Part 10

In trying to ascertain what was the real prolific cause of the fouling of the water supply I tried to decide in my own mind in watching the boats pass by to what extent they were responsible for the contamination of the water supply. I wish you gentlemen could have the privilege of standing with me on my dock some night to see the condition of the water. You would raise your hands in holy horror and say, Is it possible that this is the stuff which the people are obliged to drink? The rays of light penetrate the water and show the impurities in it. There are no words that can express the foul condition of that water, and we get our drinking water from that source.

Mr. TAWNEY. What is the relation of the boat traffic on the river to this pollution?

Mr. SLOMAN. With regard to the sewage?

Mr. TAWNEY. Yes.

Mr. SLOMAN. I believe that at least a quarter if not a third of the foul matter that is deposited in the river comes from the vessels. And I want to say to you that I have never been able to understand how the rights of human life ought to be set to one side for the rights of property, what earthly justification there is for allowing these vessels to deposit their foul matter in the river when they could take care of it by incinerating plants. They may say it would put them to some inconvenience. What of it? I think we have a right to have health considered first. Not only that, but take the condition that existed 25 years ago. The water of the Detroit River was considered the finest in the world for drinking purposes. The city was comparatively small as considered to its population of to-day; the tonnage was small as compared with what it is to-day; but with the increase of this tonnage and the increase of population, together with the fact that vessels have been built in the past few years of heavy draft, it has been utterly impossible for nature to take care of what it would ordinarily take care of in the matter of pollution.

It is usually said that water purifies itself every 7 miles. These vessels coming along there churn that water up above the intake pipe and the northeast winds blow that stuff over. Those boats with big drafts churn up that stuff all the way up to the ship canal, and with the wind blowing from the northeast, it riles over the city supply intake.

Mr. MIGNAULT. Where is your property?

Mr. SLOMAN. At Sans Souci, which is on Harrisons Island, about 3 miles southeast of Algonac, on the south channel of the St. Clair River.

Mr. MIGNAULT. How far from Sarnia?

Mr. SLOMAN. It is about midway between Detroit and Sarnia, and Sarnia is directly opposite Port Huron.

Mr. MIGNAULT. Then, it would be about halfway between Sarnia or Port Huron and Detroit?

Mr. SLOMAN. Approximately.

Mr. MIGNAULT. Of course, the pollution which you mentioned comes from above.

Mr. SLOMAN. It comes from above. At Algonac the oil apparently does not go down the north channel, but goes down the south channel. When an east wind is blowing it can be plainly seen on the shore. For a week no woman could attempt to step on that shore without ruining her dress.

Mr. MIGNAULT. Did I understand you to say that your property is on an island?

Mr. SLOMAN. It is on Harrisons Island; directly opposite is Squirrel Island, and directly opposite that is Warpool Island.

Mr. MIGNAULT. Your property is on the American side?

Mr. SLOMAN. It is on the American side.

Mr. POWELL. Did you make any inquiries as to how the Imperial Oil Co. allowed this stuff to escape?

Mr. SLOMAN. No; I did not get up there. It has not been my privilege to get up there since this occurrence, but I at once got in touch with the authorities that I thought would handle that situation.

Mr. POWELL. It may have been due to carelessness.

Mr. SLOMAN. It looked as though they had let go what might be considered a tremendous quantity of oil. No ordinary quantity could have made a showing such as that did.

Mr. MIGNAULT. How often has it happened?

Mr. SLOMAN. In different forms it has been going on for four or five years. It has come down two dozen times--not in that quantity, but the water would show traces of oil below the surface and on the surface.

Mr. MIGNAULT. Do you mean that it has happened two dozen times in a year?

Mr. SLOMAN. No; during that period of the past four or five years. But it is not only that; when an east wind blows we get on our shore the garbage and foul matter that comes from the vessels. This year it is particularly hard on us because there never were so many vessels going up and down the river as there are to-day.

Mr. POWELL. How long ago since this happened?

Mr. SLOMAN. Two weeks ago last Saturday.

