THE 
WORCESTER SEWAGE 
AND THE 
BLACKSTONE RIVER. 
BOSTON: 
Kanto, Stoerp, & Co., printers to tlje Coinmontoealt^, 
117 Franklin Street. 
1882. THE 
WORCESTER SEWAGE 
AND THE 
BLACKSTONE RIVER 
BOSTON: 
Eanto, SlDcrp, & Co., Printers to tlje Commontoraltltj, 
117 Franklin Street. 
1882. Commonrocaltt) of Jltassacljusetts. 
Hon. R. R. Bishop, President of the Senate. 
The undersigned, members of the State Board of Health, 
Lunacy, and Charity, in accordance with chapter 67 of the 
Resolves of 1881, herewith submit, for the consideration of 
the General Court, the special report of the Board on the 
subject-matter of the resolve, together with, the reports, esti- 
mates, plans, and papers in their possession, which relate to 
the case. 
THOMAS TALBOT. 
R. T. DAVIS. 
EZRA PARMENTER. 
EDWARD HITCHCOCK. 
CLARA T. LEONARD. 
GEO. P. CARTER. 
ALFRED HOSMER. 
JOHN C. HOADLEY. 
Boston, Feb. 4, 1882. THE SEWAGE OF WORCESTER, 
By chap. 67 of Resolves of 1881, it was made the duty of 
the Board to examine and consider the question of the dis- 
position of the sewage of the city of Worcester, especially 
with a view to prevent the pollution of the Blackstone River 
and its tributaries, and to report its conclusions in print to the 
next Legislature, with recommendations as to a definite plan 
for the prevention of such pollution. The Board has attended 
to the duties thus imposed, and has examined that portion of 
the Blackstone River of which complaint had been made, and 
also the sewerage system of Worcester itself. Two hearings 
have taken place, at which all parties interested were notified 
to be present; and the Board, as already mentioned, has em- 
ployed C. F. Folsom, M.D., of the National Board of Health, 
and J. P. Davis, C.E., of New York. These experts, together 
with the Health Officer of the Board, H. P. Walcott, M.D., 
have fully examined the subject of the purification of the 
Worcester sewage, and, after full consideration, have sub- 
mitted to this Board the report which appears in the Sani- 
tary Appendix. 
The authorities of the city of Worcester and the town of 
Millbury were invited to employ, at their own expense, such 
persons as might seem to them best qualified to examine, in 
their behalf, the matters referred to, and to report to this 
Board. 
The city of Worcester failed to comply with this request. 
The town of Millbury secured the services of Col. G. E. 
Waring, jun., of Newport, R.I., whose report has been 
presented, and is printed in the Sanitary Appendix. 
The plan proposed by Col. Waring, in this very interesting 
and able report, is, in the opinion of this Board, open to the 
following objections: — 1882.] THE SEWAGE OF WORCESTER. 
OBJECTIONS TO COL. WARING’S PLAN. 
First, That the scheme for dividing the flow of the sewage 
between two narrow channels, one at each side, with a wider 
channel between them for surface drainage, — the whole to 
form a single channel whenever, in times of freshet, the sur- 
face drainage may rise sufficiently to overflow the partition 
walls, — is not satisfactory for the following reasons : — 
1. The very important portion of the sewer beneath the 
road-bed of the Boston and Albany Railroad is, in its present 
form, barely capacious enough to receive and carry off the 
storm-flow of Mill Brook. The device recommended would, 
however it were carried out, impair seriously this capacity, 
while the cost will be very considerable, — little, if any, less 
than that of a separate sewer for the sewage proper. 
2. Dividing the sewage between two channels must greatly 
diminish the scouring power of the current, by reducing the 
flow in each of the open ditches so formed,—ditches open, 
that is, to the main sewer. 
3. The large surface that would become coated with sewer- 
slime, and be exposed to the air of the main sewer, would 
also be an objection. 
4. The great capacity of the main sewer would still con- 
stitute it, as now, a vast receptacle for sewer-gases. 
Second, The plan of allowing the sewage to flow off upon 
low lands, advantageous as it appears, and advantageous as 
it would be, to avoid pumping, seems to us highly objection- 
able. 
1. It cannot be done except upon swampy land, unable to 
receive more water without flooding. If ditched, as pro- 
posed, the ditches would probably fill with water drawn from 
the soil. Vegetation could dispose of little more water than 
it now does, and could do little towards absorbing any of the 
sewage. 
2. There would be no aeration except upon the surface; 
no alternation of air and water in the same interstitial spaces 
in the ground; no oxidation of organic matters contained in 
the sewage. 
On the other hand, the plan presented by the expert com- 
mission seems to meet the objections above enumerated, with 
well-considered remedies: — HEALTH, LUNACY, AND CHARITY. [Jan. 
THE WORCESTER SEWAGE.— CONCLUSION. 
I. Once pumped to a sufficient height, the sewage will 
flow upon a tract of land of sufficient extent, at such a 
height above the natural drainage as to give a body of earth, 
which, when properly drained and prepared, will admit of 
alternate flow of air and water; of fresh air through well- 
moistened earth, from which the sewage has recently drained 
off; of newly supplied sewage through freshly aerated soil, 
on every side of every pebble, of every grain of sand, of 
every lump of marl or loam, — thus becoming a portion of 
the vast lung-surface by which the purification of the sewage 
is to be brought about through the action of the free oxygen 
of the air on the oxidizable matter in the sewage. 
II. The proposed sewage-pipe must perform perfectly all 
that the three-channel plan of Col. Waring would, as it 
seems to us, do less perfectly. 
Col. Waring’s plan — though it does not, in our opinion, 
offer so satisfactory a system of irrigation as that proposed 
by us—brings to this method of sewage-disposal the ap- 
proval of a very eminent authority in matters of this sort, 
especially in the light of his own recent critical examination 
of the most approved methods of drainage both in England 
and on the Continent. As no plan for the purification of 
so large an amount of sewage has yet been put in practice 
in this country, all methods proposed are, to a certain extent, 
experimental. Still, after mature deliberation, the Board 
accepts with great confidence the conclusions stated in the 
report of its experts; being convinced that the system of 
“ intermittent downward filtration,” supplemented, if neces- 
sary, by broad irrigation, is best adapted to the existing con- 
dition of things. And we therefore recommend the system of 
intermittent downward filtration, submitted in the report of 
the experts appointed , by this Board, as, in the judgment 
of the Board, the best method of disposing of the sewage 
of the of Worcester. , MAP SHOWING 
PROPOSED SYSTEM FOR DISPOSAL 
OF THE SEWAGE OF 
WORCESTER. 
IBS!. 
Scale 1 incli-lOOO feet. 
WnwUw^ * (Jit Surcrtrzojv^ 
q-C a. port o P 
THE BLACKS TONE VALLEY 
SOUTH O /' 
QuinsigAxiom) Vie la ge 
Hort, SCTAT.E SOOFEET TO 7IrsTCfT. 
Veh „ 2o „ „ „ 
He!iotype Printing On. Boston. 1882.] THE SEWAGE OF WORCESTER. 
7 
WORCESTER SEWAGE. 
THE WORCESTER SEWAGE AND THE 
BLACKSTONE RIVER. 
I. —REPORT OF THE BOARD’S COMMITTEE OF 
EXPERTS. 
Boston, Nov. 17, 1881. 
To the State Board of Health, Lunacy, and Charity. 
In conformity to the vote of the Board, July 23, 1881,— 
That Dr. C. F. Folsom, Joseph P. Davis, Civil Engineer, of New York, 
and Dr. H. P. Walcott, Health Officer of the Board, be requested to 
examine and consider the question of the disposition of the sewage of the 
city of Worcester, especially with a view to prevent the pollution of the 
BlackStone liiver and its tributaries, and report to this committee, — 
We have the honor to submit the following report: — 
The population of Worcester was, by census, 22,286 in 
1855, 24,960 in 1860, 30,055 in 1865, 41,105 in 1870, 
49,317 in 1875, and 58,291 in 1880. These figures show an 
average increase for each five years of a little over 20 per 
cent, and warn us, that, in designing works for the disposal of 
the sewage of the city, ample prc ision should be made for 
its future growth. 
