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Snow, Street Sweepers, Storm Water and Sewage

06 Friday Jan 2017

Posted by Ronald Parks in Baltimore, HISTORY, Sewage History

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Baltimore, DPW, garbage, Jones Falls, POLITICS, Public Works, Sewage History, Street cleaning

The snows are upon us and as I drive to work and notice the gutters and storm drains, I think of what it was like years past…

1881 A great defect is observable in the streets of our city, namely: the surface drainage. House sweepings, kitchen slops, etc., find their way into the open gutters; pools of water collect at various depressed points, giving rise to miasms and odors that are anything but conducive to health during the hot weather, and in winter time invade the adjoining pavements by extension of layers, forming broad sheets of ice, dangerous to life and limb. All of this nuisance can be obviated, and the streets kept dry and free from offensive and pestilential odors, and sidewalks free from ice, by a proper system of sewerage. The present sewers of our city are not self-cleansing, and in consequence thereof there is imposed upon this department an immense amount of work, for which there should be given a sufficient sum to thoroughly clean and disinfect them.
1885 It occurs to me to say, that I think the emptying, during the winter season, of snow and ice out from the streets into the lower Falls, is a vicious practice, and should be henceforth prohibited. It creates bars of the filthiest street mud and refuse, which fill up the Falls and disfigure the walls until late in the Spring.
1908 Investigations show that large deposits (trash) are being formed in numbers of the existing drains, caused by street sweepings.
1911 A considerable portion of the dirt which finds its way into the sewers goes in through the un-trapped inlets, and it is a matter of common knowledge that the street cleaners, in order to lighten somewhat their labors, are accustomed to pushing the street sweepings into the inlets, thus allowing large quantities of dirt to be washed into the sewers. It must be borne in mind, however, that it is much more expensive to remove deposits of dirt from the sewers by hand than it is to remove them from the surfaces of the streets by carts.

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Baltimore’s White Wing street sweepers.

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Newer version, Hokey Cart street sweeper (Does he really look to be the type to just push his sweepings into the storm drains?)

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That’s a lot of salt which will eventually head into the Chesapeake Bay.

A Dumpster Fire by any other name….

10 Wednesday Aug 2016

Posted by Ronald Parks in Baltimore, water history

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Baltimore, FILTRATION, Fire, garbage, HISTORY, Montebello, Public Works, water history

…is not just a fire, especially when there are historic records involved…or HAZMAT…or combustibles, like lime.

We are used to having dumpster fires here at work. Over the years they have become few and far between. Most people know not to throw unslaked pebble lime into the dumpster. We have a special area for that. But, every once in a while a new employee or some one forgets and viola! Fire. For those who don’t know, lime will heat up when mixed with water. It gets very hot – hot enough to melt plastic and then cause paper items to ignite. Lime is used in water treatment for ph and it coats the pipes throughout the system, so things like lead don’t leach into your drinking water. It was originally used as a disinfectant in the water system, replaced by chlorine.

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Anyway, back to the title of this post – maybe a dumpster fire should be a felony? Or at least be considered criminal negligence? As the firemen were pulling out the burning debris, I couldn’t help but notice some brown folders thrown into the mix. As the folders looked familiar, like historical records, I pulled a couple out. Shit!!! They are ‘As Built Drawings’ from the mid 1920’s! Drawings of one of the two water filtration plants! Shit!! It is unbelievable that someone would throw this stuff into a dumpster!

The City has a policy on what to do with old records. You send them to the City Archives. A couple months ago an employee from the Finance Dept. downtown called me and said that as he was walking by the recycle bin he noticed an old rolled up drawing. He wanted to know if I wanted it? Sure! Well when I received it, it turned out to be a profile drawing of the work schedule during the building of the Loch Raven Tunnel – dated 1875 – 1881! It is about 20 feet long on cloth paper, drawn in color. Unbelievable!! (I know, I keep saying ‘unbelievable’ but actually it is not. After 35 years here, every stupid thing people do is very much believable!)

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Not only were there historical documents in the dumpster, someone threw in some air cylinders, aerosol cans (2 of which exploded) and God only knows what else! And to top it all off, one of the employees wanted to climb up on the dumpster and try to put the fire out with an extinguisher! Really? Another wanted to stand on the front end loader bucket, hold a fire hose and try to extinguish it. God created firemen for a reason – let them do their job!