Mr. POWELL. Coming up the bay this morning, at this end of the Livingstone Channel, just about the Limekiln Reef, there was a lot of stuff on the surface that looked like raw sewage.

Mr. SLOMAN. Well, there probably was; but the Limekiln crosses below the city of Detroit, while this was above.

Just a thing or two more I would like to say in that connection. As I say, I was born and brought up here in the city of Detroit, and I will give way to no one in the matter of loyalty to the city of my birth, but Detroit is confronted with a problem that she must absolutely take care of, no matter what the cost is. It is merely a question of time when the water supply will be absolutely unfit for drinking purposes. We are drinking to-day chlorinated water. It was only a matter of a year or two ago when they cleaned out the reservoir of the waterworks, and I would hate to tell you what they found. There were two skeletons among the objects found there and a lot of very foul matter. The middle and wealthier classes are not drinking Detroit water; they are drinking well water, simply because if they use Detroit water they must drink this chlorinated water. The question is whether Detroit ought not to build in the future so as to conserve life rather than property or expense.

The city of Grand Rapids was confronted with a similar condition in 1913. Grand Rapids is a city of about 115,000 inhabitants. They undertook to discharge their sewage into the Grand River, and one of the towns below there filed a bill in the State court for an injunction to restrain the city from letting its sewage go into the river. I would like to call your attention to that case because it is full of facts; it is full of the testimony of the engineers.

Mr. POWELL. The plaintiff’s appeal succeeded?

Mr. SLOMAN. Yes; the injunction was granted, and the city of Grand Rapids was given one year in which to take care of that sewage matter. When it comes to the question of what Detroit should do in the way of purifying its waters, I am not prepared to give any technical information--that is for the engineers--but I do wish to say to you that if you will examine this case you will find testimony of some of the ablest engineers in the State of Michigan as to what ought to be done. If I may be permitted, I would like to call attention to some features of that case.

Mr. POWELL. Give the full citation of the case.

Mr. SLOMAN. The case is reported in One hundred and seventy-fifth Michigan, page 503. The title is Attorney General ex rel., Township of Wyoming _v._ City of Grand Rapids.

Mr. POWELL. That suit was brought on behalf of the Commonwealth?

Mr. SLOMAN. It was brought on behalf of the village of Grandville, which felt the effects of the foul matter that was being deposited in the river. The court in that case said:

This is a proceeding by information in the nature of a bill in equity filed in the name of the attorney general upon the relation of the township of Wyoming, through its township board, its board of health, and its supervisor, and upon the relation of the village of Grandville in said township and certain riparian owners upon Grand River in said township against the city of Grand Rapids, its common council, its board of public works, and board of health, to declare and to abate and restrain the continuance of an alleged public nuisance. The nuisance is claimed to result from acts of the city of Grand Rapids in conveying through artificial means its sewage into the Grand River, which flows down the river and is cast upon the land below that city, and particularly upon those lands which are adjacent to and within the village of Grandville, and there created a public nuisance. It is also claimed that the emptying of sewage into the river so pollutes its waters as to constitute a nuisance in the waters themselves by reason of the odors therefrom and the contamination therefrom.

The city of Grand Rapids is located upon both sides of Grand River: its population in April, 1909, when the bill was filed, was upward of 110,000; its sewage is carried into the Grand River through sewers, which aggregate upward of 171 miles in length, without purification of any character. In addition to this the night soil from the outlying houses which have no sewer connection is collected in barrels and dumped into the Present Street sewer, and flows into the river. The township of Wyoming is located south of the city of Grand Rapids; the river, after passing through the city, flows southerly and westerly between the townships of Wyoming and Walker. On the south bank of the river, at a point where it turns abruptly to the west, and about 7 miles below the city of Grand Rapids, is located the village of Grandville, with about 750 inhabitants. Considerable area in Grandville is low; there is a ridge of high ground along the river bank, which is 5 or 6 feet higher than the low ground behind it.