The populated area of the city is now 2,967 acres, of which 
1,300 are already sewered; the total length of the sewers, 
exclusive of the Mill Brook Conduit, being 36 miles. 
The average rainfall is 48 inches * annually. The mean 
temperature (F.) at two points in the State for ten years is 
as follows, the extremes being from a little over 100°+ to 
several degrees below zero : — 
Cambridge 
Amherst. 
Cambridge 
Amherst. 
MONTHS. 
MONTHS. 
Ten Years, 
Ten Years, 
Ten Years, 
Ten Years, 
1868-77. 
1868-77. 
1868-77. 
1868-77. 
January . 
25 3 
24.2 
August . 
69 6 
69.1 
February. 
25.2 
24.5 
September 
60.9 
60.0 
March 
31.4 
31.4 
October . 
49 8 
48.4 
April 
43.2 
44.3 
November 
37.4 
37 3 
May 
55.6 
55.0 
December 
27.5 
26.2 
June 
66.6 
67.3 
July 
72 3 
71.1 
Average 
47.1 
46.6 
* The extremes in Boston from 1849 to 1875 were 40.3 and 67.7 inches. 8 
HEALTH, LUNACY, AND CHARITY. [Jan. 
THE BLACKSTONE RIVER AND THE WORCESTER SEWAGE. 
The ground freezes from three to five months in the year 
to a depth varying from one foot to five feet; the snow 
covers the ground from a few weeks to three or four months, 
from one foot to three feet deep. 
The eastern and most thickly built portion of the city is 
drained by a considerable stream, called Mill Brook, which, 
flowing almost due south, empties into the Blackstone River 
a little above the village of Quinsigamond. This brook 
receives, along its course, nearly the whole of the sewage of 
Worcester, brought to it by 44 different sewers. Its drainage 
area above Lincoln Square is about 8 square miles; above 
Cambridge Street it has a drainage area of about 121 square 
miles. Its average daily dry-weather flow at Cambridge 
Street, exclusive of sewage, for four months of the year, may 
be stated at about 3,500,000 gallons, and its minimum daily 
flow for a single month at 750,000 gallons. 
The average ganged flow at Lincoln Square for 79 days in 
the summer of 1871 was 4,198,000 gallons daily. The flow 
in times of great freshets may reach the enormous quantity 
of 1,000,000,000 gallons in 24 hours; but the greatest noted 
discharge (at Pond Street) was at the rate of 110,000,000 
gallons. 
The- average daily flow for the year is about 13,000,000 
gallons. 
From the above statement it is evident that, to make 
practicable any scheme for utilizing or purifying the sewage, 
it must be intercepted before it reaches the brook. 
No extended or reliable gaugings have been made of the 
dry-weather flow of the sewers. The sewer which enters the 
brook at Cambridge Street drains what are known as the 
Island and Piedmont Districts, having a total area of about 
670 acres. Mr. Phinehas Ball, former city engineer, in a 
report made to C. D. Morse, Esq., in this year, estimates the 
dry-weather flow at about 800,000 gallons daily ; and in 
his opinion, when the Island District is more completely 
sewered, it will be increased to 1,000,000 gallons. Rough 
float-gaugings, taken in 1875 from Aug. 26 to Sept. 2, showed 
the average daily flow of that period to be 1,300,000. The 
maximum daily flow for that period was 1,463,256 gallons; 1882.] THE SEWAGE OF WORCESTER. 
9 
THE WORCESTER SEWAGE ANALYZED. 
and the minimum, 1,135,872 gallons. For the purposes of 
this report, it is assumed that the dry-weather flow of the 
sewers of the city is at present 3,000,000 gallons per day, 
2,000,000 gallons of which empty into Mill Brook above 
Cambridge Street, and 1,000,000 gallons at Cambridge Street. 
1 wenty-eight hundred* houses are connected with the present 
sewers; 4,000 * houses are not connected. There are 26 
woollen and cotton mills, beside a few iron-works, saw-mills, 
grist-mills, a tannery with shambles on the river and its 
tributaries above the sewer outlet. About 50 gallons of the 
water-supply are used per individual. 
So many samples of the sewage of Worcester were ex- 
amined by the State Board of Health in 1872, that it is not 
necessary to repeat the analyses. 
Of 27 samples collected from three sewers on eleven dif- 
ferent days at six A.M., nine and twelve P.M., the average 
proportions were, in parts per 100,000, solid residue, 15.29 ; 
ammonia, 0.745; albuminoid ammonia, 0.144; chlorine, 3.1. 
Of 27 samples collected at nine a.m., twelve m., and six p.m., 
the average was, of solid residue, 25.35; ammonia, 1.876; 
albuminoid ammonia, 0.316 ; chlorine, 4.17. The mean of 
12 of the first set of samples showed phosphoric acid, 0.1940; 
and of 12 of the second set, phosphoric acid, 0.6564. 
The averages from 50 English cities and towns were, in 
parts per 100,000, solid residue, 72.2 ; ammonia, 6.703 ; 
chlorine, 10.66. We have, therefore, 3,000,000 gallons of 
sewage to deal with daily, which the chemical analyses just 
quoted show to be about twice as dilute as the sewage of 
English towns, mixed with a brook, whose daily flow ranges 
from 1,000,000 to 40,000,000 gallons, not including extremes 
in a rapidly growing city. 
Chemical analyses of the water supplied to the river before 
and after pollution by the sewage of Worcester, made in 
1875, showed the following results in parts per 100,000: — 
* Approximately. 10 
HEALTH, LUNACY, AND CHARITY. [Jan. 
SPECIAL SANITARY APPENDIX. 
Ammonia. 
Alb. 
Ammonia. 
Solid 
Residue. 
Chlorine. 
City Reservoir .... 
0.0107 
0.0213 
4 20 
0 18 
Mill Brook ..... 
0.9600 
0.1109 
23.44 
3.80 
Blackstone River, at the sash 
factory ..... 
0 0992 
0.0307 
8.04 
0.92 
Blackstone River, below Black- 
stone Mills .... 
0.0099 
0.0139 
4.80 
0.38 
Mill Brook, with its accumulated sewage, empties into the 
Blackstone River at a point about three miles above the 
more thickly populated portion (the village) of the town of 
Millbury. The river flows parallel to and alongside of the 
main road connecting Millbury with Worcester, and at a 
point about midway is ponded by a dam. Here a consider- 
able portion of the solids held in suspension are deposited, 
and a nuisance is created. In the town of Millbury are a 
number of dams, at each one of which some further deposi- 
tion occurs ; and along the whole course of the stream for 
some miles below Worcester putrefaction of the organic con- 
stituents of the sewage takes place (most rapidly in the 
summer months), and, as a consequence, offensive gases are 
liberated, which are largely the cause of complaint of this 
method of disposing of the sewage. 
The deposits undoubtedly stimulate and increase the 
growth of aquatic plants, and are thus, as well as by their 
own bulk, hastening the process of filling up the ponds. 
This, too, is a cause of complaint by the Millbury mill-owners. 
It is a belief of the people dwelling on and near the banks 
of the stream, that a perceptible injurious effect upon the 
general health has been produced, and this belief is shared 
in, to some extent, by the resident physicians. 
That the stream at times is very offensive is quite evident, 
and that this, in connection with the gradual filling up of the 
ponds, will soon depreciate the value of property in its 
vicinity, unless some other than the present method of dis- 
posing of the sewage of Worcester is adopted, is beyond 
question. It should be stated, however, that a not inconsid- 
erable portion of the pollution of the river below Millbury is 1882.] THE SEWAGE OF WORCESTER. 
11 
THE BLACKSTONE RIVER AND THE WORCESTER SEWAGE. 
contributed by the mills of that town situated on the main 
stream, and on Singletary Brook. 
The stream four miles below the sewer-outlet is unmis- 
takably polluted ; twenty-five miles down, the impurity is all 
but lost to chemical tests. At Millbury the water is unfit for 
the nicer manufacturing processes, and for boilers, and at 
times is decidedly offensive. 
