1. History of the Problem. In our survey of ten years ago it was pointed out that the discharge into New Haven Harbor of the untreated sewage of the city not only created highly offensive conditions but also constituted a distinct menace to the public Health. We cited the results and conclusions of the study made by the U. S. Public Health Service in 1916 and recommended that immediate steps should be taken to study the problem of sewage treatment and on the basis of such a study to proceed as promptly as possible to the installation of purification works; and that until such treatment had been accomplished, the taking of shellfish from New Haven harbor and bathing in the more polluted areas of the harbor should be prohibited.

The recommendation for a study of the sewage treatment problem was at once adopted. An experiment station was established at the East Street outfall and studies were conducted there during 1917 and 1918 under the direction of a joint Citizens' and Aldermanic Committee* which led to a report made in the latter year. This report confirmed and strengthened the conviction that sewage treatment was an urgent necessity and led to the conclusion that sedimentation and disinfection were the treatment processes indicated, and that it would be best to plan for four treatment plants in the vicinity of the present outfalls. A particular type of sedimentation and disinfection was recommended as probably most economical, and it was urged that detailed plans and estimates for the East Street plant should be at once prepared and the installation completed as soon as possible.

*C. E. A. Winslow, Chairman, S. E. Barney, A. B. Hill, J. W. Murphy, E. S. Nelson, H. B. Sargent.

After this report was made, no further action was taken by the city for a period of seven years, while the harbor continued to become more and more polluted although the Health Department repeatedly called attention to the importance of cleaning up its waters. In September, 1925, City Engineer E. S. Nettleton made a report on the possibilities of sewage treatment, and in March, 1926, Mr. George W. Fuller of the firm of Fuller and McClintock of New York, the leading expert on sewage treatment in the United States, was employed to study and report upon the problem. His admirable report, presented December 1, 1926, will be the main basis for our subsequent discussion.

2. The Sewerage System. The sewerage system of New Haven comprises approximately 155 miles of sewers which, except in the Westville district, are designed on the combined plan to take both storm water and domestic sewage. With the exception of the three wards on the eastern shore of the harbor, there are very few streets lacking sewerage facilities. In addition to the discharge from the city proper, the system carries the sewage from a section of Hamden with a population of about 4,500 persons.

Mr. Fuller finds that sewer construction and maintenance has in general been excellent in New Haven. On the other hand, certain of the older sewers (2.5 miles in length are now in need of replacement, and relief sewers (12.3 miles in length) are urgently required to prevent the backfooding of cellars which now occurs after heavy rains in the downtown district. These necessary reconstructions (with some additional storm water regulations) will cost $915,000, and the development of intercepting and trunk sewers and the building of pumping stations for the Eastern Shore District will cost $560,000 more. Mr. Fuller recommends that sewerage in the East Shore wards should be conducted on the separate system and points out that in order to protect the water supplies of the city and to keep its rivers free from pollution similar separate systems of sewers should be developed in the towns of Woodbridge, North Haven, East Haven and Hamden to connect with the New Haven system, under agreements involving reimbursement for the additional expense of transporting and treating the sewage from these outlying communities.

The conditions as to house sewerage in the East Shore and other outlying wards will be discussed in Chapter IX. Considerable extensions of the city sewers in these regions will be necessary in the future.

3. Present System of Sewage Disposal and Resulting Harbor Pollution. The sewers of New Haven discharge into the harbor from five main outfalls at the Boulevard on the West Shore, at Meadow Street and East Street at the head of the harbor and at James Street and Poplar Street in the mouth of the Quinnipiac River. There are 18 storm overflows which discharge at other points and numerous private drains and sewers. The flow from the main outfalls as given by Mr. Fuller is as follows in millions of gallons per day: Boulevard, 5.6, 7ames Street, 0.7, Meadow Street, 4.2, East Street, 9.3, Poplar Street, 0.5. In addition he estimates that 2.8 million gallons enters from private sewers, making a total of 23.1 million gallons per day. This large volume of sewage is discharged in most cases close to the shore, and since New Haven harbor is generally shallow with extensive flats extending from the shore line to the dredged channel, the results of such disposal are peculiarly obnoxious.

Over four billion gallons of sea water enter New Haven harbor from the Sound twice a day on the flood tides, giving a daily theoretical dilution of over 300 parts of sea water to one part of sewage. This would be an ample dilution to maintain satisfactory conditions if mixture were complete. As a matter of fact, however, the sewage does not pass entirely out of the harbor with the ebb tide, but is in large measure pushed back by the succeeding flood, sewage solids ebbing back and forth for days and ultimately being deposited on the harbor floor. As a result, Mr. Fuller finds substantial depletion in the dissolved oxygen of the harbor waters. He describes the conditions as follows: "The discharge of thousands of tons of settleable sewage solids each year has formed accumulations of putrescible matter on the bed of the harbor and its branches, ranging in depth from a few inches to over ten feet. The decomposition of these solids during warm weather exhausts the oxygen naturally contained in the harbor water, interferes with fish life, and causes objectionable odors discernible at considerable distances from the water front. In the relatively shallow inner harbor and the lower stretches of the rivers, where large areas of foul deposits are exposed at low tide, conditions are particularly disgusting to sight and smell, and constitute an additional menace to public Health in that flies may carry infection to nearby markets and homes. Oil sleek on the harbor and rivers, increase of floating solids, and discoloration due to dye works wastes, show the absence of a suitable standard in this branch of municipal cleanliness. The above conditions generally are prejudicia1 to continued development of the city in that they needlessly hazard property values along the water fronts. "

