BARKER LINSLY R. WILLIAMS, M.D., Acting State Commissioner of Health: I beg to submit the following report upon an investigation of the public water supply of the village of Barker, made on January 12, 1917, by Mr. E. S. Chase, assistant engineer in this Department. Barker is an incorporated village with a population of 550 located in the northeastern part of Niagara county on the Rome, Watertown and Ogdensburg Division of the New York Central railroad about midway between the cities of Buffalo and Rochester. There is no public system of sewers, the village being served by privies, cesspools, etc. The public water supply is derived from Lake Ontario after filtration through a slow sand filter. The waterworks are owned and operated by the municipality under the direction of the board of trustees of which Mr. G. E. Landy is president and Mr. J. R. Spafford is superintendent. The waterworks were constructed in 1915 and were first put into operation in November of that year. The waterworks system was designed by Mr. C. C. Hopkins, civil engineer of Rochester, and constructed by contract under his direction. From the purification plant, located on the shore of Lake Ontario 3 miles north of the village, the water is pumped through about 6 miles of water mains against an average pressure of about 47 pounds per square inch maintained by a standpipe located in the northern part of the village. At the time of the inspection there were 85 service taps, all of which were metered. The daily water consumption is about 10,000 gallons. The intake extends 100 feet into the lake to a point where the water is about 10 feet deep. This intake pipe ends in a bar strainer raised about 1 foot above the bottom of the lake. From the intake pipe the water is pumped by a low lift centrifugal pump to the slow sand filter. The walls of this filter are concrete and the whole is covered by a wooden floor. Water is maintained at a depth of 31⁄2 feet over the sand by means of an automatic device which starts and closes the low lift centrifugal pump within the limits of about 6 inches. The filter is divided into two units each 291⁄2 feet by 25 feet in plan and containing 2 feet of sand over 1 foot of graded gravel underdrained by a collecting system of one-half round tile. The filter is said to require cleaning about every two months, the necessity for cleaning being indicated by the inability to secure a sufficient amount of water from the filters. From one-quarter inch to one-half inch of the top sand is removed at each cleaning and about 3 inches in all are removed before new sand is replaced. From the filter the water flows to a concrete clear water well constructed of concrete and covered by a conical wooden roof. This clear well is 322 feet in diameter and 8 feet deep and has a capacity of 50,000 gallons. From the clear water basin the water is pumped by a Deane triplex pump 7 inches by 8 inches geared to a 20-horse power General Electric motor. This pumping equipment is provided in duplicate. The standpipe is constructed of steel and is 14 feet in diameter by 100 feet high and has a capacity of 115,000 gallons. The sanitary quality of the water derived from Lake Ontario is open to suspicion. The intake is about 25 miles east of the mouth of the Niagara river which carries large amounts of sewage from the cities of Buffalo, the Tonawandas and Niagara Falls and other municipalities. Furthermore, the water of the lake near the shore is subject to contamination by surface wash from cultivated lands. At the time of the inspection samples of the raw and treated water were collected and the results of the analyses of these samples together with previous ones made by the Division of Laboratories and Research are recorded in the appended table. These analyses show that the purification plant is effective in removing turbidity and in bringing about an improvement of the sanitary quality of the supply as indicated by the reduction in bacterial counts and in organisms of the B. coli type. A sample of the filtered water collected at the time of the inspection shows rather high total counts and the presence of B. coli in one of the three 10 c.c inoculations. This sample was taken at a time of year when slow sand filters are the least efficient, and indicates the possible desirability of supplementing the filter by some means of sterilization through the use of liquid chlorine or other effective method. In view of the above the following conclusions may be drawn: 1. That Lake Ontario at the intake of the Barker public water supply is subject to contamination from shore wash and probably to some extent by the sewage discharged into it through the Niagara river. 