…but for the Grace of God

11 Wednesday May 2016

Posted by Ronald Parks in 12 steps, Addiction, Baltimore, Health, Recovery, Writing

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Addiction, Baltimore, garbage, Health, HISTORY, Recovery, sewage

While doing research, for my upcoming book on Baltimore’s Sewage History, I come across tidbits of information that I find interesting or that just hits home with me in a way that makes me grateful for my life today. Since re-doing this blog a while back, I have been trying to refrain from writing on my personal life; that this blog will be about historic information concerning the Department of Public Works. Water and Sewage. But as usual, something I read strikes a chord with me. As in the case of the paragraph below. This comes from The Reports of the City Officers and Departments Made to the City Council of Baltimore for the Year 1904. Of course the majority of this two volume report concerns the Great Fire of Baltimore for that year, but as in most reports, regardless of what was happening at the time – various wars, droughts, pestilence, etc. – the reports always, after a brief notation on whichever calamity was occurring, become ‘Business as usual’.

“Report from City Charities on addiction – Amanda Orr* is representative of a class of persons who cannot resist the temptation of liquor. She has been committed to Bayview and the House of Correction many times for drunkenness and disorderly conduct. The only remedy for this class is to be confined indefinitely until cured of their disease in some place where they can be held in restraint and given healthy work and proper treatment. Incurable cases should be confined for life. This method of treatment is the most humane for the victim of the drink or opium habit and discourages the intemperate use of liquor and drugs. It is also much the cheapest method for the public in the long run. We need legislation to provide for indeterminate commitments for such cases.”

*State’s Attorney’s Office, Court House, Baltimore, February 21, 1905.

To the Police Justices of Baltimore City.

Dear Sirs—Allow me to call your attention to Section 868 of the City Charter, which provides for the commitment of paupers, habitual beggars, vagrants and vagabonds, lately construed by His Honor Judge Stockbridge in the Amanda Orr case. Under the decision of His Honor Judge Stockbridge in that case, the magistrate committing under said section should always commit said paupers, habitual beggars, vagrants and vagabonds to the House of Correction, and not to Bayview, except in special cases provided for in said Section 868 of City Charter. Before the magistrate can lawfully commit such pauper, etc., to the Almshouse (Bayview), it must positively appear that the person to be committed is not able-bodied, or is aged, or is seriously crippled, or infirm. In case of any doubt on the part of the committing magistrate as to the physical condition of the party to be committed, the magistrate by a short detention of the pauper, etc., at the station-house, can easily satisfy himself as to the alleged infirmities of the pauper, vagrant, etc., by the examination of the pauper by a physician. It is suggested that if this policy be pursued the State may be saved the trial of many habeas corpus cases and illegal commitments avoided. If you will be so kind as to leave this letter on file in your office for the benefit of any magistrate sitting in your absence, you will greatly oblige

Yours very truly,

Albert S. J. Owens,

State’s Attorney.

What’s this have to do with Baltimore’s Sewerage History? Being an alcoholic/addict I have lived in the gutters of Baltimore – waiting to be swept away at any minute like the other garbage laying there. Washed into the harbor…but for the grace of God….

I was Amanda Orr. Think of all the Amanda Orr’s since the above was written, who didn’t know they had a choice to ‘not use’.

Trash Day

10 Tuesday May 2016

Posted by Ronald Parks in Baltimore, POLITICS

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Baltimore, engineering, garbage, Health, HISTORY, Public Works

The Mayor spent $10,000,000.00 (Ten Million) on new trash cans for Baltimore residents. This I imagine also included the cost for the new attachment for the trash trucks, to pick up these over-sized cans?  Her reasoning is good – help reduce the rat population and to help the workers, so they don’t hurt themselves lifting the old cans and bags.

On occasion I get home from work in time to see the trash men on my street. And what did I see? The trash men reaching into the new cans and pulling the trash out by hand. Why? Because it takes way too long to put the new can on the new attachment so the trash truck can do all the work!! Residents are still putting out bags and the old metal cans and the trash guys are still taking it.

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Odorless Excavating Apparatus

29 Friday Apr 2016

Posted by Ronald Parks in Baltimore, Health, Sewage History

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Baltimore, engineering, FILTRATION, garbage, Health, HISTORY, Jones Falls, Lake Roland, POLITICS, Public Works, sewage, Sewage History, water, water history

Baltimore, situated as she is, with one main water course through her center (Jones Falls), she had plenty of water for the people. Pure, clean drinking water….until people started dumping their sewage into it. Many Health Commissioner’s Reports talk about what to do with the sewage of Baltimore. Contractors were hired to haul it away. Here are a couple HCRs on what happened over a few short years in Baltimore, until a proper system of sewage could be built.

