60 N. J. Mosquito Extermination Association 



Accordingly certain sections of the dykes, which were badly 

 washed, riddled with rat-holes and too low to exclude storm tides, 

 were repaired and raised to an elevation of twelve feet above mean 

 low tide. The existing tide-gates were either repaired or sealed 

 permanently where they were no longer necessary. 



During the course of the season many of the old creeks and 

 dredged channels which formed the main arteries of the drainage 

 system were cleaned and deepened and many miles of the smaller 

 ditches and laterals were cleaned and regraded. Several miles of 

 additional main channels were constructed by means af floating 

 dredges, power excavating machines of various types, and, in some 

 instances, hand labor. Thousands of feet of bottom ditches aver- 

 aging two feet wide and a foot deep were installed in the bottoms 

 of the wide creeks and ditches and thousands of feet of laterals 

 were cut by hand in the marsh areas. 



Five pumping stations were planned ; two in the South Phila- 

 delphia section and three in the territory west of the Schuylkill. 

 The South Philadelphia stations have not yet been installed. Two 

 of the three stations west of the river were already available. The 

 first, the Mingo Creek pumping station, owned and operated by the 

 City of Philadelphia, contained two 36-inch, steam-driven centri- 

 fugal pumps. The effectiveness of this station was later increased 

 by providing a motor drive for one of the pumps to supplement 

 the boilers and by (dredging the main drainage channels serving 

 the surrounding country. The second, a new storm water pump- 

 ing station in the Hog Island shipyard, contained one 30-inch, and 

 one supplementary 8-inch electrically driven, centrifugal pump. The 

 area served by this station was extended by the construction of main 

 drainage ditches leading into the yard from adjacent territory. The 

 third station needed to complete the control of this territory was in- 

 stalled by the Pennsylvania Department of Health, and contains 

 a 20-inch, motor driven, centrifugal pump. These three stations, one 

 located on the Schuylkill River at the eastern end of the district, 

 one on the Delaware to the south, and one on Darby Creek at the 

 western end of the area, have been interconnected by means of 

 newly dredged main drainage channels and by redredging the exist- 

 ing channels. They have a combined rated capacity of approxi- 

 mately 125,000 gallons per minute, or eighteen million gallons in 

 twenty-four hours, sufficient to handle the greatest volume of storm 