During the summer of 1881 the following analyses of 
water, taken, in quite dry weather, made under the direction 
of Professor E. S. Wood, are compared with others in 1872 
and 1875 by Professor W. Ripley Nichols in the State Board 
of Health Report: — HEALTH, LUNACY, AND CHARITY. [Jan. 
EXAMINATION OF BLACKSTONE RIVER. 
Unfiltered. 
Residue. 
Ammonia. 
Alb. 
Ammonia. 
Chlorine. 
Fixed 
Volatile. 
Total. 
Hardness. 
Average of 11 samples, Mill Brook, at Cambridge 
Street 
1873. 
Oct. - 
0 3430 
0 2290 
2.74 
14.90 
Average of 12 samples above sewers, Mill Brook . 
- 
0.1970 
0.1800 
1.62 
- 
- 
15.71 
- 
Mill Brook, near river 
1875. 
July - 
0.9600 
0.1109 
3 80 
23.44 
Blackstone River, near sash factory 
River, near Blackstone Mills .... 
0.0992 
0.0307 
0.92 
_ 
— 
8 04 
— 
_ 
0.0099 
0.0139 
0 38 
_ 
4.80 
_ 
River, below dam at Blackstone .... 
0.0157 
0.0163 
0.36 
- 
- 
4.60 
- 
Blackstone River, bridge below Perry’s Mills, 
Quinsigamond ....... 
1881. 
Aug. 30 
0.9360 
0.0858 
2.90 
5.00 
7.50 
12.50 
3° 
Blackstone River, bridge below Perry’s Mills, 
Quinsigamond ....... 
Sept. 6 
0.3360 
0.0882 
3.10 
8.40 
4.00 
12.40 
3° 
Blackstone River, bridge below Perry’s Mills, 
Quinsigamond 
11 
0.0094 
0 1606 
3.30 
13.30 
11.00 
24.30 
6° 
Above Burling Mills ...... 
Aug. 30 
0 0746 
0.0470 
2.10 
4.00 
5 50 
9.50 
3° 
Above Burling Mills 
Sept. 6 
0.1814 
0.1168 
3 20 
9.50 
0.80 
10.30 
3° 
Morse’s Mill-pond 
Aug. 30 
0.0720 
0.0690 
2 80 
8.80 
0.90 
9.70 
34° 
Gowan’s Bridge 
30 
1.1880 
0.0334 
2.20 
9.00 
1.90 
10.90 
2 i° 
Examination of Blade stone River. 
(Parts per 100,000.) 1882.] THE SEWAGE OF WORCESTER. 
13 
EXAMINATION OF BLACKSTONE RIVER. 
Cowan’s Bridge 
Sept. 
6 
0.0013 
1 0 2906 
j 4.60 
10.00 
3 90 
13.90 
6° 
Above Cordis Mills ...... 
Aug. 
30 
1.3230 
0.1364 
3 00 
8.00 
4.60 
12.60 
4° 
Blackstone liiver, above Worcester sewage . 
Sept. 
6 
0.0315 
0.0264 
1.10 
5 50 
2 10 
7.60 
1° 
Mill Brook, with sewage at Cambridge Street 
0.0880 
0.3910 
7 30 
22.10 
12.00 
34.10 
8° 
Mill Brook, with sewrage at Cambridge Street 
Oct. 
2 
0.1440 
0 0486 
1 90 
8 30 
3.70 
12.00 
Singletary Brook....... 
2 
0 0112 
0.5458 
0.60 
2 50 
5.80 
8.30 
H° 
Blackstone .River, below Singletary Brook . 
2 
0.1546 
0 0332 
1 80 
7 60 
3 70 
11.30 
2£° 
Blackstone River, above Singletary Brook . 
2 
0 0866 
0.1662 
2.00 
10.80 
5.80 
16.60 
3° 
Below Boston and Albany Railroad, and above 
Fox Village ....... 
27 
0.5060 
0 1100 
5.20 
21.90 
5 10 
27.00 
9° 
Junction of Mill Brook and Piedmont sewer 
27 
0.6400 
0 2400 
8.30 
26 30 
12.50 
38.80 
8° 
Lynde Brook, above South Worcester AVire Mill 
and below Worcester Carpet Company 
27 
0.0370 
0.0210 
0 80 
3.40 
0 90 
4.30 
1° 
Mouth of sewer at Quinsigamond Village . 
27 
0.9100 
0.1700 
9.30 
30 40 
7.00 
37.40 
8° 
Above Burling Mills ...... 
27 
0 3070 
0.0370 
2.90 
9.20 
2 20 
11.40 
3° 
At Morse’s Bridge, in front of factory 
27 
0.0470 
0.1410 
2 90 
8.40 
3.70 
12.50 
H° 14 
HEALTH, LUNACY, AND CHARITY. [Jan. 
SPECIAL SANITARY APPENDIX. 
Comparing the results from the several examinations in 
1881 with these of the State Board of Health in 1872, it is 
clear that the pollution of the stream has increased since that 
time. As compared with the chemical examinations made 
by the Board in 1875, there is also an increase, although much 
less marked. The sewage deposits have been to a certain 
extent swept away by freshets from time to time, and have 
not been augmented, except possibly above the dam of the 
sash factory in Millbury, so considerably as to be of them- 
selves the nuisance that might have been expected. 
Considering the extreme heat and cold of the climate, the 
heavy rainfall, and the great dilution of the sewage, the diffi- 
culties in the way of a satisfactory disposal of the sewage of 
Worcester are far beyond those of any other town where the' 
question has already been met: so that any scheme that may 
be proposed may be said to be experimental to a certain ex- 
tent; and to be successful, and not create a greater nuisance 
than it abolishes, it must be costly in the original outlay, and 
involve also a considerable yearly expense. 
Various methods of preventing the excessive pollution of 
streams have been adopted or experimented upon in Eng- 
land. They may be classified as follows: — 
1. Simple subsidence in tanks. 
2. Chemical treatment or precipitation in tanks. 
3. Filtration through artificial filters. 
4. Intermittent filtration through natural soil. 
5. Broad irrigation. 
The first and third are very generally abandoned. They 
simply remove floating solids, leaving all the putrescible 
solubles to beget a nuisance when putrefaction begins. 
The second method produces an effluent which may be 
allowed to enter most streams that are not afterwards used 
as a source of water-supply, and is one that a number of 
towns are constrained to adopt for want of land proper for 
filtration or irrigation. It removes all the solids, and a small 
percentage of the soluble elements; and the chemicals used 
in the various processes tend to fix the remaining putrescible 
elements in various degrees. Over sixty different precipita- 
tion processes have been proposed. 1882.] THE SEWAGE OF WORCESTER. 
15 
TREATMENT OF SEWAGE IN ENGLAND 
The cheapest one is that known as the lime process, in 
which about one ton of lime is added to each million of 
gallons of sewage of the English standard of dilution. 
The sewage is then allowed to flow very slowly through a 
series of carefully constructed tanks in which the floating 
solid matter, and that produced by the chemical action of 
the lime, are deposited, forming what is technically termed 
“ sewage sludge.” When the sludge has accumulated to a few 
inches in depth, the supernatant liquid is carefully drawn off, 
and allowed to flow over irrigation fields or into the neighbor- 
ing stream. The sludge, consisting in this state of 90 per 
cent of water, is removed (usually by pumping), and is finally 
disposed of in some way. After being exposed to the air for 
a year in the climate of England, it still contains 70 per cent 
of water. 
It may be allowed to accumulate on the land, or it may be 
dug into the soil to serve as a manure. It is usually given 
away, or sold (if possible) when partially dried. It is some- 
times dried at great expense, when its bulk is so 
reduced that it becomes a salable manure. 
In some towns in England the farmers pay a shilling or 
two a ton for the air-dried sludge at the leisure time of the 
year; in others they will not cart it away when given to 
them. 
There are many other chemicals than lime in use in the 
precipitation processes, many of which produce a slightly 
better effluent, and a more valuable sediment (if a compari- 
son of the value of materials that are practically worthless 
may be made), and much less of it. In these respects they 
are to be preferred; but under most circumstances they are 
more costly. Where the sludge can be allowed to accumu- 
late without causing a nuisance, the lime process will usually 
be adopted, although the effluent still contains a consider- 
ably greater portion of the putrescible element than in other 
processes. 
