water supply and sewage disposal in a small community

Water Supply and Sewage Disposal in a Small CommunityAuthor(s): WILLIAM H. CRANDALLSource: Canadian Journal of Public Health / Revue Canadienne de Sante'e Publique, Vol. 54, No.7 (JULY 1963), pp. 317-321Published by: Canadian Public Health AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41983103 .

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Water Supply and Sewage Disposal in a

Small Community1

WILLIAM H. CRANDALL,2 P.Eng., M.E.I.C.

THERE munities has regarding

been a most water

encouraging and sewage

improvement problems in

in the

the Atlantic

attitude provinces of com-

munities regarding water and sewage problems in the Atlantic provinces area, particularly during the past six to eight years. There is now an awareness in communities of the need and desirability of proper water and sewage services and, in most cases, a pronounced eagerness to proceed with capital works programs of this nature. I will attempt to outline the procedure that is followed once a community approves of a project, and also to touch briefly on mutual problems and areas of co-operation.

Possibly the most significant factor causing this improvement has been the efforts of the provincial departments of health. The sanitation surveys that have been carried out in many communities, by these departments, have indicated a degree of pollution far in excess of acceptable limits. Upon learning the results of these surveys, most communities will take remedial action if financial resources are available. The health departments have provided an invaluable service by keeping their respective legislatures informed, through their ministers, of the need for revising legislation to keep the health program in step with changing conditions.

Federal and Provincial Assistance Credit must be given to the federal government for its recent assistance

program. Some misunderstanding exists as to the scope of this program which has occasioned disappointment in some communities. The assistance program is substantial and represents a saving in excess of 20% for sewage treatment works.

Provincial legislatures have also attempted to encourage this program by both direct and indirect means. New Brunswick has initiated an assistance program similar to that of the Ontario Water Resources Commission. The assistance program is limited to sewage treatment works and represents in excess of 40% of the actual cost. The federal assistance and the New Brunswick provincial assistance programs will mean a saving approaching 70% for a community.

The provinces of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island provide assistance indirectly in most cases. The public utility boards, in both provinces, provide valuable service by policing the technical and financial proposals and are thus able to prevent the waste of public monies and to maintain quality of design and construction. The guaranteeing of bonds by the provincial governments enables communities to sell their debentures at a lower interest rate with the consequent saving. Credit must be given to the provincial governments for maintaining

Presented at the tenth annual meeting of the New Brunswick-Prince Edward Island Branch, Canadian Public Health Association, held in Fredericton, May 2-4, 1962.

2W. H. Crandall & Associates, Consulting Engineers, P.O. Box 36, Moncton, N.B. 317



318 CANADIAN JOURNAL OF PUBLIC HEALTH Vol. 54

planners and co-ordinators to assist the smaller communities. The Provincial Government of Newfoundland is making a most substantial effort in this regard.

The provincial highway departments have, from time to time, and in varying degrees, assisted communities in carrying out water and sewage installation programs. The assistance might be as minor as the patching of trenches after construction is completed or again it could be a most significant contribution. In cases where storm water problems exist in addition to sanitary problems and a joint venture can be arranged, the installation of both sewer systems can be made in the one trench.

The willingness of a community to proceed with the installation of a system and the support and encouragement of the provincial and federal governments leave only three additional parties to bring the project to completion. These agencies are a competent contractor, a reputable supplier, and an engineering group for planning, design and supervision.

While sewer and water construction is not difficult, it requires an experienced contractor to do the work at a price within the reach of most communities. Competitive bidding, the increasing proficiency of the contractors and proper specifications and instructions to the bidders have enabled cost of labour to drop as much as 400% in some areas. Several reputable manufacturers produce sewer and water works material in the Maritime provinces. Prices are competitive, quality is good and the suppliers keep abreast of current developments.

The last member of the group that participates in the municipal sanitation program is the professional engineer. The engineer or engineering group may be permanent staff members of a municipality; they may be professional engineers associated with the provincial or federal government or a private engineering group offering services on a contract basis to communities without regular engineering staffs. The number of engineering firms in private practice in the Maritime provinces prior to 1950 was very small, but since 1950 has increased four- or five-fold.

