Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
The earliest technologies of sanitation nevertheless began to spread to
several American cities in an era of rapid urban growth after 1830, and
especially in the wake of the English “sanitary idea” in the 1840s. Pri-
mary attention was given to water supply and, to a lesser extent, sewer-
age. Before 1800, most cities and towns had depended on a combination
of water carriers, wells, and cisterns to meet their needs. Even during the
first several decades of the nineteenth century, several larger cities and
many smaller towns continued to rely on local sources of supply. Unless
they hired water peddlers, each citizen used no more than 5 gallons
per day.
Community-wide water-supply systems developed slowly in American
cities. In 1801, Philadelphia had become the first to complete a waterworks
and municipal distribution system, sophisticated even by European stan-
dards. The necessary health, economic, and technical factors converged to
produce what became a model for future systems. Yet the Philadelphia
waterworks also was something of an anomaly, since it did not spark an
immediate nationwide trend. Concern for the health of the citizenry
prompted the campaign for a waterworks in Philadelphia. Despite impreci-
sion in determining disease causation in the late eighteenth century, the
correlation between pure water and good health was nevertheless an early
driving force in dealing with epidemics.
Scott's Geographical Dictionary
described the water in the densest areas of the city as having become “so
corrupt by the multitude of sinks and other receptacles of impurity, as to be
almost unfit to be drank.”
16
Unsettled by ravaging yellow fever attacks in 1793 and 1798, political
and business leaders formed a committee of the Common Council to deal
with epidemics.The consensus view was that polluted water from wells and
cisterns caused the fever, and that the city's private wells should be replaced
by a community-wide system. Not only would the waterworks eradicate
the disease; it also could be used to clean the streets, to provide fresh water
for drinking and bathing, and to enhance the beauty of the city by supply-
ing water to public fountains.
17
Attention to finding a new source of water
had arisen before the Common Council's action. In 1789, after a yellow
fever epidemic struck Philadelphia, Benjamin Franklin suggested that it was
necessary to go beyond the city limits to find a pure water supply. In fact,
in 1792 he had added a codicil to his will leaving money to the city to
finance a central water system using Wissahickon Creek as a supply. Until
the inception of water filtration and treatment, and methods derived from