It appears that the river overflows its banks once or twice a year; at these times of overflow a large area in Grandville is flooded, and the river becomes very much wider than it is ordinarily and the current increases rapidly. As the river goes down and after the water ceases to flow back into the river a pond of about 20 acres is left in the edge of the village, the escape of the water back into the river by flowage being prevented by the higher ground next to the river. The water left in this pond is from 4 to 6 feet deep, and gradually disappears through evaporation and seepage into the soil.

It is the claim of the complainants that the emptying of the large amount of sewage produced in Grand Rapids into the river contaminates its waters and fills them with impurities which are carried down the stream as it flows to, and into, or through the village; that, as the water goes down, the substances and impurities which are in it, due to the sewage, whether visible or invisible, are left upon the surface of the ground, and there decomposition creates such odors as to constitute a public nuisance in the village. The most of the houses in Grandville surround the flooded area, and there are four houses and eight privies within the area covered by water in ordinary flood. There are many more houses and privies covered by the highest water known in Grandville.

Now, you have identically the same situation here that they had. You have the towns below us here of Wyandotte, Trenton, and others that abut on the Detroit River. They occupy the same position with regard to the city of Detroit as did this town of Grandville with regard to the city of Grand Rapids, and, inasmuch as the city of Detroit sooner or later is going to be confronted with the question of whether or not they must take care of the sewage as between those towns and it, just so the question might as well be disposed of by Federal legislation.

Mr. POWELL. In the absence of any special statutes on the part of your State, your common laws are precisely the same as the Canadian common law of Ontario, and the principle is very clear. I do not think there is any necessity of citing any authority on it. Every lower party is entitled to have the water flow to him in its crystal purity.

Mr. SLOMAN. There is no denying that proposition. This case is only interesting, gentlemen, with reference to the fact that it involves the inquiry as to what could or might be done to overcome the difficulty. In that respect it applies here very strongly. That is why I read portions of this authority at this time:

The bill of complaint, among other things, states that the system of sewers in the city of Grand Rapids does not cover the entire city, there being about one-quarter of the inhabitants of said city who do not discharge their refuse, of the character ordinarily discharged into and carried away by sewers, into the sewers of the city, but who discharge and deposit their filthy and unhealthy refuse into vaults and cesspools; that in the past such refuse, night soil, and unhealthy substances have been, and were at the time of filing the bill, collected by scavengers for said city and carried into the country, outside of said city, where the same was buried in deep beds, without creating any nuisance and without injury to the health of the surrounding neighbors; that there was, at the time of the filing of the bill, under contemplation by the said city of Grand Rapids, and its said authorities had recommended and intended and threatened to put into operation, a plan whereby the said refuse and night soil, then collected by its scavengers, would be carried to and emptied into the said Prescott Street sewer in said city; that the authorities had voted and determined to dispose this refuse and night soil, and they were about to commence the emptying of said sewage and night soil into the said sewer and were at the time taking steps, or about to take steps, through the expenditure of public money, for the emptying of said refuse and night soil into the said sewer.

The bill states that the night soil so collected amounted at that time to from 150 to 180 barrels a day, and if emptied into the said sewer would be carried into the Grand River and would greatly add to the pollution and contamination of its waters, and that the same would create a public nuisance in the rendering of the waters of said river injurious to users thereof; and by the overflows of said river and through deposits along the banks thereof of deleterious, unhealthful, and noxious substances and through the creation of noisome and unhealthful odors arising from the waters of said river so contaminated an additional public nuisance would be created; that the township board of health of the township of Wyoming had taken action in the matter, in accordance with the statute, and had published this action, in which it protested against the emptying of sewage and night soil into said sewer, as contemplated by the city, and had declared the same to be a nuisance and a source of filth and cause of sickness in said township, and injurious to the health of the people thereof. * * *

The bill further claims that the use of the waters of said Grand River by the said city in the manner which was then contemplated would be improper, unwarranted, and unlawful, and would constitute a daily menace to the lives, health, and comfort of the persons residing along said river and in the township of Wyoming and in the village of Grandville and would fill the air with noisome and noxious odors and pollute the air in the neighborhood and render it unfit to breathe; and that the said city could satisfactorily and economically dispose of its refuse matter, night soil, and sewage in any other manner or through different methods than were then contemplated, without injury to the health or lives of persons and without creating a public nuisance.

