The early history of the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission / Wade H. Elgin, Jr.

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PEI HU THESIS

THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE WASHINGTON SUBURB AH

SANITARY CQlilH 3 3 ION

WADE H. ELGIN, JR,

APRIL 36, 1926.

The Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission' a Offioe Building
on Kalston Avenue in Hyattsville

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Water Tower in Hyatt avi He Bought By the Commission when They
Bought the System in 1916

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THE EARLY HIS^OiiY 0? 2HE WASHBTGTGff SUBUilBAN
SANITARY GO MM IS 3I0H

Fifteen years ago quite a number of populous com-
munities had grown up, and. more were forming all the time
ah out the stream and electric railroads which radiated out
from the Dstrict of Columbia into Ilaryland. As these
communities grew larger in number as well as in size, they
had the many problems facing them that all suburban com-
munities have to solve sooner or later in order to survive.
Of these many problems thus confronting these suburban
people the greatest and the one most difficult to accomplish
was that of obtaining a proper water supply and sewera ; e
system.

some of these communities had some sort of a water
and sewerage system, but the majority of these systems were
found to be unsatisfactory due to improper construction or
the over- taxing of these small plants as the demands for
their usage grew with the increasing population.

upon later investigation it was found that nearly
one -half of the public systems in what is now the Washington
Suburban oanitary District delivered water which was unsafe
for human beings to use or that it had such a taste as to
render it nearly impossible for drinking purposes. The
methods of sewerage disposals were fastly alarming the
people as to the offensive and dangerous conditions then
existin .

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As early aa 1910 the plea for the correction of the
admittedly "bad sanitary methods of sewerage disposals and
the unsatisfactory water conditions "began to take on a def-
inite form. During this year public meetings were held in
the different localities and many suggestions made as t o how
these unsanitary and unsatisfactory conditions could "be
remedied.

She people in the District of Columbia "became con-
cerned at the same time when it was discovered that Little
Falls Branch, Rock Creek and the Anacostia River were "be-
coming polluted due to dumping of untreated sewerage into
them "by the neighboring communities in Prince George's and
Montgomery Counties.

Gentlemen from "both of these counties met in 1911
with members of the Maryland state Board of Health and Mr.
Asa E. Philips, who was at that time superintendent of
sewers in Washington, at the office of Mr. Ralston a member
of the committee which was later appointed in 1912. At this
meeting it was decided that the communities should appeal to
the General Assembly of Maryland for the solution of this
great problem of how to obtain proper sanitary conditions for
the Maryland suburbs and thus stop the growing pollution of
the Washington streams.

It was largely due to this meeting that there was
introduced and passed in the General Assembly of 1312 a
resolution authorizing the Governor of Maryland to appoint
a commission from the counties of Prince George's and Mont-

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gomery to investigate and report upon the sewerage
conditions in the assigned territory, This commission was
to be known as the 2 J rince George's and Montgomery Counties
Sewerage Commission. The Governor appointed the following
gentlemen:

William T. 3. Curtis T. Howard Duekett

Dr. J. Dudley Morgon Dr. John L. Lewis

John I. Cassidy J. Dawson Williams

Oliver 8. Metzerott Jackson E. Ralston

J. Enos Ray Jr. Dr. Charles A. Fox

Louis L. Dent Dr. William H. Welch

Dr. M. Langton Price

In June of 1912 these gentlemen met in Mr. Ralston' s
office and elected Mr. William T. S. Curtis to serve as
Chairman,

As is the case in the appointment of many commissions
this commission was supplied with no fUiids. The duties
of tliis commission were such that they could not fulfill
their purposes without the aid of a trained engineer and
some assistants. This condition of affairs place the
gentlemen in an embarrassing predicament, and it was the
State Department of Health who offered them their Eng-
ineering Force with their Chief Engineer Mr. Morse, who
had had much experience in sewerage work in both lev; York
City and Baltimore.

Mr. Morse ?;orked on the scientific solutions to the
problems facing him while the commission made investigations

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of existing conditions and held meetings for the discussion
of the subject .

On ?eb. 4 f 1914 the commission presented to the Gov-
ernor its recommendations and conclusions of its investigations,
with a hill all ready drawn -up in the form for passage by the
General Assembly. Governor Go Id sbo rough sent a letter of
thanks to the commission on Feb. 6, 1914 relieving them of
their positions and expressing the hope that they would give
the bill their attention during its cime of passage thru
the Assembly. There were at least two public hearing on
the bill at Annapolis during the time it was before the
Assembly, but like many other bills it was lost in the con-
fusion of the closing days of the 1914 Session of the Ass-
embly and failed to pass.

Several of the gentlemen of this old commission were
not disheartened by the failure of the bill to pass and were
instrumental in getting another bill introduced in the Gen-
eral Assembly of 1916. This bill contained many of the
points in the old bill which failed to pass and also in-
cluded that some provision be made to better the water supply
which was at that time becoming a problem of increasing im-
portance.

