Sewage disposal : ten years' (now fourteen years) in works of intermittent downward filtration separately and in combination with surface irrigation with notes on the practice and results of sewage farming / by J. Bailey-Denton.

John Bailey Denton

Date:: 1885

Credit: Sewage disposal : ten years' (now fourteen years) in works of intermittent downward filtration separately and in combination with surface irrigation with notes on the practice and results of sewage farming / by J. Bailey-Denton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$Earlsdon, population IjOCXD. Acreage used, Radford, population 600. slowly or quickly, according to the rate of influx,—and, as soon as it is full, the automatic discharge will be repeated, and the liquid can be applied either to the same area of land, or to another, as desired. The coarser matters floating in the sewage are intercepted in a separate chamber, called the intercepting chamber, the finer particles being carried forward with the liquid through the strainer into the tank. If it be desired to effect a precipitation of these finer particles, the space in the Meter-tank below the mouth of the outlet is increased in depth, so as to form a receptacle for any amount of deposit which it may be determined to precipitate. In such case the space above the mouth of the outlet will be occupied by clarified liquid, to be discharged on to land automatically as already described, while the space below will serve as a receptacle for the deposit, means, in some cases, being provided by a duplicate tank for draining off the liquid, so as to allow of the consolidation of the deposit for removal. These Regulator Tanks are duplicated or not, according to the quantity of sewage under treatment and the use to which the precipitated matter is to be applied. Wliere the quantity of deposit is trifling, it can be flushed out periodically without consolidation, and applied directly to the land. The quantity of land purchased by the Sanitary Authority for Earls- don, which consists of clay of the New Red Sandstone intermixed with sand and gravel, was 3|- acres, of which rather less than 2 acres were prepared for Intermittent Filtration, while the rest remains in an unprepared condition for sewage appropriation as required. The two acres have been in use for sewage cleansing since 1875, discharging an effluent of a superior character during the whole of that time. The whole of the land (3^ acres) is let for ;^'io a year, and although such a return in itself is insignificant the advantage is really con- siderable, inasmuch as the tenant relieves the Local Authority from all current outlay as well as all trouble in the matter. In the case of Radford, Intermittent Filtration on a less area was adopted by the same Authority in 1879, ^fter the success at Earlsdon had been assured. Here 2\ acres were purchased, while if acres were utilised for filtration. The land (2^ acres)is now let for JT,'] los. a-year, the tenant taking upon himself the distribution of the sewage. In both instances the land utilised is not far from habitations, yet no objection has been raised on the ground of nuisance.$