. In the report he said lin 1200, but in the original scheme it was 1 in 700. The .difference ■: in fall would be only 4 inches in . the whole length ' of sewer —91 chains. . Second, that the bigger sewer would serve for a larger .population. The original scheme was to provide for 30,000; the modification for i ",iwo and a half or three times as many " ; —that was, up to 90,000.' Third, there l would be some saving in cost. Tne sep- : tic tank, he believed, was estimated at £IOOO, and the difference in the cost of • the sewer was £SOO, so that there would ■ be £SCO saved. Another, point was that ' the pipe would need a large amount of ; : flushing which the sewer would noc re--1 quire. These were thet chief reasons brought forward for the alteration. •In reply to questions, Mr Hawkey said he did hot know whether this was an experiment, or whether it had been tried elsewhere. Mr Cuthbert had approved, and Dr Mason also, provided the liquefaction was satisfactory. In the original icheme no septic tank was provided at the north end. Mr Marchant said there would be no danger of polluting Caroline Bay, because the current was all northwards, "but on sentimental grounds a septic tank was put there. The chairman -. Sentiment or not, and whether the northern tank is a white elephant or not, the current goes north here, and the sewage would all go towards the town. Councillor Hawkey: And five-sixths of the sewage of the town will be discharged at the sonth end. —The two contracts already let were a good deal under the estimate, £ISOO or £2OOO below; but £IOOO was spent on the northern tank, not included in the "original scheme.' There had been other savings too. The chairman: Then there's £IOOO to spare for the southern tank. Mr Donaldson premising that the meet- ' ing was not antagonistic, but only to let. the Council know the ideas of the southern people, described the state of the V. teach- at the tip and northward from. it. * Mr Marchant said there had been no J complaint about this, but there would ■" r havei been, long since, if the drainage '" scheme had not kept them quiet. Now : i the original plan that was put before the [": ratepayers was to be set aside .and the 'Hi Sewage was to be- shot direct from the ff i sewers into the open sea, without going ?>;' through an intercepting tank. If anyone r£ took a walk along the beach on any mornm. ing he would get an object lesson. It jf; was to be remembered that from the tip to the corner beyond the butts, the .>rewsf: age was exposed to the roughest ceas; %. whereas the outfall would be in comparat : g& ively still water; and if the rough sea on '&.] a rough beach did not dispose of it am H'.f. prevent a nuisance, the. sjiller water could Ufi pot do so. Consequently, unless ths sep-

tic tank was put in they would have bigger nuisance than the present one. Mr Donaldson then moved : "That this meeting of ratepayers and househuideis of the Borough <-f Timaru, being of opinion that the proposed' alteration to the southern outiall of underground sewers will cause a nuisance in the neighbourhood, and the pollution of much of-the foreshore, at present used by ioanv as a public resort, requests his Worship" the Mayor and the Council to keep faith with the ratepayers and carry out the original plan, .as laid before the public at the lime of the Drainage Loan Bill, including a septic tank similar to that at thenorthern outfall." 31 r A. Hav seconded the motion. Mr Matthews: Would it be any improvement if it was carried round the corner to" where the present tip is to the rougher sea? Councillor Hawkey eaid he had not been down there lately and he could not say. Very likely Mr Marchant had considered that*.

The motion was then put and carried by a show of hands—22 for and none against. The discussion was then continued.

Mr Matthews repeated his question, and the chairman said he would approve of that, but it was a matter for experts to deal with. It might go forward as a suggestion. Mr Matthews said he thought it was going round there ail the time. The tank would make the gully uglier, and it was ugly enough now. The chairman agreed, and the gully would be. an ideal die for workmen's. cottages. Mr King: If you lengthen the sewer you lessen the fall, and one of -the reaeoto for the change was to increase the fall. The chairman: You would have tin easier fall if the outfall was put at the big mill—a fail from both sides. Mr Hay : We have resolved, to ask the Council to keep faith with the ratepayers, and we can't ask them to adopt another scheme' too.

Some said: We have to' help to pay for the northern tank, and we should stick to ours.

Does a septic tank do away with all smell? was asked by Mr Mathias, and ihe chairman said they had Mr Marchant's authority that the. water was clear enough to drink when it left the tank.

