History of the Water Supply of the World / arranged in a comprehensive form from eminent authorities, containing a description of the various methods of water supply, pollution and purification of waters, and sanitary effects, with analyses of potable waters, also geology and water strata of Hamilton county, Ohio, statistics of the Ohio river, proposed water supply of Cincinnati.

by Thomas J. Bell

THAMES RIVER.

Although the water of the Thames has been submitted to analyses by different chemists, on many hundred occasions, no constituent which could be pronounced noxious, has been detected; but the history of the water traced in the inorganic constituents above referred to, always reveals that which is, indeed, well known to be the fact—its previous contamination with sewage or animal matters—(Rivers Pollution Commission, 1874.)

The area of water-shed drainage of the Thames above pumping station is 3,675 square miles, the minimum summer flow of 350 millions of gallons daily. There are one million persons above the intakes of pumping works. The whole river and its principal tributaries are under strictest sanitary regulation, which the government is able to enforce, notwithstanding a great mass of sewage is poured into the stream.

The Rivers Pollution Commission, of 1874, sum up their investigation of the Thames and Lea Rivers as follows:

“1st. That the river receives the sewage from a large number of towns and other inhabited places, the washings of a large cultivated land, and the filthy discharge from many industrial processes and manufactures.

“2d. That the water is used for bathing, washing of sheep and cattle, and dirty linen and putrid carcasses of animals float upon its surface.

“3d. That it is the common water way for a large amount of dangerous polluting matter, etc.

“4th. That in time of flood a large proportion, both of the suspended and dissolved filth, is conveyed down to the intakes, and in ordinary weather considerable portion of soluble organic matter makes its way to the pumping works, and is still present in the water distributed to the consumers.

“5th. That the water is, nevertheless, when efficiently filtered, free from any offensive taste or odor.

“6th. That, notwithstanding the application of partial remedies, for sewage pollution, at Banbury, Eton, and Windsor, and the great care exercised by most of the companies in the storage and filtration of the water, the organic pollution contained in the Thames water delivered in London, though subject to fluctuations from the greater or less prevalence of floods, does not diminish. The proportion of organic impurity present in Thames water, as delivered in London, was:

“In 1868,	1,000	In 1870,	795	In 1872,	1,243
In 1869,	1,016	In 1871,	928	In 1873,	917

“7th. That there is no hope of this disgusting state of the river being so far remedied as to preclude the presence of animal and other offensive matters, even in the filtered Thames water as delivered in the metropolis.

“8th. That the Thames should, therefore, as early as possible, be abandoned as a source of water for domestic use.

“9th. That the temperature of the water drawn from the company’s mains is liable to excessive fluctuations, being near the freezing point in winter and so warm in summer as to be vapid and unpalatable.”

The Lea River is also condemned as a source of water supply.

Prof. Chandler, of New York, quotes the authority of eminent scientists, who say the Thames, a short distance above London, is wholesome, palatable, and agreeable, and safe for domestic use, notwithstanding the large amount of sewage (the number of grains per gallon being three times that of the Schuylkill), although controlled by strict governmental laws.