The bill prays that a permanent injunction be granted against the city of Grand Rapids and its said boards, officers, and agencies, restraining and preventing it, or them, from continuing to discharge the sewage which it then discharged into Grand River and requiring it to abate the nuisance which it then maintained in the pollution of the waters of said river. It also prayed that an injunction issue restraining said city and its said officers and agencies from carrying into effect their threatened and contemplated plan of emptying into said sewer the refuse matter and night soil then being collected by the scavengers of said city for the purpose of conveying the same into the Grand River, and that they be restrained and prohibited from taking any action or in any manner ordering the performance of any act on the part of any of its officers or boards having the tendency to carry into effect the said threatened action, which would result in said nuisance.

The court in this case enters very largely into a discussion of the expert testimony that was given with regard to the relative situation of the town, the amount of filth that was deposited in these waters, the extent of the pollution, the size of the city, and the means and ways whereby this pollution might be overcome. It gives the testimony of the experts, and one of them I have particularly in mind was a witness named George S. Pierson.

The witness, George S. Pierson, called by the complainant, testified that he was a civil engineer and had made a specialty of sanitary engineering for 25 or 30 years; that his work in a large measure required the supervision of plants for water purification and installation of septic tanks; that he had supervised sewage purification plants at Hermosa, Cal.; El Paso, Tex.; Marshalltown, Iowa; Fond du Lac, Wis.; Jackson, Durand, Ithaca, Bay View, Charlevoix, and Lake Cora, Mich., and quite a number of smaller installations; that he had visited most of the plants in operation in Massachusetts, including those in Worcester, Amherst, Andover, Gardner, Framingham, Natick, Brockton, Lawrence, and others; that those plants were in successful operation when he visited them; that he had experience in estimating the cost of erection and maintenance of such plants. The witness described modern methods of sewage disposal, including septic tanks, and that the septic tank is almost universally used in this country in the first and even in the final stage of the process; that this accomplishes sufficient purification of the sewage so that it can be emptied into a stream without damage or creating a nuisance; that the septic-tank process is in successful operation in cities the size of Grand Rapids; that the recent tendency had been to relieve streams from pollution by purifying the sewage; that a sewage purification plant of a city the size of Grand Rapids is feasible; that the cost of operation of a septic tank is nominal, only an occasional cleaning, at periods varying from three months to six years; that the water consumption of a city is an indication of the amount of its sewage, because practically the entire water consumption finds its way into the sewers; this may be increased by rains carrying with them the street washings; that in providing a septic tank to ascertain its size we ascertain the daily total flow.

The witness further testified that he had made a general estimate which would be sufficiently large to cover the cost of a sewage-disposal plant for Grand Rapids, and he could positively say the cost would not exceed his estimate; the approximate cost would be $1 per capita; for a city the size of Grand Rapids it would be about $100,000; this is based upon separate septic tanks without the cost of connecting the sewers; that the cost would not vary much whether one or more tanks were used; that if a separate tank were installed at each sewer outlet the cost would be slightly more, probably not more than 25 or 50 per cent; that there is a slight odor from a septic tank, not materially different from the odor of any sewer discharge; if the tank discharges below the water level the odor is masked; the septic tank alone reduces the amount of organic matter in the sewage and the number of disease germs and brings it into such condition that upon discharge it is rapidly purified; that the odor would not last long after the discharge; it would be very much minimized from the sewage being put into the water and the duration of the odor would be less, and it would disappear within a very few hours; that in his judgment the sewage of Grand Rapids in Grand River would not purify itself before it reached Grandville; that unless the stream has a very rapid flow there is immediate sedimentation when sewage is discharged into a watercourse; that it continues until a good part of the solids are lodged on the bottom of the stream; that if there is a considerable sedimentation between Grand Rapids and Grandville the effect of high water would be to dislodge it and carry it on; that the pollution of the stream at that time would be much increased from what it would be if the current did not take up this discharge; that the increased pollution of the water caused by this would be apt to leave deposits at Grandville that would increase the smells.