Communities and Their Councils I have acknowledged the efforts of the several entities that make up the group

that are concerned with pollution control, but I have failed to mention the most important one. I refer, of course, to the communities and their councils. I have noticed a marked tendency on the part of councils to consider safety and utility more important than a low tax rate. I am not suggesting that the councils are wasteful, but they are coming to appreciate the fact that the "pay-as-you-go- basis" hardly lends itself to the major capital works programs needed today.

If a water or sewage system for a community is properly conceived, properly constructed and limited to the areas of actual need, then the average cost per household will compare very favourably with the cost of maintaining septic tanks or in the case of a community water system, wells and pumps. The average cost

per dwelling for sewage systems has been as low as $15 per house per year and as high as $35. The average range would be in the $20 to $30 per house per year bracket based on a 6% interest rate and a 40-year term. Water systems do not

vary as much and an annual water rate, for a single dwelling, ranging between $30 and $40 is customary. Often it is necessary to restrict the installation of



July 1963 WATER SUPPLY AND SEWAGE DISPOSAL 319

hydrants during the initial construction program and to recommend to the community that a 5- or 10-year hydrant installation program be substituted. We feel it is sound policy to design anything that is going underground to optimum sizes and if economies must be practised, to delete above-ground structures, such as hydrants and reservoirs, which can be added later to the system.

Normally, when a smaller community has reached a point where 50% occupancy of the land has been achieved, it is in a position to install a water and/or a sewage system. It is also at this time that problems of pollution start to appear. The normal community with 50% occupancy of land should be in a financial position to at least collect and treat its sewage.

Almost every community will eventually install a water and sewage system. When either system is installed, all of the capital invested in private sewage disposal systems and private domestic water systems is lost. It is a matter of judg- ment as to when a community should write off the monies already spent and proceed with additional capital works. No single factor will determine when this stage for transition has been reached. It will probably be a combination of the congestion within a community, the difficulties of construction and hence the final cost, the proximity of a community to a larger well developed center, and it will probably be influenced considerably by the size or population of the community. The foregoing is predicated upon the community having a pollution problem. The information regarding pollution usually arrives as a result of a sanitary survey carried out by the provincial health department.

The Role of The Engineering Group

Normally it is at this point that the community will contact an engineering group for further advice. After this has occurred, the problem fans out to encom- pass no less than 6 or 7 provincial and federal agencies plus the client, the engineer and eventually the contractor. It is, perhaps, indicative of the development of sewage programs generally, when I say that 10 years ago the problem involved the client, the contractor and the engineer with casual reference during design to probably not more than two provincial bodies.

In addition to co-ordinating the aims and objectives of the 8 to 10 parties involved in bringing the project to fruition, the engineering group must success- fully correlate several contradictory factors that are inherent in a development of this sort. The community wants the maximum service for the least amount of money. The various health departments desire a maximum degree of protection and the expenditure of the necessary monies to achieve it. The engineering group must provide a service which satisfies the community as to economy and which, at the same time, will deserve the qualified approval of the health authority involved. In this situation, the engineering group must adhere to its code of professional ethics and acknowledge its professional service as the paramount consideration. Unfortunately because it is a business it must also, if not on each job at least on the over-all picture, make its cost to survive and a modest profit.

If a new development or a new technique will allow the community to resolve its problem for less money and at the same time improve the degree of treatment or pollution control, then the requirements of safety and economy are fulfilled.



320 CANADIAN JOURNAL OF PUBLIC HEALTH Vol 54

Lagooning as a Method of Sewage Treatment

Some communities are unable to afford a complex water supply system and are not prepared to finance a complex sewage treatment facility. Lagoons provide an acceptable solution in regard to both cost and quality for small communities. The first civic lagoon installed in the Atlantic provinces to my knowledge was in O'Leary, Prince Edward Island, six years ago. Despite some official reservations on the part of the Department of Health, the threat of injunctions and a complete division of public opinion, the councillors of O'Leary completed a lagoon and put it in operation. At the same time and before the O'Leary lagoon was in operation, the Town of Kensington determined to follow suit. In the succeeding years and up to this time every inland community that has installed a sanitary sewage system has treated by lagooning.