Where possible, this effluent should in all precipitation 
processes be passed through the soil before entering the 
stream. 
For the treatment of the dry-weather sewage of Worcester, 16 
HEALTH, LUNACY, AND CHARITY. [Jan. 
SPECIAL SANITARY APPENDIX. 
we may assume, in the absence of actual experiments, that 
between two and three tons of lime per day would be re- 
quired ; that from forty to sixty tons of wet sludge, with 90 
per cent of water in it, will be produced daily ; and that the 
cost, exclusive of interest on cost of works, would be from 
$10,000 to $15,000 per year. This is under the assumption 
that the sludge is allowed to accumulate, or is given away. 
It is not probable that it could be sold, unless first treated 
by some process, which would be at a loss. 
To create no nuisance in hot weather by any precipitating 
process is simply impossible ; but the stench need not at any 
time be a serious matter to the town if the works are a mile 
or two distant. It can safely be said that nothing but a 
large expenditure originally, extreme care, and a liberal 
appropriation each year will prevent a nuisance from being 
established, if this method be adopted. The resulting 
“ cleansed ” water, not having removed from it the soluble 
filth, decomposes, and creates offensive smells, unless still 
further purified by running it over land in irrigation. The 
whole process is quite incomplete, so far as purification of 
streams is concerned ; and on account of its much greater 
expense than that of irrigation is justifiable only where some- 
thing must be done, and enough land cannot be got for 
irrigation. 
The fourth method, or that of intermittent filtration, is 
usually employed, when at all, as an auxiliary to broad 
irrigation. 
It consists, per se, in passing intermittently as large vol- 
umes of sewage through carefully prepared land as can be 
made to pass and produce a satisfactory effluent. In most 
cases, where any considerable area is acquired for the pur- 
pose, the net loss is diminished by cultivating crops, as that 
cannot be done where the greatest amount of sewage that 
can be filtered is used. 
The land, no matter how porous naturally it may be, is 
thoroughly underdrained; and to get the best results the 
surface must be shaped to level terraces. If crops are to be 
grown, it should be further prepared in ridges and furrows, 
— the former for the growth of the crops, the latter for the 
distribution of the sewage to their roots. 1882.] THE SEWAGE OF WORCESTER. 
17 
REPORT OF EXPERTS ON THE WORCESTER SEWAGE. 
Intermittent downward filtration has been adopted in 
Merthyr Tydvil in Wales; but it has been there abandoned 
m favor of ordinary surface irrigation and modified inter- 
mittent downward filtration, as no crops of value could be 
raised where the amount of sewage per acre (100,000 gal- 
lons daily) is so great. It is very seldom that land can be 
found porous enough for that method of disposing of sewage, 
there being only one town (Kendal in England) where any 
considerable quantity of sewage (nearly a million gallons 
daily on five acres) is now treated to the full extent in that 
way. Intermittent downward filtration differs from ordinary 
sewage irrigation simply in the extremely porous character 
of the soil selected, in the great amount of sewage used per 
acre, and in the abandonment of any attempt to raise crops 
of any real value; although, by taking more land than was 
at first designed by Denton, the amount of sewage used to 
each acre may be so moderate in amount that excellent crops 
can be raised: and this has actually been the practice in 
several towns that have recently adopted intermittent down- 
ward filtration in England, of which Abingdon is perhaps the 
best illustration. 
The theory of the process is well described in the report 
of the English Rivers Pollution Commission, that such a fil- 
ter is not a mere mechanical contrivance: it is a machine for 
oxidizing, and thus altogether transforming, as well as for 
merely separating, the filth of dirty water. A field of porous 
soil irrigated intermittently virtually performs an act of 
respiration, copying, on an enormous scale, the lung-action of 
a breathing animal; for it is alternately receiving and expir- 
ing air, and thus dealing as an oxidizing agent with the 
filthy fluid which is trickling through it. A sufficient extent 
and depth of porous soil having periodical intervals of rest, 
during which the soil drains itself, and becomes refilled with 
air, certainly must be the best possible strainer, oxidizer, and 
filterer of water containing nauseous organic impurities, both 
suspended and dissolved. 
At Quinsigamond there is an area of land fairly well suited 
for modified intermittent filtration of sufficient extent to dis- 
pose of all the sewage of Worcester, as will be seen by refer- 18 
HEALTH, LUNACY, AND CHARITY. [Jan. 
SPECIAL SANITARY APPENDIX. 
ence to the accompanying map. The results of this method, 
so far as the quality of the effluent is concerned, will he 
quite satisfactory; and, without doubt, the yearly loss will be 
very much less than with the precipitation process. If intel- 
ligently managed, the crops should partly repay the cost of 
labor and pumping, and possibly also in good years the whole 
of it, inasmuch as we propose distributing only 40,000 gallons 
of sewage to the acre, or one-fifth as much as is the practice 
in Kendal, but about twelve times as much as could be used 
in ordinary surface irrigation. 
The fifth method, or that of broad irrigation, is used with 
more or less modification, in varying degrees of efficiency, in 
nearly fifty towns of Great Britain, for about one-eighth of 
the sewage of the city of Paris, as an important part of the 
completed portion of the sewerage of Berlin, Stuttgart, and 
Brussels, and for the disposal of the whole of the sewage of 
Dantzic in the porous beach-sand of the shore of the Baltic 
Sea. In no place is there a pecuniary gain from the opera- 
tion where the sanitary portion of the problem is fairly 
solved. The yearly deficit varies in Great Britain from a 
few hundred dollars, or the value of the time of the person 
directing it, in small towns, to several thousand dollars in 
the larger places. In Paris and Dantzic it has been impos- 
sible for us to get at the profit or loss of the sewage-farming, 
but the process taken as a whole is quite satisfactory in both 
those cities. 
In Dantzic the contractors for the sewerage of the city 
were required, as part of their agreement, to dispose of the 
sewage by irrigation for a period of years. The sewage of 
Paris constituted from one-twelfth to one-fifteenth of the 
dry-weather flow of the Seine, being also unusually offensive 
and with an excessive amount of solid deposit, so that the 
nuisance was so great as to demand even a costly remedy. 
A light loam with a subsoil of gravel is best adapted to 
the purpose of sewage-irrigation, and three hundred acres of 
it may be made to sufficiently cleanse 1,000,000 gallons of 
sewage daily. With that quantity, however, it would be 
often necessary to pour the sewage on the land when the 
soil was already wet enough, or even too wet, for the crops, 1882.] THE SEWAGE OF WORCESTER. 
19 
SEWAGE-FARMS. 
so that agricultural loss would be the result; and in heavy 
rains it would not be always possible to purify at all the sew- 
age, which would simply flow over the land to the nearest 
stream. 
With less than three hundred acres of land to every mil- 
lion gallons of sewage, any crops but grass might be almost 
ruined in a wet season, unless the excess of water and some 
of the sewage could then pass into some stream ; and it must 
be a matter of experiment whether there would be any nui- 
sance in case of an extremely hot day following a long-con- 
tinued rain. To fully satisfy the agricultural part of the 
problem, one thousand acres should be provided for each one 
million gallons of daily sewage, although a fair result may be 
got with a far less area. At best, no one plot of land should 
be irrigated more than one day in eight in favorable weather. 
In time of wet soil, any crops except coarse grass, of course, 
would be injured by pouring additional water upon the 
ground ; and the quantity of coarse grass that can be raised on 
a sewage-farm with profit is limited to the amount that may 
be cut and fed fresh to live stock. A dairy farm is the best 
use possible of sewage-irrigated land, if it be near a large 
city where milk finds a ready sale. 
On an ordinary sewage-farm all crops may be raised. A 
large hotel in Paris is supplied with fruits and vegetables of 
the best quality-from the sewage-farm at Gennevilliers, and, 
commonly speaking, the products of them find ready sale. 
All sewage-farms that are not managed with care are nui- 
sances. There should never be excessive nuisance; and offen- 
sive odors can be avoided in the climate of England, as they 
can probably also be prevented here, if sufficient land is 
available. 
