Without entering into a detailed discussion, it may be said that the amount of sewage, with reference to the size of the river and the volume of flow, is a fraction less than that at Lawrence, Mass., where a filter-plant has also been constructed, but the pollution is much greater than that of most American rivers from which municipal water-supplies are taken.
The filtration-plant completed in 1899 takes the water from a point about two miles above the old intake. Pumps lift the water to the sedimentation-basin, from which it flows to the filters and thence through a conduit to the pumping-station previously used.
DESCRIPTION OF PLANT.
Intake.—The intake consists of a simple concrete structure in the form of a box, having an open top covered with rails 6 inches apart, and connected below, through a 36-inch pipe, with a well in the pumping-station. Before going to the pumps the water passes through a screen with bars 2 inches apart, so arranged as to be raked readily. The rails over the intake and this screen are intended to stop matters which might obstruct the passageways of the pumps, but no attempt is made to stop fish, leaves, or other floating matters which may be in the water. The arrangement, in this respect, is like that of the filter at Lawrence, Mass., where the raw water is not subjected to close screening. There is room, however, to place finer screens in the pump-well, should they be found desirable.
HUDSON RIVER
NEAR INTAKE
Fig. 1.
Sedimentation-basin, Pumping-station, and Outlets.
Sedimentation-basin, an Outlet, and Laboratory.