Communities of 500 to 1,000 people normally operate on a volunteer or unpaid council basis with a part-time or at the most two permanent town employees. To expect these communities to assign one additional or possibly three additional full-time employees to their payroll to operate the conventional treatment plant is unreasonable and quite out of keeping with their financial capability. The operating cost of a lagoon can be as low as $100 per year. This, of course, will involve the very minimum of housekeeping. Lagoons, if properly kept, can actually be an asset to an area rather than a liability. While the capital cost of lagooning is normally considerably higher than the smaller conventional mechanical plants, the assistance program of the federal government and here in New Brunswick, the provincial government, tends to put the annual cost, which is the true basis for comparison, at a far lower rate than a mechanical

plant. It is my understanding that the health inspectors are and will be keeping a close check on lagoon operation. This is an action which I heartily endorse.

Water Systems While we consider sewage systems as the major means of controlling pollution,

we consider water systems in a totally different light. A water system for a community normally costs 50% more than a comparable

sewage system. One does not usually find a congregation of houses which will eventually develop into a community unless there is an adequate underground supply of water. The first problem with which a community is faced is pollution and the cheaper solution is a sewer system. The sewer system is laid at a greater depth than the water system and will allow later construction of the water

system on top of it without disturbing house entrances too much. A community requesting a water system study is usually one which is suffering from a shortage of water or a fire protection problem and we, therefore, do not normally consider the installation of a water system as a pollution control measure.

In small communities with an adequate underground water supply, the water source is usually a bored well - or rather two bored wells, as we prefer dual sources of supply. The use of impounded reservoirs with filtration and treatment is most uncommon. The cost of operating such a supply system is usually pro- hibitive and the capital cost will equal or exceed the cost of the distribution

system itself. I know of only one small community in New Brunswick that uses



July 1963 WATER SUPPLY AND SEWAGE DISPOSAL 321

surface water and modest treatment for their water supply and the system does not have the full approval of the Department of Health.

The considerations involved in the design of a small dual purpose municipal water system include an adequate and pure domestic supply plus sufficient fire flows to meet the minimum requirements of the Board of Fire Underwriters. In most cases the development of a planned community will so reinforce its original system that the additional flows required, as the town grows, can be provided by the extensions themselves. This is particularly so if a town or a community is growing towards its source of supply rather than away from it.

Treatment is normally confined to chlorination and, in the only community served by bored wells where fluoridation was contemplated, it was discovered that a natural fluorine content of 0.3 parts per million existed in the supply already. The whole system is sterilized after completion of construction and thereafter monthly checks are made to determine the degree of chlorination that is required.

I have found the personnel of established water departments to be most thorough and conservative in their operation. Records are usually good, the employees are usually competent and in general a high standard is maintained. This attitude has influenced existing water department personnel and the design- ers of new water systems to be very cautious in their approach to new water works materials. Cast iron pipe seems to be the universal favourite and quite properly so. After many decades in the ground, cast iron pipe has proved its durability. New methods in jointing have been slowly accepted in the trade, but the concrete pressure and concrete asbestos pipes are still looked upon with some disfavour except in cases of proven and substantial economies to be had

through their use. When the newer products have established themselves as being equal to or better than those now in use the trend to more economical and more efficient water systems will be accelerated, but until this happens the prime considerations of safety and utility will generally supersede any possible economic advantage. I believe this practice is sound because the provision of a domestic water supply and adequate fire flows is a most critical service to any community.

While gains have been made in procurement of material, reduction in labour costs and the acceptance of more economical methods of construction there is still much to be done. Federal and provincial authorities are not as concerned or

knowledgeable about water systems as they are about sewage systems. Communities can normally afford to pay for both water and sewage systems if

construction is properly phased. The end annual cost of this service will, in most cases, be far less than the cost of individual water and sewage systems. With the

proper presentation this point can be made to responsible people in a community. Provincial authorities through the health department are the most logical people to carry this information to the communities.

The ingredients for progress in urban pollution control and improving health standards are with us. Municipal, provincial and federal authorities are becoming increasingly aware of the problem and the two senior levels are encouraging and

assisting municipalities in taking positive action. This, coupled with the scarcity of serviced land and the predicted imminent boom in housing, would indicate a most favourable climate for achieving our common goal.



water supply and sewage disposal in a small community

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