Just prior to the turn of the century, sporadic attempts were made to improve sanitation. Cities began to pave roads, institute garbage collection, and construct garbage dumps. The early water treatment plants had systems that were inadequately designed and often became clogged with human excrement and animal debris from the street.
It’s difficult to imagine the state of filth that Americans had become accustomed to living in the early 1900s. The 1912 annual report from the New York City Health Department included,
“… the removal of 20,000 dead horses, mules, donkeys and cattle from the streets in addition to nearly half a million smaller animals such as pigs, hogs, calves, and sheep, which amounted to disposal of more than 5 million pounds of spoiled poultry, fish, pork and beef which eventually ended up in the municipal water supplies.”
It’s no wonder that the report also highlighted the sheer volume of complaints – over 343,000 in total – about the foul smell due to poor ventilation and unlicenced manure dumps. (source: pg. 11).
In 1872, the introduction of water filtration in the US was a significant step towards improving public health. Initially aimed at addressing discolouration and removing bad taste and foul odour, filtration soon proved to be a game-changer. It not only eliminated turbidity, foul colour and nearly 99% of the swarming bacteria but also set a new standard for the “quality” of treated water.
However, when outbreaks continued to occur, chemists experimented with several disinfecting methods, including boiling, ultraviolet rays, ozone, copper, silver and chlorine. However, cost considerations and ease of use produced a clear winner: chlorine.
First used in the paper and textile industries, calcium hypochlorite, a stable, white solid that contains 65% available chlorine and dissolves easily in water, was cheap, readily available and easy to use on a large scale. It was already being used to clean the water in the Chicago Stockyards.
Jersey City, New Jersey, was the first urban city to use chlorine to clean up its water. In 1899, the city contracted to build a dam, a reservoir and a pipeline to deliver water to the city from the Rockaway River, 23 miles away. When it was completed, city officials were not pleased with the outcome. At certain times of the year, sewage water polluted the reservoir and the city water. A lawsuit was filed on the grounds that the water was not “pure and wholesome” as was required by the contract. The construction company was forced to remove the sources of contamination and build a new watershed area. Once completed, the City filed another lawsuit, baulking at the steep price tag, equivalent to more than $175 million in today’s dollars.
Read more: Dr. Sherri Tenpenny: Clean water saved the world not vaccination
