Water pollution—Wells

by Irving A. Watson

WATER POLLUTION—WELLS.

Poets have sung of the “babbling brooks” and the “mountain springs” with their “silver cascades.” Painters have sketched

“the placid stream,

Reflecting back the mirrored beam,”

in many a sequestered nook, where the beauty of the scene gave to the soul its grandest appreciation of nature’s handiwork; but the poet’s song and the painter’s canvas are too often the false airs and the tinsel drapery of Momus—fun and folly. But poets and painters live in a realm uncongenial to the startling facts of modern chemistry. Virgil would undoubtedly have been as ready to have believed that H₂O represented a glass of milk, as that it was the equivalent of pure water; while, if Raphael had been told that the pool of Bethesda was abundant with “albuminoid ammonia,” he might innocently have believed it to be “something good to eat.”

Tradition and popular education have taken wings in a tangent direction from many of the fundamental principles of a natural existence, and, while freighting the popular mind with its bulky chaff, sparsely grained, they seldom recognize the revelations of science. The plot of some well drawn novel, or the fascinating performances of its hero, rest unforgotten in the embrace of memory,—are sought after, cherished, and remembered in all and by all ages. Science as yet is but little courted, much less wedded to the popular taste, and the stubbornness of facts is in direct ratio to the inflexibility of the public mind. Science, however, is not always of one hue. It is full of attractions and alluring fascinations. It needs only to be clothed in well cut and fashionable garments, and properly and politely introduced, to receive universal recognition and popular applause. This is especially true of the science of sanitation, because it is more closely allied to the vital interests of every community and every family than all others, and, through the simplicity of its primary principles, can be realized and understood by all.

Pure water is essential to the health and comfort of every community: there is no argument to the contrary. How such a desideratum can be acquired and maintained is a problem which requires the closest application of science, as well as mechanical and engineering skill. The question, whenever and wherever applied, becomes an isolated reality, and the solution, instead of being based upon established formulas or analogy, is almost wholly dependent upon the individual facts and conditions connected therewith.

The aspect of the question a century hence will be very different from what it is to-day, even as in its present bearings it differs from the time when the woodman’s axe was the only sound of industry that echoed through the sleeping valleys and over the watchful hills of New Hampshire. In that day the hardy pioneer quenched his thirst by the side of any stream or spring with water as pure as earth could give. He thought not to glance up the stream to see if it was spanned by a family vault, or flanked by a barn-yard. Likewise, if he partook from the bubbling spring or the primitive well, he never imagined a crystal of urea came up in the tiny fountains of sand at its bottom, or that the sparkle of the water was the carbonic acid of a sink drain; for around him were no such dangers. But civilization (in many respects a misnomer) came on, and brought with her more evils than one,—seduced the virginity of nature, and begot a host of illegitimate products and conditions. Into her very veins—the streams and rivers—have been injected the effete products of waste and decay; and to-day her very gifts, poisoned by men, bring pain, poverty, tears, and death into many households.

We have all, no doubt, traced some cases of the zymotic order to polluted water, with evidence that left no doubt as to the correctness of our conclusions. As to how far such influences extend in the causation of disease is undetermined, but I believe it extends far beyond the category of acute zymotic diseases.

What of the great invalid corp that register their physical afflictions under the comprehensive term “poor health,” and who seem to have no specific disease, either acute or chronic? What demon has laid so oppressive a burden upon the nerve centres that half of life’s function is smothered, and the physical energies nearly blotted out? I believe that contaminated water is one of the prime factors in this unfortunate and distressing aggregate. We have often traced typhoid fever, dysentery, and other diseases to a polluted well or spring; but the cause of insidious decay, progressive pallor, softening muscles, wasting strength, and slow enervation is not so readily found nor so zealously sought after. That contaminated water should produce such results, associated perhaps with other unsanitary surroundings, there can be no argument to disprove. A close study of the subject for the past two years has led me to believe that polluted wells are a most prolific source of sickness and death throughout the state. I believe the medical profession is not yet so thoroughly aroused upon this subject as the facts demand, and that if the physicians of the state should carefully investigate the question of water pollution, the result would be one of wide-spread alarm at the ravages it is producing.

By far the most dangerous source of water supply is the well, because of its close proximity to dwellings. If the surroundings of a well are not free from all impurities and waste, we have no right to expect pure water, and an attack of typhoid fever, dysentery, or kindred diseases should not in the least astonish us. Conditions which endanger our wells are the rule and not the exception, both in the sparsely settled country and in the city.

