TRADE EFFLUENTS 347 



" Every sanitary or other local authority having sewers under 

 their control shall give facilities for enabling manufacturers 

 within their districts to carry the liquids proceeding from their 

 factories or manufacturing processes into such sewers." 



But the efficiency of this section is practically neutralized by 

 the ensuing provisos : — 



'* Provided that this section shall not extend to compel any 

 sanitary or other local authority to admit into their sewers any 

 liquid which would prejudicially affect such sewers or the dis- 

 posal by sale, application to land, or otherwise, of the sewage 

 matter conveyed along such sewers, or would from its tempera- 

 ture or otherwise be injurious from a sanitary point of 

 view. 



'* Provided also that no sanitary authority be required to give 

 such facilities as aforesaid, where the sewers of such authority 

 are only sufficient for the requirements of their district, nor 

 where such facilities would interfere with any order of any 

 court of competent jurisdiction respecting the sewage of such 

 authority." 



Local Acts have in some cases accentuated these provisos, 

 and actions have been successful in prohibiting trade wastes 

 from gas-works and factories, when it was proved that such dis- 

 charges interfered with the treatment of the sewage at the out- 

 fall. Thus, at present, local authorities are not generally bound 

 to provide such sewers as may be necessary to carry off all the 

 trade effluents and liquid refuse coming from manufactories, 

 but only to provide for sewage in the ordinary sense of the term, 

 including "water produced in the ordinary course of domestic 

 management,'' and surface water. 



The Commission reported as follows (3rd Report, p. xvii) : — 



" Purification of trade effluents by the local authority is, in 

 the great majority of cases, practicable ; purification by the 

 manufacturer is in some cases difficult, if not impracticable, and 

 would generally be more costly than purification by the local 

 authority. Local authorities, as well as manufacturers, are of 

 opinion that there should be laid upon the local authority a dis- 

 tinct obligation to receive trade effluents. Further advantages 

 which would follow from such a change in the law would be 

 that the average standard of purification which would be reached 

 throughout the country would be higher than if each manufac- 

 turer separately attempted to purify his own effluent, and also 

 that the work of preventing the pollution of rivers would be 



