of a nuisance to at least one-half the city-a very bad odor of

escaping gas.

Kindly act in this matter at your earliest convenience.

Yours truly

ELMER E. EASTMEAD

Secretary

SCHENECTADY, N. Y., May 7, 1900

BAXTER T. SMELZER, Secretary State Board of Health, Albany,

N. Y.:

Dear Sir-Agreeable to your instructions of March 13th, to investigate the cause of certain trouble in the city of Poughkeepsie arising apparently from the escape of illuminating gas, I beg to report as follows on my examination made on March 29th.

On reaching the city, I learned from Charles Fowler, engineer and superintendent of public works, and from Dr. James S. Wilson, health officer, the following circumstances: Early in February of the present year complaints were received by the city officials from a large number of residents living in widely scattered portions of the southern part of the city that strong smells of illuminating gas were being experienced both in the houses and in the yards. Though occurring quite simultaneously the number of complaints continued to increase till 54 such complaints had been received. At the same time a strong smell resembling illuminating gas was found in the sewers of the southern sewer district, so strong as to cause inconvenience to residents living near manholes and street catchbasins. The location of the houses whence complaints were received was quite widely scattered over the entire southern sewer district and appeared to bear no direct relation to the location of the gas works of the Poughkeepsie gas company, the only gas works in the vicinity. Charles Fowler, engineer and superintendent of public works of the city, James H. Haddon, manager of the gas company, instituted a thorough search for leaks from gas mains without finding any that would at all account for the trouble.

Under notification from

Failing in this, a trench was dug along the side of the trunk sewer on Laurel street, opposite the gas works, so as to intercept any leakage of gas from the works into the sewer. While no appreciable amount of gas was found, the true cause of the trouble was discovered in a leakage of tank-liquor from the holder which is situated about 30 feet from the line of the sewer and several feet above it. Finding it not easily possible to locate the exact position of the leak or leaks, an intercepting wall was laid in a trench extending below the foundation of the basin of the holder and carried around the holder about two feet outside the foundation wall; the bottom of the intervening annular space was then concreted, a drain laid from this space into the regular gas works sewer, which is an independent sewer discharging directly into the Hudson river, and the annular space filled up, and it is believed that the cause of the trouble was thus removed, although the strong odors of gas have only gradually disappeared and still continue of a strong character in the sewers.

It remains to show (1) that the leak of tank-liquor fully accounts for all the odors as reported; (2) that the failure to stop the odors on the stoppage of the leaks of tank-liquors is fully accounted for; (3) that the occurrence of the odors in the residences indicates that defective conditions of the housesewering exist at the places where odors were experienced. The accompanying map of the city furnished me by Superintendent Fowler shows the entire southern sewer district.

The crosses indicate the locaton of the complaints; the small circles in black placed on the red sewer lines indicate the location where ventilated manhole covers were placed by Superintendent Fowler to aid in relieving the sewers of the strong odors; the larger circles in black with a straight line across them indicate the places where airtight diaphragms were placed in the sewers by Superintendent Fowler to intercept the movement of air bearing the gas odors.

A leakage of gas into the sewer would have been indicated by odors only at points above the leak or at least in the direc

tion of the movement of sewer air; whereas the leakage of the strongly odorous tank-liquor, not only furnished odor for points above the entry into the sewer, but by flowing down with the sewage to the outlet of the system filled the entire lower portion with the odorous liquor from which gas was given off to rise along all lines of sewers. The fact that most of the sewers have steep grades contributes to the distribution by insuring a rapid rate for the air travel up the lines of sewers. After the cause of the odors was discovered, Superintendent Fowler had the airtight diaphragms mentioned above placed at the points indicated on the map for the purpose of stopping as much of the air circulation as possible during the continuance of the odors. For the same purpose the perforated manhole covers were placed where indicated on the map.

The fact that the odors were not stopped as soon as the source of the trouble was removed is explained by the fact that the tank-liquor in question is very permeating and had evidently found its way into the crevices and joints in the brickwork of the sewers and had thoroughly coated the interior surfaces of the sewers. Until such accumulations are thoroughly removed by flushing of the natural flow of the sewers, it is natural to find the odors still remaining. Nearly all of the 54 complaints of odors came from houses or buildings having direct sewer connections. In Poughkeepsie, as in most but not all cities, service sewers are trapped either just inside or just outside the building wall. Had these traps been effective, or even if ineffective, had the interior sewering of these buildings been tight, as they should have been, no odors should have entered from the sewers, as no cases were reported where odors were discovered in closets or at sinks. There is another set of conditions known to exist in Poughkeepsie at certain houses, which account for the entry of the odors to the houses and premises but which also include the occurrence of defective sewering. In certain parts of certain streets the service sewers were excavated through rock and the trenches were refilled with the broken rock thus removed, leaving the material of the trench surrounding the

sewer pipe very open and permeable to either water or gases. It was also the custom quite general until recently in Poughkeepsie to lay such service sewers with open joints, that is, without cement or other joint filling. Given these two conditions, and a direct avenue for the gases or odorous sewer-air from the street sewer into the house exists, viz.: from the service sewer into the trench material through the loose joints, along the permeable trench material to the house wall; through the house wall around the sewer pipe which opening is never cemented up. These conditions also account for the odors occurring in the yards just outside certain houses. They indicate, however, quite as defective conditions as defective traps or leaking sewer joints inside houses, and both classes of defects should be remedied. The present occasion therefore should be taken advantage of to definitely locate and determine the exact means or route by which the odorous gas from the sewer entered the buildings, and the conditions thus discovered should be at once remedied, for the same means or route must have been in existence before the gas-liquor leak, and must have furnished ample opportunity for the admission to the buildings of the inodorous but not altogether innocent sewer air. The owners or occupants of the residences and buildings affected should therefore congratulate themselves on having been furnished by the gas company with unintentional but gratuitous "peppermint test" as a partial offset to the annoyance occasioned by the odors.

As a proof that the admission to the houses of the gas odors was exceptional and not general, it may be stated that in the district whose sewers were filled with the strong odor for days there were some 900 sewer connections, but only 54 of these suffered from the odors.

I may also state that there were two or three cases of odors at houses having no sewer connection, but that in each case there were either old drains or water trenches filled with loose broken rock leading directly from the line of the sewer into the cellars.

I beg to recommend that the local authorities be advised to

utilize the indications which these odors furnished in ascertaining and in having remedied the sanitary defects at the several premises affected.

Very truly yours

OLIN H. LANDRETH

Consulting engineer

CITY OF WATERVLIET

Water supply

WATERVLIET, N. Y., January 29, 1900

BAXTER T. SMELZER, Secretary State Board of Health:

is

Dear Sir-Your communication of the 26th instant to the board of water commissioners of Watervliet, N. Y., received and placed on file. The said board of water commissioners has resolved not to audit any bill or claim for the water supplied to this city by the West Troy water works company since December 1, 1899, for the reason that the supply of water and pressure maintained entirely inadequate for protection against fire, and the quality of said water is impure and unwholesome and dangerous to public health and constitutes a public nuisance. This board is using every effort to secure an independent supply of pure water for this city, within the powers conferred upon it by chapter 906, laws of 1896, and it cordially invites the cooperation of the State Board of Health and the exercise of its power and authority in the premises; and to that end a committee of this board has been appointed and will wait upon the secretary of the State Board of Health and present in detail a statement of the conditions existing in this city relative to its present water supply.

Yours respectfully

THOMAS H. CAVANAUGH, Clerk