The importance of a relief from this unhealthy condition is very evident to all visitors of this city as they pass over our bridges, and I would respectfully urge that the health of this city, especially those locations immediately situated along the banks of the rivers, demands immediate attention to this matter. Trusting this communication will receive immediate attention I remain, Very respectfully I. A. HIX ALBANY, September 8, 1900 1. A. HIX, Health officer, Binghamton, N. Y.: Dear Sir-I am in receipt of your communication of the 7th instant referring to the unsanitary conditions existing along the banks of the Chenango and Susquehanna rivers, caused as alleged, by sewage from the Binghamton state hospital, and note your request that a representative of this Board be sent to Binghamton for the purpose of making an investigation. In reply you are informed that Prof. Olin H. Landreth has been designated for the duty, and he will reach Binghamton on Monday, September 10th, when he will call upon you. Very respectfully BAXTER T. SMELZER Secretary SCHENECTADY, N. Y., September 12, 1900 BAXTER T. SMELZER, Secretary State Board of Health, Albany, N. Y.: Dear Sir-Agreeable to your instructions of the 8th instant, I beg to report that I have made an examination of the conditions at Binghamton in the matter of the state asylum sewer now emptying into the Chenango river, and find the following state of affairs to exist. The state asylum at Binghamton lies in the angle between the Chenango and the Susquehanna rivers, and about two and one half miles west of the Chenango and one-fourth mile south of the Susquehanna. Up to 1892 the sewage from the asylum was dis charged directly north into the Susquehanna river, but as this point of discharge was above the intake of the Binghamton water works and thus contaminated the city water supply, the city and the state at joint expense built a new outlet for this sewer extending westerly through the city to the Chenango river some 2000 feet or so above its confluence with the Susquehanna. The legislative enactment authorizing this partnership sewer and making an appropriation of $50,000 for the state's onehalf of the cost of the same forms chapter 333 of the laws of 1891, and was approved by the Governor on May 6th of that year. An appropriation for an extension of this western outlet sewer was passed by the legislature in 1893, and forms chapter 496 of the laws of 1893, and appropriates $6000 for the purpose. The act of 1891 authorizing the co-operation on the part of the state and making the appropriation, specifies that the sewer is to be led to a point on the Sus quehanna river below the Rockbottom dam. I have not been able in the short time since making the examination to learn the particulars of the change of location and the authority therefore, but presume the change was duly authorized. The sewer is used by the city and the act of 1891 places the burden of the cost of its care and maintenance on the city of Binghamton. In addition to this asylum sewer there are four or five street sewers and double that number of private sewers entering the Chenango within the city and above the asylum sewer outlet. Besides these there are several street and private sewers entering the Susquehanna from the north bank. In fact the entire sewage of the city is discharged in the two streams above indicated, and with the asylum sewage pollutes the streams to a very serious degree. Both banks of the Chenango river from the Erie railroad bridge down to the Susquehanna and the north bank of the Susquehanna are strewn with sewage, garbage and other refuse, including the stable manure from one of the city's fire engine houses. For this whole river frontage the water surface near the shore is covered with a slimy mass of aquatic vegetation entraining floating sewage and garbage, and the shallow water near the banks is filled with various other forms of aquatic growth which thrive only in polluted waters. Above the uppermost sewer the waters of the Chenango are clear, and the banks clean and gravelly, and the river here forms an attractive feature, a condition which might prevail throughout the whole river frontage if the polluting material could be kept from this part of the river. In addition to the disgusting appearance of the river banks the odors frequently cause annoyance to adjoining residents, and the decaying vegetation and floating putrescible matter along the banks produce just the conditions favorable to malaria, concerning the pres ent occurrence of which there was some disagreement among the physicians and residents of the locality. There appears to be a very general feeling entertained by both the city officials and by many residents whom I met that the pollution should be removed from the river, and it is proposed to accomplish that portion of the rectification incident to the dis charge of sewage into the river by extending the asylum sewer across the Chenango river to its right or west bank, thence continuing the same down the west bank to the Susquehanna, thence along the north or right bank of this river to a point below the lowest built portion of the city. In the course of the extension along the bank of the Susquehanna the new sewer would be made to intercept all sewers entering the Susquehanna, and as an independent part of the improvement it is proposed to carry intercepting sewers along both banks of the Chenango river from a point where the uppermost sewer now enters the river down to the asylum sewer and its proposed extension, which the Chenango interceptors would enter. It is proposed that the city of Binghamton shall bear the entire charge of the Chenango intercepting sewers above the point of confiuence with the asylum sewer and its proposed extension, but that the state of New York should unite with the city in bearing the cost of the extension of the asylum sewer down the Chenango and the Susquehanna. There are clearly four distinct questions involved in this inquiry: (1) The desirability and necessity of the removal of the unsanitary and objectionable conditions existing along the two rivers; (2) The most suitable and feasible manner or plan for securing a remedy; (3) The cost of the improvement needed to secure the remedy; (4) The relative proportion of the expense which should justly be borne by the city and state respectively. On these four points I beg to recommend consecutively: (1) That the conditions as before described are not only unsanitary and objectionable from considerations of health, but are unsightly and in strong contrast with the generally attractive manner in which the public and private property is maintained, and in this constitute not only an injury to property values, but serve as a detriment and a discouragement against both public and private efforts to secure and maintain that high decree of cleanliness and attractiveness for which the city is already favor ably known and for which its natural surroundings and scenery so admirably fit it. (2) The proposed system of extensions and interceptors appears to be the best solution of the question of remedy, and further will lie directly along any future plans for disposal of the sewage of the city without discharge into the rivers, for it is evident that disposal works of any kind or at any time will need to be located down the Susquehanna below the lowermost sewer. I beg to recommend however, that in executing any plan of extensions, the system of over-flow details be so designed as to exclude from such extensions, and therefore from the necessity of artificial treatment when disposal works shall become a necessity, all discharge from the sewers in excess above a reasonable provision for domestic and manufacturing sewage proper, so that the capacity of any such future disposal works will be limited by the normal flow of actual sewage and will not have to be designed to treat any portion of harmless storm-water. (3) As to the cost of the improvements, the city engineer is now engaged in preparing plans and estimates of the cost of the proposed extensions, but as these are still uncompleted I am unable to state the cost. (4) The proper determination of the just proportion of expense to be assumed by the city and the state respectively involves the study of a number of elements, such as: the relative populations in the city and at the sylum provided for; the relative future growth of these two class of population; the relative cost of the extension proper, and of the intercepting sewers entering it; the fact that the law of 1891 imposes the burden of the care and maintenance of the sewer on the city, relieving the state from any portion of such burden; the fact that the sewage from the asylum is and doubtless will continue to be heavily charged with antiseptics which will render the artificial treatment of such sewage by future disposal works a matter of difficulty and expense. These elements would require more time for their proper determination than it is desirable should be given before a report on the main matter is submitted. I beg therefore to offer the above report, and should you desire an estimate on the proportion which the state might justly assume you can indicate such desire. I am, dear sir, very truly yours OLIN H. LANDRETH Consulting engineer CONEWANGO SWAMP JAMESTOWN, January 25, 1900 BAXTER T. SMELZER, M. D., Albany, N. Y.: Dear Sir Enclosed herewith you will find petition to the State Board of Health from residents of the towns of Poland, Carroll and Kiantone, Chautauqua county, requesting your board to investigate what is known as the Conewango swamp, through |