The best practicable treatment of the difficulty is upon the 
principle adopted for Paris; and this can be made satisfac- 
tory from all points of view, except that of profit. The plan 
consists in having a large tract of land upon which the sew- 
age may be poured when that is for the advantage of the 
crops, and in being able to dispose in some other way of all 
that is not wanted on the farms. 
This other way in Paris now consists in dumping it into 20 
HEALTH, LUNACY, AND CHARITY. [Jan. 
SPECIAL SANITARY APPENDIX. 
the river Seine. By the new plan it will be conveyed to an 
immense uncultivated tract of land owned by the State. 
Neither of these methods would be available for Worcester. 
We know of no other scheme so practicable as being able to 
provide for all the ordinary sewage by modified intermittent 
downward filtration, and procuring several hundred acres, 
upon which surface irrigation may be attempted, and ex- 
tended from year to year. 
Probably there is hardly another place in the State where 
the conditions of the problem can be so readily met as in 
Worcester, to remedy an evil which is fast becoming a general 
one in Massachusetts. Whatever may be the means adopted 
to purify the sewage, the first step must be to separate it from 
the very great, but extremely variable, amount of water 
uniting with it in the brook, and to provide for the direct 
discharge of storm-overflows into the stream, thereby involv- 
ing a considerable outlay of money in so changing the 
present sewerage system of the city as to fulfil these require- 
ments. 
An exact comparison of the annual cost of the precipitat- 
ing and of sewage-irrigation is not practicable; the 
actual facts in these respects, wherever either has been 
adopted, having been almost always disappointing when 
compared with the estimates. The difficulties which must 
be met are new, and their cost must be decided largely by 
experience. Probably the annual loss by precipitation 
would be between ten thousand and five thousand dollars. A 
favorable view of irrigation in Worcester would be that, in 
the best years, with skilful and economical management, 
there might be no loss beyond the interest on the cost of the 
works, and that at most the deficit can hardly be over six 
thousand dollars a year, pumping included. 
To properly dispose of the present sewage of Worcester by 
irrigation would require nine hundred or a thousand acres of 
land, which would need to be increased in the near future. 
Unfortunately so large an area of suitable soil conveniently 
located is not at command except by expensive pumping. 
We have therefore considered broad irrigation only in con- 
nection with modified intermittent filtration, and simply as a 1882.] THE SEWAGE OF WORCESTER. 
21 
THE WORCESTER SEWAGE. 
possible means, to be determined by experiment, of reducing 
the net yearly loss to the city in disposing of its sewage by 
the latter process. 
We therefore recommend, as the most practicable and 
least expensive method of disposing of the sewage of the 
city of Worcester, intermittent downward filtration upon so 
large an area (75 acres) that the sewage daily distributed per 
acre (40,000 gallons) will not be large enough to prevent the 
successful raising of crops.* Ordinary surface irrigation may 
be applied by private parties so far as that may be of benefit 
to the crops; the filtering ground, however, always being suf- 
ficient to dispose of all the sewage, whether the farmers in 
the vicinity choose to make use of any of it or not. 
As has already been pointed out, to make the success of 
any method of purifying the sewage of Worcester at all prob- 
able, it will be necessary to intercept the sewage of Mill 
Brook Valley before it is discharged into the brook, as the 
natural flow of the latter is much too large to be dealt with. 
After careful consideration, we have concluded to recommend 
a separate system of sewers for the valley. 
This work is incidental to all the schemes herein discussed. 
By it all the sewage proper of the Mill Brook Valley would 
be brought to Cambridge Street at the point where that 
street crosses the brook. At this point nearly all of the 
drainage of the remaining portion of the cit}r now sewered 
empties into the brook, as here terminates the main sewer 
m Quinsigamond Avenue, which drains the Piedmont and 
Island Districts. In fact, it may be said that here, practically, 
the whole sewage of the city is concentrated. This fact 
determines the direction in which space must be sought for 
the utilization or purification of the sewage, and somewhat 
simplifies the problem. 
A mile below Cambridge Street is that division of the city 
called Quinsigamond, and in Quinsigamond there is found 
land favorable either for intermittent filtration or for the dis- 
posal of the sludge produced by the precipitation process, 
* Very extended descriptions of the various plans of disposing of the sew- 
age of towns are given in the Fourth, Seventh, and Eighth Annual Reports of 
the State Board of Health, with maps of several sewage-farms, so that it 
will be superfluous for us to go into that matter again extensively in this. 22 
HEALTH, LUNACY, AND CHARITY. [Jan. 
SPECIAL SANITARY APPENDIX. 
and in the vicinity is a somewhat limited area that may be 
availed of for broad irrigation. 
The Precipitation Scheme. 
There are a number of points below Washburn & Moen’s 
wire-works where precipitation tanks might be built; but, 
taking into consideration that the tanks should be remote 
from inhabited and growing districts, and that land favorable 
for the disposal of the sludge should be convenient to them, 
the best location appears to be at the point marked A on 
the accompanying map. 
An outfall-sewer, three and one-half feet in diameter, with 
a grade of one in two thousand, capable, when running full, 
of conveying about 13,000,000 gallons in twenty-four hours, is 
to be built from Cambridge Street to the tanks on a line sub- 
stantially as shown on the plan. It crosses Blackstone River 
in an iron pipe a little above the dam of Washburn & 
Moen’s mills. 
The main sewer of the separate system of Mill Brook Val- 
ley is to be brought to its upper end by an iron pipe under 
Mill Brook; and the sewer draining the Piedmont and Island 
Districts will be diverted directly into it, having, however, a 
storm-overflow into Mill Brook. 
A series of settling-tanks and the necessary machinery for 
grinding and mixing the lime, and for handling the sludge, is 
to be provided at the point A. (See map.) 
The approximate estimate of the cost of this scheme is as 
follows: — 
Separate system of sewers in Mill Brook Valley . . $181,500 00 
Outfall-sewer, including iron pipe, etc. .... 62,900 00 
Tanks, machinery, and buildings ..... 55,000 00 
$299,400 00 
\dd 10 per cent for engineering and contingencies . . 29,940 00 
$329,340 00 
Land and land damages 14,500 00 
Total $343,840 00 1882.] THE SEWAGE OF WORCESTER. 
23 
THE INTERMITTENT FILTRATION SCHEME. 
The Intermittent Filtration Scheme. 
To reach the land that it is proposed to utilize for filtration, 
it will be necessary to pump the sewage of the Piedmont and 
Island Districts a height of about seven feet. The estimate 
therefore provides for a pumping-station at Cambridge Street 
with horizontal non-condensing engines and centrifugal 
pumps. The sewage of Mill Brook Valley can be brought 
to this point at an elevation that will allow it to flow into the 
outfall-sewer without pumping. From Cambridge Street, the 
outfall-sewer, 42" in diameter, follows the same route (but 
at a higher grade) as in the precipitation scheme, and ter- 
minates in a small subsiding-tank, as shown at A on the plan. 
The estimate covers the expenses of thoroughly sub-drain- 
ing the filtration land to a depth of six feet, the cost of level- 
ling and preparing the surface, clearing and grubbing, and of 
building a complete system of carriers. It is as follows : — 
Separate system o£ sewers ....... $181,500 00 
Pumping-station ........ 17,500 00 
Outfall-sewer, including iron pipe, etc 55,300 00 
Subsiding-tanks * 9,500 00 
Preparation of land for filtration . . . . . 72,100 00 
$335,900 00 
Add 10 per cent for engineering and contingencies . . 33,590 00 
$369,490 00 
Land and land damages ....... 39,000 00 
Total $408,490 00 
The estimated yearly cost of pumping is $3,500. 
This scheme is complete in itself, and makes ample pro- 
vision for the purification of the sewage of Worcester; but 
should it be thought advisable to supplement it with broad 
irrigation, with a view to a more complete and better utiliza- 
tion of the sewage, the cost and preparation for irrigation 
should be added to the above estimate. It would require a 
more thorough study of the land than we have thought it 
necessary to bestow, to make a close approximation to this 
cost; but it may be stated roughly as $100,000. 
CHARLES F. FOLSOM, M.D. 
JOSEPH P. DAVIS, C.E. 
HENRY P. WALCOTT, M.D. 
(Signed) 24 
HEALTH, LUNACY, AND CHARITY. [Jan. 