1865 – The withdrawal of a large share of the water flowing in this stream (Jones Falls), by the completion of the lake and storage reservoirs (Lake Roland, originally called Swann Lake), with the extension of the water works in the city, has left too small a portion of water to keep the original course clean if nothing was thrown into it; but to this deficiency of water add its use as a receptacle for every species of offal from factories, foundries, tanneries, stables and dwelling houses, and we are not surprised at its present condition. We have had one of these sources of nuisance carefully examined, and find that not only are most of the privies attached to dwellings on the streets adjoining the Falls drained into it, by means of private sewers, but that wherever a sewer leading to it can be reached, this sewer is connected with privies for drainage purposes.

1873 – The late City Council have distinguished their administration by the passage of an ordinance permitting the use of the “odorless excavating apparatus” for emptying privies in the day time. This is the inauguration of a new era, and destined to prove one of the greatest blessings of the age. As stated in a communication on this subject to the late City Council, your Commissioner holds that a large proportion of the cases of cholera infantum occurring in all large cities during the heated term are to be ascribed to the ancient and vile mode of doing this work, as well as to its transportation through the streets of the city, poisoning the air which is wafted into every open window.

1875 Odorless Apparatus2

1875 Odorless Apparatus1888 – The adoption of a proper system of sewers for the present privy-wells will assist the Health Department in its endeavor to bring the City to a point where the ordinary sanitary condition will be such that epidemics of disease, resulting from or aggravated by filth, could be avoided or reduced to a minimum. The danger is greater than the people realize; the trouble is deep-seated and not to be reached by the Spring ‘cleaning up’ nor even by inspection. In most of the houses of this City there exists a latent power for evil, which is liable when its hour arrives to exert itself to the full of its terrible might.

I don’t believe that this apparatus lasted too long. It is no longer mentioned after the 1876 report.

Dumps and Incinerators

21 Thursday Apr 2016

Posted by Ronald Parks in Baltimore, HISTORY, Sewage History

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Baltimore, engineering, garbage, glass plate negatives, Health, HISTORY, Jones Falls, POLITICS, Public Works, sewage, Sewage History, water history

In the 1884 Street Cleaning report are listed the following five dumps: Canton, Spring Garden, Back Basin, Eager St. and South Baltimore. By the 1920s, Baltimore was burning its garbage at two incinerators. One at Sisson and 28th street. The other on Philadelphia road. What does this have to do with sewage? Both places are on streams. Sisson street on Jones Falls, which still has a household hazardous waste collection site (original building appears to be gone). And Philadelphia road, as seen in the one photo below dumped right into Herring Run, which empties into Back River then on to the Chesapeake Bay. These photographs come from glass plate negatives that were broken due to improper storage. If you have GPNs, handle them with care.

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The horse drawn cart was replaced by the modern dump truck. Here they are backing into the Sisson Street Incinerator, also known as #1 incinerator.

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Instead of just piling the refuse into a dump, hoping somehow it would disappear, the garbage was sorted and then burned. #2 Incinerator on Pulaski Highway.

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Pulaski Highway #2 Incinerator showing how any liquids and washed down materials were dumped into Herring Run. And yes, there use to be Herring in that stream.

Garbage 1886

20 Wednesday Apr 2016

Posted by Ronald Parks in Baltimore, Health, Sewage History

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Baltimore, garbage, Health, HISTORY, Jones Falls, POLITICS, Public Works, sewage, Sewage History

1886 – From the Mayor’s Message: Health Department –  Garbage, etc. – The amount of garbage collected and removed during the past year was thirty-three thousand eight hundred and forty-nine cart-loads. Table G (below) shows the large number of dead animals, fowls, etc., collected and removed by this Department. The present methods of disposal of garbage and carrion are exceedingly unsatisfactory. Much annoyance and discomfort is experienced by residents adjacent to the present dumps, and frequent and continued complaints are made of the offensive odors. This annoyance, and menace to public health, can be obviated by burning them.

Chart gThis is a lot of dead animals. When this refuse was not picked up immediately and taken to the dumps (5 in the city), it was washed into the sewers which emptied into the Inner Harbor.

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