In a speech before the Central N. Y. Medical Association in 1875, Dr. Harvey Jewett said,—

“We are often asked, In what way does the water of our wells, in farming communities especially, and in our larger villages, become impure? It comes bubbling up from the deep fountains, fresh, cold, pure, and clear as the crystal, and often gives no indication by taste or smell of containing impurities. How often do we see the waste water from our kitchens thrown out upon the ground year after year, until the soil is saturated thereby? Then, again, the continuity of sink-drains, cess-pools, and privy vaults to our wells is sufficient to saturate the earth with their poisonous, disease-producing elements. It is through the agency of this apparently pure water, constantly, insidiously introducing these subtle elements into the human organism, that the fountains of life are poisoned and disease generated. In large towns and thickly populated streets, with slovenly domestics, the whole surface becomes saturated with the waste water, and in wet seasons the well, being the only artificial drainage, receives the drippings, converting it into a cess-pool of filth. I have known instances where the waste water from the sink-drain ran directly into the well, until the horrible stench compelled an investigation and a remedy. Instances of this kind are by no means rare, where a direct communication from the sink to the well is found to exist. With some families in the country the whole waste water of the household is thrown out upon the ground, until the entire surface soil is saturated like a sponge with the elements of disease. The popular but erroneous idea, that filling in earth upon a water-saturated soil removes the necessity of deep drainage, should be exploded from the minds of the people, and the great central fact set forth, that no water-saturated soil is fit for human habitation, and that a large proportion of unhealthfulness and human ailments can be traced directly or indirectly to this influence.”

I have had forwarded to me during the past year many samples of well water from different sections of the state for examination, and over ninety-five per cent. were contaminated. In many instances no particular suspicion existed that the wells were polluted, so “sweet and sparkling” was the water. With the exception of a few wells in this city, the samples came from the smaller villages and isolated farm-houses. I suspect, and my experience is in accord with the idea, that the most dangerous wells are to be found at the latter, because such a well is subjected not only to the unsanitary influences of the household, but of the barns, cattle-yards, hennery, pig-sty, etc. No one can reasonably presume that a well situated in close proximity to such surroundings can long remain pure, except that its altitude is such as to render contamination impossible, which is rarely the case. It should be borne in mind that a well is in itself a system of drainage for a given area of the earth, which area is dependent upon the depth of the well and the character of the soil. The accepted formula is, that it drains a portion of soil represented by an inverted cone, the base of which equals in diameter the depth of the well. Thus, the well must drain a certain amount of soil or earth, and unless this certain amount is kept clean and uncontaminated, the well must become polluted. It should not be forgotten that this described cone of soil is the minimum amount that a well can drain, while with favorable conditions the maximum area is almost unlimited. A stratum of clay or other impervious substance, or fissures in the rock formation, may act as the carrier of a little stream or vein of polluted water till it reaches the well, and the source of pollution may be a long distance away.

The sketch which is here reproduced from the last report of the State Board of Health vividly illustrates the way in which a well is often polluted.

The double lines 1 and 2 represent the angle which the well drains. The slightly curved lines 3 and 4 represent the water line in the ground, the constant use of the well depressing this line below a level in the immediate vicinity of the well. The lines radiating from the cess-pool and vault illustrate the cause of said pollution, and consequently contamination of the water in the well. This sketch is in no way overdrawn: I have seen many wells apparently situated in precisely the same way. If somewhere in a near and convenient location to this well, as shown above, were placed a barn-yard and a pig-sty in addition to what we now see, it would represent the exact condition of many of our farmers’ wells. Yet the proprietor of this “best well in town” wonders why his doctor’s bills are so large! He bows “to the will of God” when cholera infantum takes the life of his little child, when his own ignorance or cupidity is the destroyer. How long shall the Almighty be charged with crimes that come alone from the ignorance, carelessness, neglect, and conceit of men?

I propose to give a few illustrations of water pollution that are of a very marked character. The following diagram is that of a hotel in one of the thriving towns in this state, and the facts connected therewith I obtained from a reliable physician under the promise of not giving to the public the locality or his name. I have seen the hotel myself, and assure you that the location was as represented.

A case of typhoid fever occurred the past season (1882) in the bed-room near the privy (see diagram No. 1). All the discharges from this patient were thrown into the vault without being disinfected. This vault was located about fifteen feet from the well which supplied this house. Result: Fourteen cases of typhoid fever, with one death, from the use of this water for drinking purposes.

Diagram No. 1.

The following description and history of a well in Newport (although I published the same in the last report of the State Board of Health) is of such a remarkable character that it will bear republication.

The attention of Dr. D. M. Currier was directed to this well in the investigation of the cause of sickness in the family that used this water, and the analysis which is given of the water was made by Prof. Edmund R. Angell of Derry.