Page:On the Pollution of the Rivers of the Kingdom.djvu/35

 It shows (pages 11 to 13) that the Lea, from which water for the domestic use of a large portion of London is taken, is polluted from Luton (close to its source) to West Ham, near Blackwall (where its mouth is), by all the towns and places on it, by the sewage of Luton, numbering 20,000 inhabitants and upwards, and by its manufacturing refuse (from the preparation of straw plait), composed of large quantities of metallic salts, dye stuffs, brimstone, &c., and in some cases poisonous materials, by the sewage of Hatfield, which, though not discharged directly into the river, the Commissioners say finds its way there, by the sewage of Whitwell and Welwyn, where it is also polluted by arsenic which comes from the wool of sheep when they are washed, and which has been retained in their wool since the previous "dipping," in which process arsenic is used; by the sewage of Hertford, which, though passing into the river in a mitigated form, is a constant source of complaint to Ware, situate below; by the sewage of Ware itself; and by the sewage respectively of Bishopstortford (via a tributary of the Lea), Hoddesdon, Broxbourne, Cheshunt, Waltham Abbey, Waltham Cross, and Enfield-Highway'. All the foregoing pollution taking place above the intake of the East London Water Company. Below the intake, the report states, the Lea receives the sewage (unmitigated by any process whatever) of Enfield, Edmonton, Hornsey, Chipping Barnet, East Barnet, and Hadley, and also of Leyton, Leytonstone, Walthamstow, and West Ham, whose population (West Ham) alone at the last census was 22,337. The report adds that this pollution of sewage was much on the increase, that the river at Old Ford was rendered very PESIFORUS during hot weather by impurities from chemical and other works, and that the district bordering on the tidal portion of the Lea has become a nuisance district, the seat of trades expelled from the better parts of the metropolis.

The Commissioners, after condemning the East London