Book Description

Excerpt from Report of the Committee of the Citizens' Association on the Main Drainage and Water Supply of Chicago: September, 1885 To the Executive Committee of the Citizens Association: The undersigned committee appointed for the purpose of investigating the subject of Main Drainage and Water Supply of Chicago, begs leave to submit the following report: A problem of the first magnitude is presented in the main drainage of a city of 700,000 inhabitants with the immediate prospect of a population of 1,000,000, and a growth of 2,000,000 within the life-time of citizens who knew Chicago as an Indian trading-post. That the city should have attained this growth without the development of an adequate official plan, for a permanent system of main drainage would be startling in this day of sanitary science, were it evident that the conditions of the problem had ever been properly apprehended. The sanitary history of Chicago is a history of makeshifts and expedients, in which official prevision has scarcely ventured beyond corporate limits to the consideration of the drainage basin of which the municipal area is but a small fraction. Even those expedients which, while involving a moderate expenditure for the relief of the present situation, might still be in harmony with a general plan, seem to be inadequately realized, or quite misapprehended. Chicago, in regard to her water supply and main drainage, is perhaps, more fortunately situated than any other of the principal cities of the country, except those on our large, rapidly-flowing rivers, which carry away the sewage at once, a condition which may here be readily duplicated. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.