corrected. Much of this type of work has been carried on by correspondence with satisfactory results.

A few sanitary surveys have been made, but these require more time than the division can afford to give at present, and consequently have been avoided wherever possible.

Several towns have availed themselves, at this early date, of the services of the Engineering 'Division, requesting that we design new water supplies or outline sewerage systems for them. These requests have been met in part only, this being due to inadequate office force and to the fact that several of the requests came from towns that were fully able to pay for outside aid. However, a number of preliminary plans and reports for water supply and sewerage systems have already been prepared. It is my desire to do this wherever requested, and for other places where improvements are most needed. This is the surest means of bringing municipal authorities face to face with the needs of their communities and giving them an opportunity to provide adequate funds for needed improvement. It is frequently necessary to prepare several designs and discuss the relative merits of each, that the most satisfactory and economical system may be obtained. Such work requires considerable investigation, but it is my bélief that in no other manner can the Division of Sanitary Engineering improve the health of the community as providing for safe drinking water supplies and proper and adequate removal of wastes.

This work of preparing preliminary plans and giving advice and assistance to municipalities and others is entirely in line with that performed by the engineering divisions of other state health departments. It seems to me to be quite as essential that proposed construction shall not give rise to unsanitary conditions in the future as it is to remedy existing conditions. This state can only be obtained through a careful supervision by the Division of Sanitary Engineering of all proposed sanitary improvements.

Field Investigations and Reports:-Much of the work of the Division has been carried on from the office, but during the past year it has been possible to make the investigations recorded in Table 1. Reports have been written on a majority of the investigations, and these reports have usually been forwarded to the parties interested, with a letter urging that the recommendations be followed. I am glad to be able to state that in a number of cases improvements have resulted.

Martinsburg. Public Supply Sewerage from Probably due to Pollution of

Interwoven Ice Cream

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BLAIRTON-BERKELEY COUNTY.

Water Supply.

General. Blairton is a small village which has grown up about a large quarry operated by the Blaire Limestone Co. This company produces hydrated lime and crushed limestone and limestone for flux in iron furnaces. There are probably from 300 to 350 inhabitants in the village. About two years ago this company introduced a water supply, primarily for the purpose of fire protection. However, the supply has since been connected with several houses, and a number of hydrants installed in various yards, until the supply is now used for drinking purposes by about 300 people.

Source. The supply is derived from a small spring located south of the quarry and across the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad tracks. The spring

is in a limestone formation, and consequently the water is quite hard. This spring, which is now covered by a brick pump house, formerly supplied water to a house which stood about 150 feet to the north, and to the cellar hole, which is still visible, as are the ruins of the old spring house located slightly below the present pump house. The pump which raises the water from the spring to an elevated tank built near the quarry is located directly over the present spring.

Pumping Equipment. Pumping is done by a small centrifugal pump driven by a 72 H. P. induction motor. The pump is said to deliver about 6,800 gallons per hour, and for ordinary operation four hours represents a normal consumption, which is equivalent to approximately 30,000 gallons per day. A large portion of this water, however, is used at the quarry for slacking lime and for use in the boilers of the quarry locomotive, only a small part of the water being consumed for domestic purposes. The water is pumped through a four-inch main against a pressure of 60 pounds to a wooden tank located on the hill near the quarry. The pump has a suction lift of 4 feet.

Reservoir. The reservoir or tank has an approximate capacity of 10,000 gallons, and is elevated 55 feet above the ground by a steel tower. The total elevation of the tank and the slight eminence upon which it stands is sufficient to give 25 pounds pressure at the office of the Limestone Company and 60 pounds pressure at the spring. Pollutions. Any water derived from a limestone formation is apt to receive serious contamination, owing to the fact that limestone contains so many caverns and fissures that water frequently travels through channels a good many miles under ground before it finally appears. In this distance it may be joined by many small streams which may receive contamination from a great variety of courses. Analyses have been made of the water of the spring at Blairton and the colon bacillus has always been found present in quantities as small as one cubic centimeter. It is frequently present in greater dilutions. The superficial water shed of any spring in a limestone formation may be free from contamination, and yet the water be grossly polluted. The sources of contamination located near the spring at Blairton would not, I feel, be sufficient to account for the marked pollution of the water.

The floor of the spring house is constructed of one inch boards laid on heavy joists. These boards in drying have left large cracks through which dirt from the feet of the operator of the pump or any person entering the spring house, may pass through to the water. I consider this a source of danger, as considerable amounts of pollution of all sorts may enter the water in this manner.

Recommendations. I believe that one of the first measures to protect the drinking supply should be the closing of the cracks in the floor of the pump house. I would advise that a concrete floor be laid in the spring house, providing a drain to carry cut oil or waste. This drain shall extend from a low point in the floor of the pump house and discharge into the brook at a point considerably down stream from the spring basin. If it is found impracticable to lay a concrete floor, the present floor should be covered with a double thickness of tarred paper, and a second floor of sound tongue and grooved boards, the edges painted with white lead and driven tight, should be laid at right angles to the present one, and a drain should be provided as with the concrete floor, I would advise, however, that the concrete floor would be much easier to keep clean and far less likely to develop any cracks which would cause contamination of the spring below.

I would also recommend that the water from the spring at Blairton be thoroughly disinfected with hypochlorite of lime or chlorine gas before using for domestic purposes. Dr. Wm. T. Henshaw, health officer of Berkeley county and physician for the Blair Limestone Co., has urged this company for some time to install a plant at the pump house for disinfecting the supply.

On the 21st of January, 1916, I received a letter from the general superintendent of the company stating that in the spring, as soon as the weather moderated, some treating device would be installed, and that at the same time the open floor at the spring house would be covered that no contamination could enter the water from this point.

BUNKER HILL-BERKELEY COUNTY.

Sewerage.

On August 28, 1915, I visited the town of Bunker Hill in company with Dr. W. T. Henshaw to advise in regard to a sewerage system for a new school building just being completed in that town.

Bunker Hill is a town of 228 inhabitants, according to the United States census of 1910, located about eight miles south of Martinsburg on the Cumberland Valley Railroad. The town is in the center of a large and rapidly growing agricultural district, and during the past year a new school has been built to accomodate the increase in school attendance. Mr. Benson, president of the school board, requested that I advise them in regard to the most satisfactory method of handling the sewage from the new building.

The school house is located near the southern end of the town at the crest of a ridge about 200 yards from Mill Creek. The plot of ground on which the building is located is only about 100 feet in width