171] FAUNA OF BIG VERMILION RIVER—BAKER 73 
the sewer outlet of the Champaign system is situated on the Salt Fork 
about a mile below the Urbana outlet. There are two systems for each 
city, one for domestic wastes and the other for the care of storm water, 
the sanitary sewage. Septic tanks were installed with the systems, about 
the year 1894, to reduce the amount of putrescible matter, but at the pres- 
ent time the sewage receives little treatment and practically enters the 
Salt Fork in a crude condition.* The population in 1914 was estimated to 
be 13,750 for Champaign, and 9,252 for Urbana, or a total population of 
about 23,000 for the Twin Cities. At the present time, 1920, six years later, 
the increase has probably brought the total up to nearly 30,000. The 
sewage system, therefore, provides disposal for this population, and is all 
discharged into the waters of the Salt Fork. It is estimated by G. C. Haber- 
meyer, that the total flow of sewage from the Urbana plant is about 500,000 
gallons per day and from the Champaign plant about 1,000,000 gallons 
per day.** 
The flow of the Salt Fork below the Champaign sewage disposal plant 
is 3,000,000 gallons per day. These figures indicate that the sewage forms 
one-half of the total water flowing down the Salt Fork. These data were 
taken in October, when the stream was low, and may be a trifle too high 
for those periods when there is a rise of water following a period of rainy 
weather. During a greater part of the year, however, the water is low and 
these figures will be approximately correct. The fresh water added to 
the sewage is derived from the stream north of Urbana which contributes 
250,000 gallons per day, and the Boneyard, which adds 1,500,000 gallons 
per day, about two-thirds being clear water. ‘In October, 1917, the 
flow in the Boneyard below the Urbana tank was about one-third sewage 
and probably contained considerable other waste and sewage discharged 
above the Urbana sewage outlet. The flow in Salt Fork below the Cham- 
paign sewer outlet was probably one-half sewage.” 
H. E. Babbitt,*** thus describes the condition at the Champaign dispo- 
sal plant at this date. ““The appearance of the effluent from the Champaign 
septic tank is that of fresh sewage, having the typical color of sewage,-and 
carrying fecal matter and paper. The appearance of the Salt Fork at the 
point of entrance of the sewage from the tank is good. It is about twenty 
* New septic tanks have been installed at the Champaign sewage disposal plant on Salt 
Fork and a portion of the sewage is well treated before it enters the canal. 
** Data for the sewage conditions, stream flow, chemical analyses, etc.,of the Salt Fork are 
taken from an unpublished report of G. C. Habermeyer (assisted by S. D. Kirkpatrick, assis- 
tant chemist, and J. F. Schellbach, engineer) made for the State Water Survey Division of 
the Department of Registration and Education, of Illinois, and here used by permission of the 
late Chief of the Division, Dr. Edward Bartow. 
*** From unpublished Report on the Champaign-Urbana Water Works System, prepared 
June 23, 1914. Extracts here published by permission of Edward Bartow. 
