82 J. HOPKINSON THE CHADWELL SPRFNG 



amount of water taken from the valley of the Lea by 14 million 

 gallons a day. This is the increase from wells and springs, and, 

 as the springs are yielding less, the draught upon our underground 

 reservoir of saturated chalk by means of wells must have increased 

 to a greater extent than this. During the 20 years 1872 to 1891 

 the New Eiver Company, gradually increasing their take, drew 

 fi'om wells and springs in the Lea Valley an average quantity of 

 6,223,800 gallons per diem, and during the four years 1892 to 

 1895, still increasing, an average of 14,151,718 gallons per diem. 

 Very much the greatest increase has therefore taken place during 

 the last four of these 24 years, and I think there can be no room 

 for doubt that the 5 or 6 thousand million gallons of water per 

 annum which the New River Company is now drawing from the 

 Chalk of the Lea Valley has had a material influence in bringing 

 about a scarcity of water in this valley. 



That this would be the result of excessive pumping from the 

 Chalk was foreseen thirty years ago. In the report of the Royal 

 Commission on Water Supply of 1867-68, generally known as the 

 Duke of Richmond's Commission, the following words occur : — 

 " We do not agree with those who expect to get an almost 

 unlimited increase of quantity of water by simply tapping the 

 natural reservoirs in the chalk, for the supply to them must 

 obviously be limited by the amount of rainfall. Moreover, as the 

 water which penetrates into the reservoirs, raising the water line 

 more or less above the level of the adjoining valleys, ultimately in 

 greater part finds its way by springs into streams at the lower level 

 of the district, any water drawn from the store by artificial means 

 will most probably be at the expense of those streams. If this be 

 true, it follows that any water obtained by tapping the chalk 

 reservoirs that feed either the River Lea or the Thames above 

 Hampton, would only pro tanto diminish these streams, and would 

 therefore be little or nothing gained to the general supply." This 

 view has been urged on more than one occasion by Sir John Evans, 

 and so recently as the 31st of last August he wrote a letter to 

 'The Times' in which he said that "if the pumping is excessive, 

 the natural courses through which the springs would rise into the 

 stream will be converted into channels by which the water of 

 the stream will be conveyed by gravitation into the wells." When 

 this was written, the very thing which he predicted was, unknown 

 to him, actually occurring at the Chadwell Spring. An immense 

 expense has therefore been incurred by the New River Company 

 to dry their own springs and deplete the River Lea from which 

 they principally obtain their supply, and in so doing they have 

 deprived the East London Company of their usual river supply, 

 as well as themselves, with a result which is well known. 



The lesson to us here is that we should endeavour to prevent, by 

 all means in our power, the same thing happening in the valley of 

 the Colne. We may then again see the Bourne flowing after 

 there has been no more rainfall than has caused it to flow hitherto. 



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