The Sewerage of Sea Coast Towns

by Henry Charles Adams

The selection of the site for the sea outfall sewer is a matter requiring a most careful consideration of the many factors bearing on the point, and the permanent success of any scheme of sewage disposal depends primarily upon the skill shown in this matter. The first step is to obtain a general idea of the tidal conditions, and to examine the Admiralty charts of the locality, which will show the general set of the main currents into which it is desirable the sewage should get as quickly as possible. The main currents may be at some considerable distance from the shore, especially if the town is situated in a bay, when the main current will probably be found running across the mouth of it from headland to headland. The sea outfall should not be in the vicinity of the bathing grounds, the pier, or parts of the shore where visitors mostly congregate; it should not be near oyster beds or lobster grounds. The prosperity—in fact, the very existence—of most seaside towns depends upon their capability of attracting visitors, whose susceptibilities must be studied before economic or engineering questions, and there are always sentimental objections to sewage works, however well designed and conducted they may be.

It is desirable that the sea outfall should be buried in the shore for the greater part of its length, not only on account of these sentimental feelings, but as a protection from the force of the waves, and so that it should not interfere with boating; and, further, where any part of the outfall between high and low water mark is above the shore, scouring of the beach will inevitably take place on each side of it. The extreme end of the outfall should be below low-water mark of equinoctial tides, as it is very objectionable to have sewage running across the beach from the pipe to the water, and if the foul matter is deposited at the edge of the water it will probably be brought inland by the rising tide. Several possible positions may present themselves for the sea outfall, and a few trial current observations should be made in these localities at various states of the tides and plotted on to a 1:2500 ordnance map. The results of these observations will probably reduce the choice of sites very considerably.

Levels should be taken of the existing subsidiary sewers in the town, or, if there are none, the proposed arrangement of internal sewers should be sketched out with a view to their discharging their contents at one or other of the points under consideration. It may be that the levels of the sewers are such that by the time they reach the shore they are below the level of low water, when, obviously, pumping or other methods of raising the sewage must be resorted to; if they are above low water, but below high water, the sewage could be stored during high water and run off at or near low water; or, if they are above high water, the sewage could run off continuously, or at any particular time that might be decided.

Observations of the currents should now be made from the selected points, giving special attention to those periods during which it is possible to discharge the sewage having regard to the levels of the sewers. These should be made with the greatest care and accuracy, as the final selection of the type of scheme to be adopted will depend very largely on the results obtained and the proper interpretation of them, by estimating, and mentally eliminating, any disturbing influences, such as wind, etc. Care must also be taken in noting the height of the tide and the relative positions of the sun, moon, and earth at the time of making the observations, and in estimating from such information the extent to which the tides and currents may vary at other times when those bodies are differently situated.

It is obvious that if the levels of the sewers and other circumstances are such that the sewage can safely be discharged at low water, and the works are to be constructed accordingly, it is most important to have accurate information as to the level of the highest low water which may occur in any ordinary circumstances. If the level of a single low water, given by a casual observation, is adopted without consideration of the governing conditions, it may easily be that the tide in question is a low one, that may not be repeated for several years, and the result would be that, instead of having a free outlet at low water, the pipe would generally be submerged, and its discharging capacity very greatly reduced.

The run of the currents will probably differ at each of the points under consideration, so that if one point were selected the best result would be obtained by discharging the sewage at high water and at another point at low water, whereas at a third point the results would show that to discharge there would not be satisfactory at any stage of the tide unless the sewage were first partially or even wholly purified. If these results are considered in conjunction with the levels of the sewers definite alternative schemes, each of which would work satisfactory may be evolved, and after settling them in rough outline, comparative approximate estimates should be prepared, when a final scheme may be decided upon which, while giving the most efficient result at the minimum cost, will not arouse sentimental objections to a greater extent than is inherent to all schemes of sewage disposal.

Having thus selected the exact position of the outfall, the current observations from that point should be completed, so that the engineer may be in a position to state definitely the course which would be taken by sewage if discharged under any conditions of time or tide. This information is not particularly wanted by the engineer, but the scheme will have to receive the sanction of the Local Government Board or of Parliament, and probably considerable opposition will be raised by interested parties, which must be met at all points and overcome. In addition to this, it may be possible, and necessary, when heavy rain occurs, to allow the diluted sewage to escape into the sea at any stage of the tide; and, while it is easy to contend that it will not then be more impure than storm water which is permitted to be discharged into inland streams during heavy rainfall, the aforesaid sentimentalists may conjure up many possibilities of serious results. As far as possible the records should indicate the course taken by floats starting from the outfall, at high water, and at each regular hour afterwards on the ebb tide, as well as at low water and every hour on the flood tide. It is not, however, by any means necessary that they should be taken in this or any particular order, because as the height of the tide varies each day an observation taken at high water one day is not directly comparable with one taken an hour after high water the next day, and while perhaps relatively the greatest amount of information can be gleaned from a series of observations taken at the same state of the tide, but on tides of differing heights, still, every observation tells its own story and serves a useful purpose.

Deep floats and surface floats should be used concurrently to show the effect of the wind, the direction and force of which should be noted. If it appears that with an on-shore wind floating particles would drift to the shore, screening will be necessary before the sewage is discharged. The floats should be followed as long as possible, but at least until the turn of the current—that is to say, a float put in at or near high water should be followed until the current has turned at or near low water, and one put in at low water should be followed until after high water. In all references to low water the height of the tide given is that of the preceding high water.

The time at which the current turns relative to high and low water at any place will be found to vary with the height of the tide, and all the information obtained on this point should be plotted on squared paper as shown on Fig. 10, which represents the result of observations taken near the estuary of a large river where the conditions would be somewhat different from those holding in the open sea. The vertical lines represent the time before high or low water at which the current turned, and the horizontal lines the height of the tide, but the data will, of course, vary in different localities.

[Illustration: Hours before turn of tide. FIG 10]