The newly introduced bill had a very stormy career
and finally emerged in the form which can be found in chapter
313 of the Acts of 1916. In Chapter 313 of the Acts of 1916
it created the v/ashington Suburban Sanitary Commission which
was to consist of three men. This Act designed what territory

Filtration Plant in HyattsvUle Built in 1922

One of the Kethcis "by which Water was obtained "before
the time of the .Vashington auhurbaa Sanitary Commigsioa

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was to be included in the Y/ashingfcon Suburban Sanitary
District over which the Commission was to function.
One of these men was to be appointed by the Governor,
one by the County Commissioners of Prince George's County
and the remaining member by the County Commissioners of
Montgomery County. Very shortly after this act of 1916
became a law Mr. J. William Bogie$r of Friendship Heights,
Montgomery County was appointed by the Governor; the
County Commissioners of Prince George's County appointed
Mr. T. Howard Duckett of Bladensburg; and Mr. William T.S.
Curtis of Chevy Chase was appointed by the County Com-
missioners of Montgomery County.

The Washington Suburban Sanitary District over
which the Commission presided had as its so-called inner
boundary the District of Columbia boundary line. She
outer boundary line reached beyond Glen Echo, Alto Vista,
Garrett Park, Wheat on, Burnt Mills, Beltsville, Lanham,
and Capital Heights. This area covered 95 square miles,
54 of which was in Prince George's County and 41 in
Montgomery County. She area of the District of Columbia
is less than three -fourths the area included in the San-
itary District.

Ho time was lost by these men in organizing, as
their first meeting was held in June 1916 at which Mr.
Curtis was selected as chairman and to also act as Treas-
urer, while Mr. Bogley was to have the position of sec-
retary.

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The .Vashington Suburban Sanitary Commission has
"been deeply .indebted to the Maryland State Board of
Health ever since their very beginning. As soon as the
Commission became organized the resident office of the
State 3oard of Health at Hyattsvilie was used as the Com-
mission's office.

This Commission was furnished with some funds
which \VB.s more than the old Sewerage Commission of 1912
was. But with the small amount of money at its disposal
the employment of a private chief engineer and a capable
staff, although the most important item for consideration,
was yet impossible. Here at this stage of the early work
of the Commission the Health Department again came to their
aid by offering to again loan their Chief Engineer, l,Ir,
Llorse, his assistant engineer, Mr. Hall, who were both so
familiar with this work as they had worked up the plans
of 1914, and as much of their staff as was necessary, on
a financial b^sis that was satifactory to the Health
Board and yet within the means of the Commission.

Many meetings were soon held for ais cuss ion with
officials and public organizations in order to get the
viewpoints of all who would be concerned in this great
work of improving the water and sewerage systems in the
Washington Suburban Sanitary District. r Jhe members of the
Commission made a complete physical survey of the District
and personally investigated every municipal and privately
owned mater and sewerage system within the territory. It

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was during this period of investigation that Mr. J.
/ill lam 3ogley died, hut his "brother Iir> Emory H.
Bogley was appointed to fill this vacant place.

When the Commission began its investigations
some startling facts were disclosed. For instance,
only about 25$ of the population which was then approxi-
mately 32,000 or about 8,000 people were served by a
water and sewerage system. While today the Washington
Suburban Sanitary Commission furnishes water and sewerage
service to about 40 1 ^ of the population of about 50,000
or a total of approximately 20,000 people.

The investigations of 1917 showed that there

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then existed only 53 miles of water mains and 60 miles
of sewers. Of the seventeen public water systems then
existing, not one was adequate throughout for proper pro-
tection as measured by modern requirements. Nine had
pipes so small that no fire hydrants could be connected
to then, while the remaining eight were of little use due
to the low pressure carried in the mains. In fact, in
most of these town, the only good derived from the fire
hydrants was that they offered an excuse for having an
annual carnival known as the Firemen's Carnival, for the
purpose of buying uniforms and fire engines, both of "/inch
proved to be of little use when called into action.

Using the United States Treasury Department stand-
ard with regard to the number of bacteria alon allowed in

a certain amount of water, 47 out of 85 samples of arink-
ing water taken from private wells scattered thru out the

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District, failed to come up to the requirements. As private
wells constituted the main source of drinking i«?ater for the
people, this one test showed that the majority of them were
drinking water which was not fit for drinking purposes. Of
the seventeen public water supply systems only seven supplied
water which came up to all the requirements that the Com-
mission subjected it to.

?rom the very beginning of its exi stance, the Wash-
ington Suburban Sanitary Commission had planned on obtain-
ing water from the District of Columbia Reservoir by hook-
ing up their water lines to the District's mains at certain
points on the Llary land-District boundary line. Tney had
planned on iruming lines out from Rhode Island Avenue,
.macostia Road in Aenilworth, Georgia Avenue, and a point
between Wisconsin and Connecticut Avenues.