SPECIAL SANITARY APPENDIX. 
II. —REPORT FROM MILLBURY. 
Charles F. Donnelly, Esq., 
Millbury, Dec. 15, 1881. 
Secretary of the State Board of Health, Lunacy, and Charity. 
Bear Sir, — Your communication of the 22d of July, to 
the selectmen of Millbury, was by them referred to the 
undersigned, a committee appointed by the town some years 
since to take into consideration and report upon the matter 
of the pollution of the Blackstone River by the Worcester 
system of sewerage. By subsequent votes of the town, this 
committee has been given full power to act for and represent 
the town in the matter. In compliance with the request 
(contained in your communication above referred to) “ to 
furnish evidence of experts and others for the information of 
the Board,” we engaged the services of George E. Waring, 
jun., of Newport, requesting him to investigate the matter, 
and furnish us with a plan, to be presented to your Board, 
for disposing of the sewage of the city of Worcester, so as 
to prevent the pollution of the Blackstone River; having in 
view economy in original outlay and subsequent care, effec- 
tiveness in results, and the least injury by loss of water to 
the industries below dependent upon the water-power of the 
river. The result of his investigation, and his recommenda- 
tions, embodied in a paper entitled “A Project for the Puri- 
fication of the Sewage of Worcester,” and the accompanying 
plans transmitted herewith, we respectfully submit for the 
consideration of your Board. We understand that plans, 
similar to that proposed by Col. Waring, are in use at the 
present day at other places where it has been found necessary 
to prevent the pollution of rivers; and the probability of 
obtaining satisfactory results may be inferred from the suc- 
cess attained where such a plan has been adopted. Its 
simplicity and economy in first cost must commend them- 
selves. In matters of detail not affecting the general plan, 
however, some changes easily effected may seem desirable. 
Mr. Waring, although visiting the ground, used, in putting 
his plan upon paper, data from surveys made under the direc- 1882.] THE SEWAGE OF WORCESTER. 
25 
REPORT FROM THE MILLBURY TOWN COMMITTEE. 
tion of your Board. It is possible that the proximity of the 
mouth of his proposed conduit to the village of Quinsigamond 
was not called to his attention. To continue the conduit fur- 
ther down, perhaps to the “ Market land,” would seem desir- 
able in some respects. Should it be desired by your Board, 
Mr. Waring would be pleased to appear before you, and 
explain his plan in person. He has arranged, he tells us, to 
go South soon; and consequently such a meeting must be 
arranged for an early day, if at all. 
In presenting the project of Mr. Waring, we wish to be 
understood as having no desire to oppose other plans, or to 
insist upon this, if others seem more promising, either in 
results as to purification, in pecuniary returns from the pro- 
duction of valuable crops by irrigation, or otherwise. To the 
city of Worcester a probable return from the investment is a 
matter of importance, and should have weight, even against 
a considerable increase in the first outlay. What is desired 
by the inhabitants of this and other towns along the Black- 
stone River, is relief from an evil, great at the present time, 
and threatening to become intolerable in the near future, as 
the city of Worcester increases in population. As to the 
means of preventing this evil we have no pride of opinion. 
Satisfactory results are all we ask for. Called upon by your 
Board to furnish expert testimony, we have employed one 
eminent as a sanitary engineer, and submit his recommenda- 
tions, confident that they will merit the consideration of the 
members of your Board. 
At this time, permit us to refer to a matter which we think 
ought not to be lost sight of in this connection. Whatever 
plan may eventually be adopted, there will necessarily result 
a greater or less loss of water; which, in the dry season of 
the year, when evaporation takes place rapidly, may amount 
to so much as to be a serious matter to the mills using the 
stream for water-power. Even now the loss to manufac- 
turers is noticeable. But it is claimed that whatever water is 
taken for the Worcester water-supply is returned to the river 
through the sewers. This can, of course, be true only to a 
certain extent. With the sewer-water used for irrigation, 
and restrained for purposes of purification, the loss will be 26 
HEALTH, LUNACY, AND CHARITY. [Jan. 
REPORT FROM THE MILLBURY TOWN COMMITTEE. 
much greater. We would urge the necessity of providing 
some means to make good this loss. And we respectfully 
ask that, should your Board report to the Legislature a plan 
to prevent the pollution of the river, they will also report 
that by means of additional storage basins, to be used for this 
purpose, the city should make good the consequent loss of 
water. For loss of water heretofore diverted from the Black- 
stone River, no recompense has been made by the city to 
mill-owners below the mouth of the sewer. 
Respectfully submitted. 
GEORGE A. FLAGG, 
C. D. MORSE, 
OSGOOD H. WATERS, 
Committee of the Town of Millbury. ALL LINES IN BROWN SHOW PROPOSED 
PLAN OF SEWAGE DISPOSAL 
PROPOSED PLAN 
FOR 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL 
A T 
WORCESTER, MASS. 
NOTE : WH EREVER THE WORD OSIER" 
OCCURS, READ "WILLOW” PROPOSED PLAN. EQR SEPARA TjNG THE. DRY WEA THER FLOW 
FROM STORMWATER IN THE MAIN SEWER AT 
WORCESTER. MASS. 
CROSS SECTION PE PORTION OF SEWER B ETW f 
OUTLET A N D CA M BRI DgFTct 
CROSS SECTION OF PORTION OF SEWER 
BETWEEN CAM B R / OGE ST AND B.&A.R.R. 
CROSS SECTION OF PORTION OF SEWER 
BETWEEN B X A. R R. AMD HEAD OF SEWER 1882.] THE SEWAGE OF WORCESTER. 
A PROJECT FOR THE PURIFICATION OF SEWAGE. 
III. —A PROJECT FOR THE PURIFICATION OF 
THE SEWAGE OF WORCESTER. 
PREPARED FOR THE TOWN OF MILLBURY BY 
GEORGE E. WARING, Jun. 
General Statement. 
As I understand the problem now presented to the town 
of Millbury, it is to suggest some practicable plan by which 
the city of Worcester may withhold from the Blackstone 
River the waste organic matters produced by its population 
and its industries, and now polluting that stream. This pol- 
lution is a nuisance to the occupants of the banks of the 
river, and the people of Millbury are especial sufferers there- 
from. 
The right of riparian owners to demand that a water-course 
be maintained in its original state of purity will hardly be 
questioned 5 nor does the duty properly devolve upon them 
°f pointing out the way in which matters defiling it may be 
diverted. This question has, in the present case, however, 
an especial interest for Millbury, because its best chance of 
speedy relief lies in the suggestion of a system of purifica- 
tion, which by its completeness, economy, and simplicity, will 
commend itself to the prudence and good sense of the offend- 
lng community as promising, at an inconsiderable cost, the 
final settlement of a question of serious moment in its future 
relations with its neighbors. 
In attempting to formulate such a system, I have examined 
carefully many of the existing purification works of Eng- 
land and of the continent of Europe, and have studied the 
recent literature of the subject. These investigations have 
seemed to demonstrate, that, for a city circumstanced as 
Worcester is, none of the so-called “ chemical ” processes are 
worth considering; that no form of profitable agricultural 
use, however great its promise, should now be a controlling 
aim; and that the main object — the purification of the foul 28 
HEALTH, LUNACY, AND CHARITY. [Jan. 
PURIFICATION OF THE SEWAGE OF WORCESTER. 
effluent of the sewers of Worcester — may be attained with 
certainty and with ease under the peculiarly favorable con- 
ditions existing. 
In assigning a second place to the very important question 
of profitable utilization, I hasten to assert my full confidence 
in its complete and satisfactory solution, even where the 
conditions are much less favorable than here. My idea is 
only that it still is a question ; that its solution is not yet so 
general and complete that an American city can be asked to 
accept it as final; and that the efficiency and economy of 
the method of purification I am about to recommend is so 
clearly indicated as to make the demand for its adoption in 
the present case, or for the adoption of its equivalent, en- 
tirely reasonable. 
