The Trenton, N. J., Filtration Plant

Abstract

For a great many years Trenton has taken its supply of water from the Delaware River. The territory above the city, while not as densely populated as that below, still has many large towns and small cities, all of which discharge their sewage directly into the river. In very few cases is this sewage given any preliminary treatment. At times of flood, the Lehigh, the Delaware's largest tributary above Trenton, brings down great quantities of fine coal dirt from the anthracite washeries along its banks. At such times the Delaware at Trenton, 50 miles below the mouth of the Lehigh, is often the color of writing ink. At other times it is the color of coffee due to wash of the clay banks immediately above the city. With these facts in mind, one is not surprised that for at least twenty-five years various projects had been proposed for improving the water supply. Most of them recommended filtration of the river water. Examinations of the sub-surface conditions surrounding Trenton had proven that very little could be expected in developing an adequate supply from artesian wells. This view was supported by Mr. Allen Hazen, in 1900, in his very complete report on the purification of Trenton's water supply. Mr. Hazen recommended filtration of the river water, and suggested five different projects. Three of them used the slow sand method of filtration, while the other two were rapid sand or mechanical types of plants. Mr. Hazen favored one of the slow sand projects. Owing to its high initial cost, and also to the fact that this project proposed to convert the newly completed distribution reservoir into a sedimentation basin, Mr. Hazen's recommendation was not received favorably by the water board. For the next ten years very little was done. In 1910 typhoid fever was very prevalent in the city, the polluted water supply being undoubtedly the principal source. In 1911 the city adopted government by a commission, and abolished the old political water board. The water department then came under the direction of