Proceedings of Seventh Annual Meeting ioi 



the mowing of hundreds of acres to remove the dense aquatic growth 

 that made effective inspections and oiHng impossible. 



While it was not difficult to determine in a general way the steps 

 necessary to control the situation, to carry the plans into effect in the 

 face of the many difficulties that existed was an entirely different 

 matter. The amount of absolutely essential work, both permanent 

 and temporary, including the construction of several pumping sta- 

 tions, the dredging of miles of old and new channels, the cutting of 

 many thousands of feet of lateral and bottom ditches, the repair of 

 dikes and tide-gates, the cleaning of hundreds of thousands of feet 

 of old water-courses and ditches, the oiling of millions of square 

 yards of water surface coupled with the shortage of labor and the 

 other handicaps due to war conditions, made the task of giving im- 

 mediate protection to the many vital industries an almost hopeless 

 one. It was only by the most indefatigable effort that the undertak- 

 ing was brought to a successful conclusion. 



The problems involved in the control of this territory during the 

 second year were greatly simplified by the thorough overhauling 

 given the entire drainage system in 1918 and by the completion in 

 that year of the major portion of the construction work. A com- 

 parison of the $217,000 spent in 1918, of which over one-half was 

 absorbed by permanent construction, with the $46,000 spent in 1919, 

 is significant. It is probable that with the installation of a fourth 

 pumping station to relieve the South Philadelphia area of the un- 

 satisfactory conditions caused by present dependence upon tide- 

 gates and with a normal rainfall, this district can be kept under 

 control at a cost not exceeding $35,000 a year, an insignificant sum 

 when compared with the value of the land reclaimed, the importance 

 of the industries and the density of the population affected. 



Probably the point of greatest interest in the work during the 

 past year is the effect of the heavy rains of July and August. Un- 

 doubtedly this abnormal precipitation presented unusual difficulties 

 in the conduct of the work in the state of New Jersey as well as in 

 Pennsylvania, for mosquitoes, from all accounts, were not noted 

 entirely by their absence even in the counties where the work is well 

 established. But conditions in a terrain in which the drainage is 

 entirely by gravity and finds its way out of the territory in question 

 with more or less rapidity, can scarcely be compared with the situa- 

 tion that follows upon an abnormal precipitation in territory lying 

 below high tide and largely dependent upon pumps for its drainage. 



