PARK SANITATION 



895 



nection with our endeavors to keep the streams clean 

 it has been necessary to build what is known as the 

 Des Plaines River Sewage Treatment Works, handling 

 some 55,000 population draining into the Des Plaines 

 River. We further have in process of plan, other works 

 and intercepting sewers to remove the sewage from the 

 Des Plaines River and Salt Creek, which will be built 

 as our finances permit. I will check up the answers to 

 your questions in numerical order: 



1. Persons or municipalities are allowed to empty 

 sewers into the streams of the sanitary district subject 

 to the regulations of the sanitary district and the state. 

 In general, there has been no objection to storm water 

 sewers. Most of the sewers entering, however, are 

 combined. 



2. On the Des Plaines River, the present degree of 

 treatment in the Des Plaines River Works is an acti- 

 vated sludge plant which gives a highly nitrified, clear, 

 stable effluent. On the north branch of the Chicago 

 River there are three small Imhoff and trickling filter 

 plants which give a high grade effluent of like char- 

 acter. In both these streams, the low flow is very 

 small, so that it is necessary not only to retain the 

 settling suspended matter, but also to treat the liquid 

 as well. 



3. Up to date, the Board of Trustees have operated 

 under the policy that treatment of municipal sewage 

 at least was the duty of the sanitary district within its 

 borders. The only cooperation that we have received 

 is from the villages asking assistance. In some cases 

 they have furnished a free site, and in all cases they 

 furnish water. In most cases they bring the sewage to 

 the plant, although where two or more villages are 

 handled together the sanitary district builds the neces- 

 sary intercepting sewer. The cooperation thus result- 

 ing has been largely voluntary, but has come about 

 through the desire of the villages to have intercepting 

 sewers and treatment works. 



4. In general, we have not assisted the other munic- 

 ipalities in financing sewage treatment works, because 

 the sanitary district is the authority empowered to 

 build them. In some cases we have, however, cooper- 

 ated in the construction of a joint sewer which serves 

 as an intercepter, as well as an outlet sewer where two 

 or more municipalities are interested. The proportion 

 of cost under such arrangement is set by a contract 

 based upon the particular case. We have not been 

 interested in any way in building local sewers, and do 

 not contribute toward their cost. 



5. I regret that we are all out of the copies of the 

 statutes under which we operate. We are a municipal 

 corporation with bonding and taxing powers for the 

 purpose of building and operating works to dispose of 

 the sewage of our district, and are empowered to build 

 the necessary intercepting sewers, pumping stations and 

 treatment works for that purpose." 



2. Boston Metropolitan District. Communication 

 from the Boston Chamber of Commerce: 



The metropolitan park system is surrounded by ter- 

 ritory which varies from urban to farm land. Most of 

 the bathing facilities are in ocean reservations, such as 

 Revere Beach and Nantasket Beach. The problem of 

 stream pollution in the metropolitan district is probably 

 not a difficult one because of the extensive metropolitan 

 sewage system. This system is one division in the 

 Metropolitan District Commission, the others being 

 parks and water. Sewage from the district which in- 

 cludes all the townships north and east of Woburn, 

 Lexington, Newton and south to Milton and Quincy is 

 emptied into a trunk sewer and taken far out to sea. 

 Most of the difficulty in stream pollution is probably in 

 the Charles River. A special statute, a copy of which 

 is appended hereto, governs this stream. The provisidns 

 giving the commission general control over stream rtol- 

 lution are also given below: 



Extracts from Chapter 92, General Laws of Mas,sa- 

 chusetts Metropolitan Sewerage, Water and Parks. 

 Section 39 (Prohibiting pollution of Charles River). The 

 commission may make rules and regulations prohibiting 

 the pollution of the Charles River within the metro- 

 politan parks district. Any person violating any rule 

 or regulation made hereunder shall be punished by fine 

 not exceeding one thousand dollars. 



Section 42 (Granting towns locations for sewers). The 

 commission may grant to towns locations for common 

 sewers and drains in and across reservations or boule- 

 vards under its care and control. Whenever a drain or 

 sewer is laid in locations so granted, the board of town 

 officers respectively authorized to levy and collect 

 assessments for the laying of drains and sewers in such 

 town shall have the same power to levy and collect 

 assessments for drains and sewers laid in said reserva- 

 tions or boulevards as is given to them by law in the 

 case of drains and sewers laid in the public ways of 

 such town; provided, that no such assessment shall be 

 levied upon any lands belonging to the commonwealth. 



Section 76 (Prevention of pollution of Charles River 

 basin). The commission may order the removal of all 

 sewage and other polluting matter or factory waste as 

 a common nuisance from the Charles River and its 

 tributaries below Waltham and from the Charles River 

 basin; and no sewer, drain or overflow or other outlet 

 for factory or house drainage or for any other drainage 

 shall hereafter be connected with said basin or the river 

 below Waltham without the approval of the commission. 



3. Bronx River Parkway, New York City and West- 

 chester County, New York. 



In 1907 the legislature of New York State authorized 

 the appointment of the Bronx Parkway Commissionfor 

 the purpose of preserving the waters of the Bronx River 

 from pollution, creating a reservation, of the lands on 