Although, in my opinion, the agricultural aim should not 
be a controlling one, it should surely be kept constantly in 
view, and the work should be so planned that agricultural 
utilization may always be easy. The proposition as it now 
stands relates to the cheap and efficient withholding from the 
Blackstone River of the foul wastes of the city, and this is 
all that the riparian population can exact. The further 
proposition of turning these wastes to profitable use concerns 
us all, but especially the people of Worcester, and it should 
claim our next consideration. 
Taking the case as it stands, we find that the costly and 
elaborate system of sewers of Worcester includes no means 
for the separation of storm-water and sewage, nor is it worth 
while to consider such a separation at present. The main 
sewer has been made to include the channel of Mill Brook, 
— a considerable stream, which is subject to a large increase 
of volume during storms. The separation of the waters of 
this stream during dry weather is easily possible, and such 
separation is necessary to any economical treatment of the 
foul effluent. During storms, the lateral sewers being also 
storm-water sewers, separation is not now practicable, and 
the storm effluent must continue to reach the river with its 
burden of filth. At such times, however, the high state of 
dilution of the sewage, and the increased volume of the river 
itself, may be trusted for a long time to come to keep the 1882.] THE SEWAGE OF WORCESTER. 
29 
PURIFICATION OF THE SEWAGE OF WORCESTER. 
nuisance within bearable proportions. If all future sewers 
of Worcester are built on the principle of absolute separa- 
tion, the relief may remain permanent. 
Without reference to a possible future separation of storm- 
water and sewage in the sewers of the city itself, and accept- 
ing as sufficient the dilution of the whole effluent during 
storms, we must secure the most complete separation possible 
between the ordinary brook flow and the dry-weather dis- 
charge of the lateral sewers, both of which now unite to 
form the current of the main sewer. It has been suggested * 
that the main sewer be furnished with an iron pipe connected 
by lateral brandies with the mouths of the lateral sewers, 
each branch being provided with an automatic gate to throw 
the whole flow into the main sewer itself during storms. 
On further consideration, it is thought that the same result 
might be secured by the construction of two longitudinal 
walls in the main sewer, — one near each side, so as to carry 
off the dry-weather discharge of the sewers independently, and 
to furnish a sufficient centre channel for the ordinary flow of 
the brook. The floors or inverts of the three conduits should 
°f course be carefully formed. During storms the flow 
would rise above the dividing walls, and the several currents 
would become more or less intermingled. The outlets of 
the side channels should be connected with the purification 
works by some means which, while admitting a considerable 
increase of flow during the early stages of a storm, when the 
lateral sewers are being cleansed of their deposits, would, 
with the increase of the flood, be closed to even less than 
their ordinary capacity,—sending nearly all of the storm- 
flow directly to the river. This system would have the 
advantage of economy and simplicity, and it would secure a 
complete separation in the absence of storms. This is all 
that we can now hope to accomplish. 
The dry-weather flow of the city sewers being thus sepa- 
rated from the waters of Mill Brook, and so brought within 
reasonable limits, it should, at the present outlet, be taken 
UP hy a covered conduit and carried to a point suitably dis- 
* A Report upon the Possibility of utilizing the Sewage of Worcester, by 
Phinehas Ball, 1873. 30 
HEALTH, LUNACY, AND CHARITY. [Jan. 
PURIFICATION OF THE SEWAGE OF WORCESTER. 
tant. At this point it should be received in a twin chamber, 
either compartment of which should be large enough to 
cause a deposition of earthy matters only, and not large 
enough to allow the subsidence of any considerable amount 
of organic matter. For the removal of the accumulated 
earth the flow could be diverted from one compartment to 
the other. 
Each chamber should be provided with two screens, one 
with two-inch openings to keep back coarse rubbish, and one 
with one-half inch openings to arrest the remaining solids. 
These solids should be raked out daily and composted, or 
otherwise treated. Experience at the screening-chambers in 
Berlin indicates that the quantity of these matters will be 
trifling. 
After screening, the sewage containing its dissolved and 
suspended impurities undiminished, must be subjected to such 
treatment as will rob it of all these, and deliver it to the 
Blackstone River in a purified condition. 
Purification Works. 
The data at hand — chiefly the survey made for the Board 
of Health — do not furnish a sufficient basis for a precise de- 
tailed scheme. They will serve, however, for the general 
determination of a process which can be adapted in all its 
parts to the exact conditions that further surveys may estab- 
lish. The following, with this reservation, is submitted as 
a practicable scheme for the treatment of the sewage of 
Worcester: — 
We will assume the closed conduit to be continued for a 
distance of about 2,500 feet from the present outlet, mainly 
on the west side of the river, with a fall of 1 in 1,000. From 
its mouth to the beginning of the field-work (a distance of 
500 feet), the conduit should be a wooden trough having a 
fall of 1 in 250, and wide enough to carry the ordinary flow at 
such a fall with a depth of less than one inch. For a further 
short distance the same conduit should continue on a level 
grade, delivering its checked flow into the main trench of 
the purification works. 
The sewage is now cleansed of its coarser objects and of 1882.] THE SEWAGE OF WORCESTER. 
31 
PURIFICATION OF THE SEWAGE OF WORCESTER. 
its sand; its suspended matters have been comminuted by its 
rapid descent down the 500-foot incline, and it has become 
thoroughly aerated. It is, in short, in the best condition for 
the subsequent treatment proposed for it. 
The land to be employed for this treatment includes all 
the area between the Providence and Worcester Railroad and 
the 412-foot contour line (about 130 acres) and two tracts 
of about 15 acres each lying north of this area, on the east 
side of the railroad; making in all about 160 acres more or 
less. The irregular area has been very roughly calculated; 
but precision is of no consequence: the amount of land is 
more than ample. 
The method adopted combines a long, sluggish flow in 
ditches, between banks planted with vigorous, water-loving 
vegetation, and a long exposure to the air; together with a 
broad surface-flow over a series of extensive beds for the final 
purification of so much of the effluent as has not been evap- 
orated during the long exposure over an extended surface, 
and by the leaves of the plants and trees grown. 
In the accompanying sketch, Nos. 1 and 2 are two tracts of 
about 15 acres each, laid off in alternate ditches and banks, 
’the ditches connecting alternately at each end of the field, so 
as to form a continuous channel from the entrance to the 
exit, the banks projecting between its loops from one side of 
the field and from the other by turns. 
Except for a short distance at the beginning, where greater 
velocity is desirable, the ditches are 6 feet wide, and 2 feet 
deep from the water-line. 
The banks are 10 feet wide, and 1.2 feet high from the 
water-line. 
After making allowance for headlands, etc., each acre will 
give about 4 mile of ditch, or about 74 miles for each 15-acre 
tract. 
The sides of the banks — leaving a passage-way in the 
centre — may be planted either with osier-bushes or with 
willow-trees, or with both according to the promise of the 
market. Willows growing under such circumstances would 
produce a heavy burden of valuable pollard-lops, while the 
osier product would be well suited for the finer sorts of basket- 32 
HEALTH, LUNACY, AND CHARITY. [Jan. 
PURIFICATION OF THE SEWAGE OF WORCESTER. 
work. Either plant would exercise a marked purifying effect 
on the stream from which it fed. 
Letters A, B, and C indicate three tracts of about 42 acres 
each, separated from the higher land,—first by a ditch to cut 
off the surface and subsoil water of the hill, next by a bank 
of earth, and next by a continuation of the system of ditches 
in the receiving tracts, being in fact an outlet for their flow. 
This ditch is laid on contour line 412. The tract C is to be 
fed directly from the main ditch. Tracts A and B will re- 
quire separate feeders with a simple adjustment of gates for 
delivering the flow to one or the other as desired. This sys- 
tem of ditches will add from to 2 miles to the distance to 
which the water is to flow before reaching the surface of the 
larger fields; and this extension is to be bordered with wil- 
lows in the same manner as the ditches in the receiving 
tracts. The three areas, A, B, and C, should be separated 
from each other by earth-banks; and an outlet draining ditch 
should run along the side of the railroad to a point of dis- 
charge at the southerly end of area C. 
This land, lying between the contour line 412 and the rail- 
road, is indicated as an intermediate space between the receiv- 
ing ditches and the river. It is a swamp already, and a slight 
addition to its water will not materially alter its condition. 