New Haven Harbor was once the site of valuable oyster layings, but studies by Newlands and Ham in 1910, by the U. S. Bureau of Chemistry in 1915, and by the U. S. Public Health Service in 1916 showed that the harbor waters were so heavily polluted as to make the taking of shellfish from it a source of very real danger. The State Department of Health has therefore prohibited the direct marketing of oysters from any part of the harbor above a line drawn from Oyster River Point to Old Light; and more recent studies conducted last summer showed that the pollution had so increased that it has now been found necessary to extend the prohibited area to a dine drawn from Oyster River Point to Morgan's Point.

Most serious of all, perhaps, is the danger to persons using the harbor waters for bathing. In 1926-27 an extensive study of the actual condition of the bathing beach waters of the harbor was made by Mr. David Moxon of the Department of Public Health of the Yale School of Medicine. Samples of water at 11 bathing beaches on the West Shore averaged 949 bacteria (on agar at 20•) and 19 colon bacilli per cubic centimeter; samples at 16 bathing beaches on the East Shore averaged 3,084 bacteria with 14 colon bacilli; samples from 3 beaches in the Quinnipiac River averaged 2,439 bacteria with 68 colon bacilli. The beaches outside of Lighthouse Point were the only ones of acceptable sanitary quality. These figures indicate a highly dangerous degree of pollution, yet all these beaches are extensively used during the summer season, some of them by very large numbers of persons. Ciampolini and Hitchcock analyzed a series of 61 cases of typhoid fever occuring during the summer months of 1921 and 1922, and concluded that most of them were undoubtedly due to bathing in the harbor. The Health Department has repeatedly issued warnings against bathing in the harbor waters and has posted warning signs at various points. The control of such a practice in hot weather is, of course, practically impossible. The height of anomaly is, however, reached in the fact that the Park Department of the city maintains and operates at public expense two public bathing beaches within the prohibited area, one at Fort Hale Park and the other in the Quinnipiac River. The Park Department, acting on the advice of the Health Department, attempted to close these beaches in 1926, but finally yielded to pressure and re-opened them-as public municipal bathing beaches, adorned with Health Department signs indicating that the water was unsafe to bathe in.

It seems obvious that this situation should not be permitted to endure; but whatever attitude the public authorities may take, there will always be more or less unauthorized bathing in the waters of New Haven harbor. The only real remedy is the treatment of the sewage so that the present gross pollution of the harbor may be eliminated.

4. The Fuller Plans for Sewage Treatment. Mr. Fuller agrees with the Citizens' and Aldermanic committee of 1918 in recommending that the sewage of New Haven should be treated by sedimentation and disinfection at four water-front plants, three situated respectively adjacent to the present Boulevard, Meadow Street and East Street outfalls, and the fourth (to care for the James and Poplar Street outfalls) to be located near the northern end of Nathan Hale Park. Changes in the composition of the sewage and progress in the art of sewage treatment during the past ten years lead Mr. Fuller, however, to recommend plain sedimentation, followed by chlorination during the summer months, instead of the combined sedimentation and acid-disinfection process suggested in 1918. This recommendation is eminently wise. The sludge from the sedimentation tanks is to be disposed of at sea; and the total cost of installation and equipment is estimated at $1,525,000.

The program outlined in Mr. Fuller's report is well considered, sound and adequate. It has been approved by the State Department of Health, the State Water Commission, and the Federal authorities concerned. It is of urgent importance that it should be carried out with as little delay as possible.

5. Summary and Recommendations. The present method of discharging the untreated sewage of the city into New Haven harbor converts that harbor, which should be one of the city's greatest assets, into an offense against public decency and a menace to the public Health. It injures property values and forms a constant danger to those who use the harbor waters for bathing during the summer season. The Fuller report outlines a practical and economical program of sewage treatment which will gradually restore the harbor to a state of reasonable purity-a step which seems vitally essential for the Health and prosperity of the city. Until this plan is carried out, every effort should be made to discourage the practice of bathing in the harbor and the maintenance of public municipal bathing beaches in the prohibited areas should be absolutely discontinued. We would therefore urge the following recommendations:

* Mr. Mozon's studies indicate that the Lighthouse Point beaches between Old Light and Morgan's Point are in reasonably safe condition.

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