Mr Donaldson asked whether the seplic tank at the bay tea rooms was still in use and causing no nuisance, and Councillor Hawkey replied that he did not' know that there was one there. Mr Marchant had a tank himself. He heard of septic tanks in Wellington and w;.:; told there was no .nuisance if the tanks were in working order. If what he was told was true it- was an absolute eafeguard. There was n& engineering difficulty in the way, the tank was provided for in the estimates, the ratepayers had voted the money for it, and he did not see why they should not be safeguarded against pollution of the beach. He thought the meeting, had done quite right in asking the Council to keep faith with them.

S:ma one asked whether they could get another vote if the Council did not stick to the tank, and another said it woi/.d not do, there, might be too many at the other end against them. Mr Fyfe, as a very old resident, said the drift was wholly to the north,. and if they did not get a septic tank they would go wrong. The drift being to the north, the tank was more needed at the south end than the north. Authorities at Home, on the Continent and' in America, eaid the septic tank was the thing.

Seme one eaid there was one at the Talbot- hospital, and one could stand on top of it and not smell 1 anything. Mr D. Moore requested Mr W. Black to speak, as a man having some 'experience in such matters.

Mr Black (architect) said he did not' profess to be an expert, but he had taken an interest in such matters for years, and he mentioned some septic tank installations he had seen for towns in New South Wales, the results of which were satisfactory. He also mentioned that he had

eesn sewage (turned: out on beach, which became saturated and a nuisance." It seemed to him that Mr Marchant had been trying to do his best to save the ratepayers' money and he deserved credit for that, and if he thought a liquefying tank would do, and he saw a chance of saving £SOO, that was in theline of hia.Jl.uty. He (Mr Black) however, considered that the southern beach was as important to them as the northern beach to those at tha other end of the town, and! if there should be any deposit at all it would cause a nuisance. Timaru was growing, and mrst grow, and it behoved them to get the best system possible. If spending an extra £IOOO would ensure the absence of nuisance, they would be wise to adopt the safer scheme. They should not indulge in any tirade against Mr Marchant, who was studying the interests of the ratepayers, and evidently considered the south beach les.s likely to be contaminated than Caroline Bay. There was -an offensive accumulation on. the beach now; but if there was any pollution from a drainage system it would'not be in that form at all *St ill, it was highly desirable that the Council should expend the additional money, and remove all likelihood of nuisance. (Applause.)

Mr Black rose again to suggest that the Council's attention should be called to tha fact that cattle (whether dairy cattle or not he did not know) were grazing on ground near the tip, part of which was made of tipped rubbish, and containing stagnant pools of overflow from the sewer (i.e. Park gully- drain).

Mr King suggested that, the meeting ought to have been called lor all the ratepayers, as all were concerned. Mr Hay said that as one of the promoters, he was diffident of asking all the ratepayers to attend. He asked those wh.> were more immediately concerned.

Mr King thought the Mayor should call a public meeting to explain, the alteration and see if they approved of it. In reply to a question how the Coxineil received the proposed modification, Councillor Hawkey said the majority, seemed favourable to'it, provided it was approved by the Health Officer. There ■ had been no division taken yet, but he thought it would have been adopted if they had had Dr Mason's approval "in writing. .But now '.his protest might have a difference. The CVuncil having put a scheme before the ratepayers to be voted on, they might not care, to depart from it if there was a protect from any section of the community. It might not be safe. They might, be. liable-7o an action if property was depreciated in any way by the change. If there had been no protest the Council would probably have adopted the modification. 'He did not know how they would take it now.

Mr Donaldson said Mr Black and others had spoken of the money aspect, of the matter. He lived just over where the outfall would be, and saw hundreds of people using it as a place of resort, which would be impossible if crude sewage was poured out upon it at the proposed outfall. They had sought information, and concluded "that there would be a nuisance after the sewage did go through the liquefying tank. Even Mr Marehant, Mr Cuthbert and Dr Mason admitted that there might be a nuisance, for they admitted that a septic tank would: be an improvement, and that if necessary a septic tank could be put in—implying that a septic tank might be necessary. He moved that a deputation be appointed to wait on the. Borough Council nest. Monday and the Harbour Board next Friday to lay bafore them the motion that had been carried bv the meeting. • ' Mr Rtapleton made some remarks about the filthy state of the beach when he visited it. on Sunday morning. Mr Donaldson's motion was agreed to and Messrs Hewson, Hay ,A. Jones, and Donaldson were appointed the deputation. A vote of thanks to the chairman terminated the meeting, which had occupied nearly two hours..