Ontario Provincial Board of Health Annual Report, 1913
Reports of the Provincial Sanitary Engineer, pg. 67
Fort Hope, October 31st.
A visit was made upon the request of Dr. Dickinson, Medical Officer of Health, to Port Hope in order to investigate conditions at present existing in the town. It appears that there is no municipal sewerage system of any consequence existing. A considerable number of private drains have become, by courtesy and by acquired right, common sewers. These empty at many points into the river which flows through the town. The pollution existing in the harbor is now considerable, and should be remedied at an early date. Dr. Dickinson was advised that it would be in the interests of the town for the corporation to engage a competent engineer to investigate the carrying capacity of the existing sewerage and to draw up a scheme of drainage and sewerage for the municipality. Port Hope is a most sanitary municipality, which makes it somewhat difficuly to present the sanitary aspect of its needs in reference to sewerage and sewage disposal. Financially, they are quite capable of undertaking a proper sewerage system.
Inquiry was later made into the water supply and an effort was made to account for the existence of such frequent pollution as is found in the water furnished from the filtration gallery. Tests were made of the sub-soil surrounding the galleries to determine whether any pollution could be detected. An examination of the samples showed that the sub-soil was practically free from the type of pollution in the galleries themselves, and that the pollution present in the galleries arises either from external agencies, such as mischievous persons placing excremental matter therein (which seems highly improbable, since the pollution is greatest in the locked reservoir), or by some communication between the gravel or rock strata and the harbor water or privies in the neighborhood draining towards the galleries. The water supply at the present time is being chlorinated by the use of fifteen pounds (15 lbs.) of hypochlorite per million gallons of water
pumped. The water supply of the town can be rendered practically sterile by due observance and care in the administration of the bleaching powder.