Mr. Gardner. Did you have anything of the nature of an epidemic in your town before you commenced to treat the water?
Mr. Evanson. We never had. I was mayor of the town in 1910 and 1911 and during that time I asked the medical health officer frequently to send in samples of our water, and he did so. He took the water from the taps in the town, and not from the river, and it was rarely shown that it was contaminated in any way. I can only remember one occasion on which there was slight contamination.
Mr. Gardner. At what point in the river is your intake?
Mr. Evanson. The intake pipe is at the most westerly point in the town and it runs into the river for 400 feet.
Mr. Gardner. Do you find the channel within that distance?
Mr. Evanson. No; we would not be out in the channel at that distance. The nearest sewer pipe is 1,500 feet from the intake pipe.
Mr. Gardner. That would be down the river.
Mr. Evanson. Yes. Of course I think the current of the river at Prescott improves the conditions there. It is said that the water flows by there at about 4 miles an hour. We have no eddies at all such as they have at Brockville. At Brockville there is a point that juts out and obstructs the flow of the river at the west side, and that is the cause of the eddy there, but we have no eddy whatever at Prescott.
Mr. Gardner. Is the river narrower opposite Prescott than it is opposite Brockville?
Mr. Evanson. I think it is about the same width as at Brockville; we are about a mile and a quarter across here.