Where it is not already covered with trees or bushes, it should 
be so covered. In order to secure a tolerably free distribu- 
tion of the flow, each area should be divided into separate 
beds of greater or less width according to the distance from 
the feeding ditch to the draining ditch. This division may 
be effected by a simple rude grading along the lines indicated, 
barely sufficient to prevent the shallow stream from flowing 
from one part to the next. My belief is that the sewage will 
reach this land in a condition quite pure enough for immedi- 
ate admission to the river. But this is a belief only, and I 
can point to no corresponding work in support of it. I have 
therefore deemed it prudent, as it is in all ways unobjectiona- 
ble, to introduce this flow over the surface of a wooded 
swamp, which will unquestionably effect any additional 
purification that may be found necessary. It is only as an 
additional precaution, and because of the absence of actual 1882.] THE SEWAGE OF WORCESTER. 
33 
PURIFICATION OF THE SEWAGE OF WORCESTER. 
experience on the subject, that I have divided this tract into 
three separate areas for an alternation of use daily or weekly, 
or as often as may be found necessary; the interval between 
two uses of any one area being sufficient to secure the oxida- 
tion or destruction by vegetation of any remaining impurity 
of the effluent. 
I am informed that it is not safe to provide for a daily pro- 
duction of sewage by the city of Worcester of less than 
3,000,000 gallons. We may fairly assume that one-third of 
this will be lost by leakage and evaporation on the way, 
leaving 2,000,000 gallons per day to reach the swamp. This 
will be equal to about y of a foot in depth every third day, 
01‘ a total depth of about 200 inches per annum. That this 
is not an excessive amount of clarified and mainly purified 
sewage, to be delivered under such circumstances, may at least 
be inferred from the fact that the filtration ground at Kendal 
(England) has received and purified, since 1874, a depth of 
over 3,000 inches per annum of the very foul sewage of that 
town.* 
Briefly stated, the process of purification here recommended 
is as follows: — 
!• Separate the dry-weather sewage of the city and the 
early storm-washings of the sewers from the water of Mill 
Brook. 
II. Allow the earthy matters of the sewage to subside. 
III. Screen out the coarser objects. 
IV. Expose the screened sewage in a thin sheet to the air 
during its rapid flow for a distance of 500 feet at a sharp 
fall. 
V. Carry it at low velocity for about 10 miles through 
ditches bordered by rank-growing trees or bushes, — alter- 
nating to a second set of ditches as often as necessary, say 
once a week, so as to give each set a dry week for the aeration 
of the subsided matters. 
VI. Spread the resultant effluent over 126 acres of wooded 
swamp land, giving each area two days out of three for aera- 
tion. 
* Rogers Field, in the discussion of C. H. Bazalgette’s paper on the Sewage 
Question. 34 
HEALTH, LUNACY, AND CHARITY. [Jan. 
PURIFICATION OF THE SEWAGE OF WORCESTER. 
Conclusion. 
I believe that the method above described will be entirely 
efficient even for the treatment of more than 3,000,000 gal- 
lons of sewage per day. It will involve the minimum of cost 
for construction and maintenance, and will require the pur- 
chase of only about 165 acres of land of the lowest value. 
It will, I think, fully and permanently meet the demands 
of the riparian population along the Blackstone River, and 
will satisfy, in the cheapest way the legal obligations of the 
city of Worcester. 
Save for the product of the willows or other growth of the 
ditched and of the irrigated tracts, it makes no attempt at 
utilization. But this feature of the case can have only a sec- 
ondary interest for the people of Millbury. How far it is 
right for that people to urge a more useful application of its 
sewage upon the city of Worcester is questionable. 
At the same time it cannot be amiss to call attention to 
this means for securing a return for the inevitable outlay; 
and it is suggested that it would be a matter of small cost 
and of much promise for the city to secure a trial ground on 
the higher-lying garden or farming land near the screening 
chamber to which to force so much of the sewage as could 
with advantage be used on five or ten acres. It is more than 
possible — it is altogether probable — that such a demonstra- 
tion of the value of sewage for agricultural use would lead 
to an extended demand for it during the growing season on 
the part of private cultivators, which would ultimately bring 
a good return, and would absorb a large part of the summer 
flow. 
GEO. E. WARING, Jun. 
Newport, R.I., Dec. 5, 1881. SKFTCH SHOWING DETA//S 
MAUL CABELER AMR FEEDERS. 
MASS. SKETCH SHOWING DF.TAHS or PHR/F/r/jTMU \B£0S 
-WORCESTER. MASS , ] 
/TO Ilf? IT err ta am nm* s—w X 1 /~-Pv_v 1882.] THE SEWAGE OF WORCESTER. 
SPECIAL SANITAKY APPENDIX. 
IV. —ESTIMATE OF COST. 
Worcester, Mass., Dec. 30, 1881. 
C. D. Morse, Esq., Millbury, Mass. 
Dear Sir, — The following estimate is herewith submitted, 
of the cost of the sewage disposal works proposed by Col. 
George E. Waring, jun., for the diversion of the sewage of 
the city of Worcester from the Blackstone River: to wit,— 
Land. 
30 acres purification ground, $150 per acre . . . $4,500 00 
88 acres swamp, at $20 per acre ..... 1,760 00 
42 acres meadow, part cranberry, $100 per acre . . 4,200 00 
Total $10,460 00 
Wooden Conduit. 
500 feet open wooden conduit, 20 feet wide, made of south- 
ern hard pine, floor 1| thick and matched . . . $2,700 00 
The foregoing estimates are ta m from your letter dated 
Dec. 15, 1881. 
2 settling-basins, 300 feet long, 30 feet wi<‘ , built in earth, 
with 4 screens and 5 gates $2,900 00 
Conduit from Outlet of Sewer to Grounds. 
3,000 feet brick conduit, 36 inches in diameter, trenching 
and brick-work, at $4.50 per foot .... $13,500 00 
Extra for crossing river by an iron pipe .... 1,000 00 
Land damage ......... 1,500 00 
Total $16,000 00 
Dividing Conduits in Mill Brook. 
From the outlet of the sewer at Quinsigamond to Cambridge Street, a 
distance of 4,200 feet, a 36-inch cast-iron pipe has been estimated, be- 
cause the Piedmont sewer enters the main canal at the same level as the 
bed of the canal, and it is not practical to carry the sewage to the side of 
the canal. 
641 tons 36-inch pipe, at $45 $28,845 00 
Laying 4,200 feet pipe, at $2 8,400 00 
Extra for connections .... 2 000 00 
5,000 cubic yards concrete in 10,000 feet of Mill Brook, 
north of Cambridge Street, at $10 per cubic yard . 50,000 00 
Extra for irons and connections ... 3 000 00 
Total . $92,245 00 HEALTH, LUNACY, AND CHARITY. [Jan. ’82. 
ESTIMATE OF COST. 
Reparation of Swamp Areas. 
13,000 feet main carrier. 
6,000 feet feeder to area A. 
3,000 feet feeder to area B. 
22,000 feet main carrier and feeder. 
13.500 feet intercepting ditch to carry off surface-water. 
35.500 feet ditches as above, 36,000 cubic yards’ excava- 
tion, at 30 cts $10,800 00 
6,000 feet drain ditch next railroad, at $1.25 . . . 7,500 00 
4,000 feet separating dykes between swamp areas . . 2,000 00 
48 small gates and fixtures 500 00 
3 large gates and fixtures 150 00 
Total $20,950 00 
Purification Areas. 
Grading of 30 acres of ground preparatory for the trench- 
ing, and making 15 miles trenches, estimated to take 
120,000 cubic yards of earth-work, at 35 cts. . . $42,000 00 
Willows 500 00 
Summary. 
Land $10,460 00 
Wooden conduit 2,700 00 
Settling-basins 2,900 00 
Brick conduit ......... 16,000 00 
Dividing conduit in Mill Brook 92,245 00 
Reparation of swamp area 20,950 00 
Purification area 42,000 00 
Willows 500 00 
Add for engineering and contingencies .... 18,745 00 
Total estimated cost $206,500 00 
Respectfully submitted. 
PHINEHAS BALL, 
SIMPSON C. HEALD, 
Civil Engineers. 
AMOS PIKE, 
Contractor.