2. That the purification plant appears to be so designed and operated as to afford a reasonable degree of purification of the water although a more complete safeguard would be obtained should supplementary sterilization be adopted. I would, therefore, recommend: 1. That the village authorities continue to operate the purification plant with constant care. 2. That the village give careful consideration to the installation of some form of sterilization apparatus for secondary treatment of the filtered water. In conclusion, I would recommend that a copy of this report be transmitted to the local authorities and to the sanitary supervisor of the district. Respectfully submitted, Absent. Results are expressed in parts per million. + Present. Abbreviations used to describe odors of water: 0, none; 1, very faint; 2, faint; 3, distinct; 4, decided; 5, strong; 6, very strong; a, aromatic; d, disagreeable; e, earthy; f, fishy; g, grassy; m, musty; v, vegetable. BATH HERMANN M. BIGGS, M.D., State Commissioner of Health: I beg to submit the following report upon an investigation of the public water supply of Bath made by Mr. C. M. Baker, assistant engineer, on September 4, 1917. Bath is an incorporated village of 4,176 inhabitants, located in Steuben county on the D., L. & W. railroad and the Rochester Branch of the Erie railroad about 60 miles south of Rochester. It is on the Cohocton river. A private system of sewers serves the county buildings and some others in this vicinity and discharges without purification into the river. The remainder of the village is served by privies, cesspools, etc. The water supply is owned and operated by the Bath Waterworks Company of which Mr. Robert E. Kizer is president and Mr. Kleckler superintendent. The supply was installed and first put into operation in 1887, since when the only changes have consisted in improvements in the pumping machinery and in extensions to the distribution system. The supply is derived from a well, located immediately west of the village, from which water is pumped through the distribution system into a standpipe located on a hill about one-half mile southwest of the village. There are in all some 8 miles of mains ranging in size from 4 inches to 10 inches in diameter. About 50 per cent of the population of the village is served with water, there being in all some 600 service taps, 60 per cent of which are metered. The consumption ranges from 200,000 to 300,000 gallons daily and averages approximately 225,000 gallons per day, equivalent to per capita rates of 96,143 and 107 gallons respectively. The pressure in the village with a full reservoir is approximately 87 pounds per square inch. The pumping equipment is housed in a brick building located near the well and consists of one Blake Duplex pump with a capacity of 1,000,000 gallons daily, one Gould triplex single-acting pump, 8 inches by 10 inches, capacity about 600,000 gallons per day and one triplex Deane double-acting 5 inches by 8 inches with a capacity of 240,000 gallons per day. The Blake pump is operated by steam from a 75-horse power boiler, while the other pumps are operated by a 35-horse power producer gas engine. The standpipe is 38 feet in diameter by 40 feet high and has a capacity of approximately 300,000 gallons. It is uncovered. Due to the small amount of sediment in the water, it is unnecessary to clean the standpipe except at infrequent intervals, the last cleaning having been made five or six years ago. The hydrants in the distribution system are flushed occasionally. The well from which the supply is derived is located near a small pond just west of the village. It is 20 feet in diameter by 28 feet deep, is curbed with a steel casing which extends about 1 foot above the surface and is covered with a wooden roof. The water bearing stratum from which the supply is obtained consists of a gravel formation overlaid by a hardpan or cement gravel. Over this stratum is gravel and loam to the surface. The well appears to be adequately protected from surface wash. A barn is located about 200 feet from the well and a house and cesspool at a distance of about 300 feet. These buildings are so located, however, that the flow of ground water is probably from the well toward the buildings and the topography of the surface is such that surface water cannot find its way from these buildings toward the well. Samples of the water were collected at the time of the inspection and sent to the Division of Laboratories and Research for analyses, the results of which together with those of previous analyses are recorded in the appended table. The results of these analyses show a water satisfactory in physical qualities with respect to color and turbidity but a water that is high in hardness. The figures for nitrogen in the form of free and albuminoid ammonia and nitrites are low but those for nitrates and chlorine appear to be somewhat above normal. The bacterial counts are at times high for a well water but this may be due in part, at least, to delays in transit, since three days elapsed from the time of collecting the recent samples until they were received at the laboratory. Organisms of the B. coli type have been found in 10 c.c. inoculations in the case of 3 only among some 16 samples analyzed during the past six years. This moderate prevalence of B. coli is of little sanitary significance. As a result of this investigation it may be concluded that the public water supply of Bath was in satisfactory sanitary condition at the time of the inspection. It seems only necessary to recommend at this time, therefore, that the water company continue to exercise their present supervision in order that the water may at all times be properly protected from contamination. Finally I would recommend that copies of this report be sent to the local health officer, to the water company and to the sanitary supervisor of the district. Respectfully submitted, THEODORE HORTON, ALBANY, N. Y., December 20, 1917 |