BIRKENHEAD DRAINAGE

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 214, 29 November 1927, Page 11

BIRKENHEAD DRAINAGE

DOUBLE OUTFALL SCHEME INTERFERENCE WITH BATHS Birkenhead took its first steps toward drainage last evening when the council decided to request its engineer to revise the scheme submitted in 1922 and submit plans for a double outfall scheme which will not interfere with the proposed baths and will be approved by both the Harbour Board and the Health Officer. THE council met in committee to carry on a discussion on drainage questions which was adjourned from a month ago. After a considerable amount of discussion it adopted in open council the decision to ask for a new scheme. The proposal submitted to the ratepayers in 1922 and turned down by them provided for three or four outlets. But Dr. Chesson, as Medical Officer of Health,' in a letter to the council, has stated his preference for a scheme with a single outlet in deep water near the wharf.

He pointed out that it would not be wise to establish baths near a sewage outfall, and as that point would probably be selected for the discharge of the septic tank effluent, he trusted that the council would not put baths there and so increase the difficulties of sewage disposal, which was of much more importance to the borough. The nature of the country makes it very difficult to devise a single outlet that would not require a considerable amount of expensive tunnelling, and it is stated that two outlets would simplify the problem considerably. The baths could be placed almost anywhere, but the most suitable place must be considered for the sewage outfall.