Mr. CARR. I am not here to criticize the findings of the commission
in any way. I wish to represent my views and the views of the people
for whom I speak. I wish to say the city of Niagara Falls expended
something like $600,000 for the purpose of treating the impure
waters which came down from Buffalo and points beyond, which water
they had to drink. We have now in the Falls pure water, and we do
not need their water. I want to say that in the construction of our
sewer system something like a million and a half has been expended,
and that while we did not have authority from the United States
Government to construct the sewers as they were constructed they
acquiesced in that construction, and now to spend something like
$800,000 on new construction in order to treat the waters would be
looked upon by the people there as a considerable hardship. I say
that because we have already spent better than $600,000 for the
purpose of treating our waters, in order to make them satisfactory.
One point this gentleman raised seems to me to be good. That is,
that even if all the suggestions which this commission has made
with regard to the treatment of waters in Buffalo, Niagara Falls,
Tonawanda, North Tonawanda La Salle, and other places are carried
out, the waters even then in the Niagara River will not be fit for
consumption. As long as the country tributary to the various small
streams which flow into the Great Lakes and the Niagara River are
used in a more or less direct way for carrying off refuse the waters
of the Niagara River will be contaminated to some extent; and any
city will find it advisable to treat their waters before using them
for drinking purposes.
In regard to that same matter, that is covered very thoroughly by the
report of an investigation in reference to Cincinnati by Harrison P.
Eddy, consulting engineer at Boston. He brought out the fact that the
sewage of Pittsburgh, Liverpool, and all the cities above Cincinnati
was thrown into the Ohio River, and that all those cities which
took their water from the Ohio River found it necessary to treat it
before using for domestic purposes, and the cities below Cincinnati
would find that treatment also necessary before the water was used,
and therefore he felt--and his report bears out his feeling--that a
sewage-treatment plant for Cincinnati was at that time unnecessary,
inasmuch as the waters of the Ohio River were sufficient to dilute
the sewage which the city of Cincinnati threw into the Ohio River
to such an extent that it was not a nuisance and did not give forth
any bad odors. If it is true of Cincinnati, it is a thousand times
more true of Niagara Falls, a city of 50,000 people, and the Niagara
River, whose flow is perhaps five or six times the dry-weather flow
of the Ohio River; and not only that, but through the gorge and
rapids the tendency is to very thoroughly mix the sewage and the
water of Niagara River to such an extent that at no time would there
be any bad odor coming off from the water. I had just two points to
make: One is that the saddling of the cost of this treatment plant,
something like $800,000, on the municipality of Niagara Falls would
be a hardship on the people, and the maintenance of that plant would
be an additional cost to the city, and I feel, as far as the city
of Niagara Falls is concerned, that city being the last city on the
line, it ought to be the last city that would be required by the
United States Government to treat its waters, and especially so on
account of the very thorough mixing of the sewage that comes from
the Niagara Falls in the Niagara River. There is one more point in
that same connection: I believe the chemical plants in Niagara Falls
are discharging into the sewers, which tends to destroy the bacteria
which normally would exist.
Mr. POWELL. Do you purify your water in the city?
Mr. CARR. Yes. We were disgraced by having the highest typhoid death
rate in the United States. At that time our water was not being
treated.