chemical analyses indicate that the entire city is receiving a safe 

 water supply. 



Sewage Disposal 



The most costly health problem which confronts the city, and 

 upon which the health department has made repeated recom- 

 mendations, is the question of sewage disposal and the exten- 

 sion of the sewers to unsewered parts of the city. At present the 

 sewage is emptied directly into the bay in such a way that it is 

 not carried out of the bay, but settles there. At low tide, the 

 tide lands are left in bad condition, both from the sewage emptied 

 into the bay from sewers and from refuse and privie contents 

 dumped directly into the bay from shacks along the watei^'s edge 

 where there are no sewer connections. A recent epidemic of ty- 

 phoid was traced by the health department to infection carried 

 by flies from the tide lands. This epidemic was confined almost 

 entirely to the bay front. There is no real displacement of water 

 in the bay except in the tidal prism, the upper ten feet of water. 

 Consequently, it is not true that the bay water is continually re- 

 placed by fresh water from the ocean. The water of the bay has 

 changed visibly from a comparatively clean to a filthy condition 

 during the last ten years, according to reports from observing 

 citizens. San Diego has a good sewage department, which is ex- 

 tending the sewage system as rapidly as funds are available. The 

 great need is funds. This department installed in 1913, 38.7 miles 

 of sewers, a fine achievement. However, there are still consider- 

 able portions of the city that have no sewers and where condi- 

 tions are bad. Unsanitary privie vaults are also found. The 

 pri\ie vault is being rapidly eliminated by the Jlealth Department 

 from the sewered parts of the city. The department expects to 

 have this completed by 1915. 



Garbage and Refuse Disposal 



Another important health measure for San Diego is the proper 

 disposal of refuse and garbage. This is much needed and is evi- 

 dent even to the tourist by casual observation, because of the 

 conditions of vacant lots and canyons about the city. At present 

 there is no free city collection of garbage. Citizens must depend 

 upon a private concern to make collections for which they must 

 pay. The result is that in the poorer parts of the city, where 

 garbage collection is most necessary, there is no adequate col- 

 lection, or destruction of the garbage. Residents escape paying 

 for collections in any way that seems easiest to them, burning, 

 burying, or surreptitiously dumping on some one else's property. 

 The city has built an incinerator which is entirely inadequate for 

 meeting the situation for garbage and refuse disposal. At th3 

 present time, the private concern, on which the city depends for 

 its collection and disposal of garbage, feeds the garbage to hogs, 

 on a near-by farm, and burns the refuse in the city incine -ator. 

 Both the collection and this method of disposing of the garbage 

 have been tried and given up years ago by progressive cities 



