METROPOLITAN DRAINAGE, AND THE GERMAN OCEAN.
Jun as the members of the Metropolitan Board of Works are converging upon a practical arrangement for carrying out the drainage of the Metropolis according to their constituent act, their course is crossed by a magnificent proposal for a grand work i more effective, more beneficial to the Metropolis, and less injurious to the neighbourhood, than any which had been proposed previously. At present, however, it is but an engineering dream ; and the difficulty at the moment appears to be the discovery of any power to execute the project. A specific duty is handed over to the Board ; that body is not empowered to consider the whole subject of Metropolitan drainage, or the conditions that are desirable, but it is limited to arranging a plan for fulfilling specific conditions.
It is compelled to carry the drainage of the Metropolis beyond" the Metropolitan boundary," then to discharge it into the river
Thames. The Board has had before it various plans, some of which were supposed to fulfil this requirement. The scheme for discharging the main drains into the Thames at point A, termi- nated within the Metropolitan boundary ; and the Chief Commis- sioner of Public Works necessarily rejected it. The Board then favoured a scheme of discharging at point B, about three-quarters of a mile below the boundary ; still leaving the sewage to besent back by the tide within the forbidden limit. This also was counter to the evident intention of the act, and the Chief Com- missioner again rejected it. He indicated a third point, yet lower. It would require about one mile of additional earthworks, but it would secure two miles in the river bend and would effec- tually fulfil the requirements of the act. Within that point the Metropolitan Board of Works cannot place the mouth of their drains, but they are not compelled to go any lowers The places which are immediately near the points selected take alarm. There is something frightful in the prospect of being subjected to the discharge of the main-drainage of the Me- tropolis full in the face of one's own residence ! Erith, Graves- end, and all the communities of the neighbourhood, are up in arms ; the Metropolitan Board of Works and the Chief Commis- sioner of Public Works are visited with remonstrances, plans, and suggestions for carrying the sewage a little further down, or convey- ing it straight away to the German Ocean. It is assumed that the discharge of the whole mass conveyed from the Metropolis at a parti- cular point in the river will render the water more turbid, more pol- luted, and more noxious than it is at present. There are doubts, however, as to this result. If indeed we were beginning afresh from the beginning, there might be a difference between the discharge of innumerable drains into the river at various points and the emptying of one or two main streams at particular parts,—the pollution would be more concentrated, and more viru- lent in the latter case ; but not so after the discharge has conti- nued for a long period. When the waters of the river have be- come completely saturated, it scarcely matters whether the drains are one or thousands ; you cannot have worse than satura- tion. On the contrary, there are reasons for supposing that un-
der the new arrangement the pollution would be even at the point of entrance. The discharge would be taken where the body of water is much greater than it is above, and the mass would at once be more diluted. The drain would enter into the
river at its bed, and at a deep part ; the outlet wo-uld only be open at favourable periods of the tide ; and it is probable that the body
of water at that part would be less completely mingled with the refuse than if it had been poured in through various channels higher up. At a point very little above the entrance of the drain, the river would practically be almost pure, and the upper portion would thus be rescued from pollution, without a greater infliction upon the lower part. It is natural that Erith, Gravesend, and the other suburban retreats, should be offended at this approxi- mate association with the Metropolitan drainage ; but perhaps the practical nuisance would not be very serious—not worse than the present infliction ; and at all events, in• out the most re- cent proposal, the Metropolitan Board of orks would be fulfil- ling the duty assigned to them in the act of Parliament.
If the work can be done better, however, why should it not be so done ? if the Metropolis can be completely freed from its nuisance without throwing it upon any other part whatsoever, why should not the work be rendered thoroughly effectual ? While we are about it, we may as well make the improvement perfect ; and a design has been laid before the Board which promises a practical perfection. Sir Morton Peto is too eminent in his line for any plan of his to be thrown into the waste basket, even if it should not come strictly 'within the letter of the instructions conveyed by Parliament. Briefly, described, the plan is this. He would concentrate all the drainage of the Metropolis in a reservoir at West Ham ; from this reservoir he would pump it up to a high level, and would then convey. it by a main drain nearly in a straight line to the German Ocean. The fall of water in the channel would vary between five • inches and eight inches per mile the velocity would be between two and three feet per second, the quicker speed being attained. during eight out of every twelve hours ' • the force of the fall would be sufficient to move even paving-stones. The sewage would be conveyed quite away to a distant shore, where there is no neighbourhood to injure, no engineering difficulty to encounter. The works between West Ham and the sea would cost-about 1,600,0001. Roughly stated, it may be said that the plan supposes an additional work which would cost that sum. Is the Metropolis bound to pay it? Cer- tainly not under the existing act. Would Parliament furnish the money ? The House of Commons does not show any disposition at present to grant a million or a million and a half without ab- solute necessity ; and there is no absolute necessity to do more than is laid down in the latest plan adopted by the Metropolitan Board of Works.
The new project, however, would involve other advantages be- sides the absolute clearance of refuse from the Metropolis without throwing it upon any other neighbourhood. The great drain would afford the means of draining off a large district of wet and marshy land, and would thus most probably secure an enormous increase to the value of the whole district with reference to agri- culture and rental. Nay, by very simple arrangements, it would be possible to render the drainage of the Metropolis subservient to the manuring of this district in branches from the great trunk- drain ; and thus, in connexion with the purification of the Metro- polis, the work might be made effectual at once for the draining and manuring of the whole district between West Ham and the sea. It is probable that the Metropolitan Board of Works would contribute towards the plan any outlay which might be saved upon the present scheme. The distance to West Ham is not so great as to Erith ; perhaps some half a million might be saved by the comparative shortness of the work ; and this amount the Board might hand over to the contractor for executing the grand work. There would still be a million deficient. Parliament has before now made advances for agricultural improvement, re- payable in twenty years, at six and a half per cent. The land- owners of the district between West Ham and the sea would de- rive a great benefit from the scheme : would they beifrepared to join in a petition to Parliament for the execution of the work ? Would they guarantee the repayment of the sums advanced ? would they possess sufficient influence to procure the advance from the House of Commons ? These are questions which do not seem to lie immediately within the purvieu of the Metropolitan Board ; but if there really were any disposition in the district to cooperate with the Metropolis, we should take it for granted that the Minister for Public Works for the time being would not refuse his aid in facilitating the negotiations or the application to Par- liament.
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