It was also planned that the sewers in the Sanitary
District should be connected with the Washington sewers at
certain convenient points. This would step the dumping of
sewerage into streams which flowed ti.ru the District of
Columbia.

The Commission was further encouraged in this plan
by the passage of bill in 1917 by the United States Congress
jiving the Commissioners of Washington the authority to allow
the Sanitary Commission to receive water from the District's
mains upon certain agreements between the District Commission-
ers and the Sanitary Commissioners.

On January 21, 1918 the Washington Suburban Sanitary

Sewerage line lading to the Worth West Branch of
the inaco3tia Biver

'water Tower in Mount Hainer Built "by the

.Yaahington Suburban Sanitary Ooramiaeion

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Commission submitted its report to the General Assembly of
Maryland. This report gave the results of its investigations,
the preliminary designs for water and sewerage systems for
the Sanitary District, the methods under which these systems
might be constructed, maintained and operated and it also
included a bill all ready drawn up in form for the Assembly
to pass upon and thus enact it into a law. This report con-
tained many pages of detail telling the methods of operation,
cost of purchasing old systems, conditions of these old
systems, and how to construct and operate a new system. This
Report also contain seventeen detailed maps prepared by I,Ir,
Morse and his staff of engineers.

The 1918 Session of the legislature passed an act
which differed only very slightly from the one present by
the Commission in its report. The substance of the act waa
that it authorized the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission,
consisting of the three gentlemen previously named, to be a
body corporated to operate and construct a water and sewerage
system which would serve the people of the Washington Sub-
urban Sanitary District.

As soon as the Commission was given the poller by the
passage of the bill in 1916 which made the Washingf Suburban
Sanitary Commission a corporate body, it purchased the public
water and sewerage systems in its district with the once ex-
ception of the water system of Glen Echo, which desired to
furnished its own water. The water and sewerage systems
were bought from the different towns and real estate com-
panies who, in so;;ie cases had built thftir own plants in order

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The construction of n ew service lines and plants
was not started until during the month of September in
1919. Up to this time, of the total of sixty engineers,
assistants, draftsmen, and laborers, only ten h^d been
used for real construction work. The work of these ten
men was the replacing of old worn out pipes with new ones
when necessary, and to see that the present system was
kept in proper operating conditions, making repairs when
needed.

Che remaining fifty men were used to locate and
map the lines of the purchased plants as well as draw up
the plans for the new work as planned by the Commission.
rhe task of locating the existing lines was no small job
as most of them had been laid by contractors who had kept
no record of their definite locations and their locations
were plotted only after much hard and painstaking work.

Che Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission was
fortunate in getting llr. Robert ilorse as their Chief Eng-
ineer and Mr. Hall as Assistant Chief Engineer in 191 8.
Mr. Horse is a man well versed in Sanitary Engineering as
he had previously been assistant Sanitary Engineer in the
Metropolitan Sewerage Commission of New York, 1910-12, as
well as Chief Engineer in full charge of supervision over
water supply and sewerage systems in Maryland, for the
Maryland State Department of Health, since 1912. Mr. Hall
had been Mr. Morsels Assistant Engineer in the Health De-
partment, and was also familiar with the work in the

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Sanitary District as he had worked with Mr. Horse in their
previous reports to the General Assembly.

In order to pay for the costs of operation, con-
struction, and service, the v/ashlngcon Suburban Sanitary
Commission uses three methods; - first, taxation; second,
special assessments; and third, the rates based upon
service. The whole district bears the burden of the con-
struction costs of the trunk line, which is something the
entire district will eventually use. The cost of the in-
stallation of the laterial lines is paid by the property
owners upon whose property it abuts. The user pays a ser-
vice charge for the installation of meters and service, and
a definite rate for the exate araoiint of water he uses.

The present location of the offices of the Wash-
ing on Suburban Sanitary Commission is in Hyattsville on
Ralston Avenue in their new building built in 1923. The
offices were formally in a wooden building on the Wash-
ington Baltimore Boulevard in Hyattsville.

The Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission is a
corporate body created for the purpose of furnishing the
people in the Washington Suburban Sanitary District with
an adequate and sanitary water and sewerage service. The
Commission is not a profit making body and if any profit is
made during any one year, this profit is taken to help pay
for the operating cost of the next coming year. The Public
Service Commission of llaryland goes over their books but
has not power to change their rates for service as it has

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in the case of street railroads and other utility corp-
orations which are permitted to make a fair profit on
their investment.

In conclusion it can be said that the Washington
Suburban Sanitary Commission is a municipality, chartered
"by the State, to serve the people within its district with
both a sanitary and an adequate water and sewerage system.
And there i s no doubt but to it should go some of the
credit for developing the territory witihin its borders
into such towns and communities as to be a credit to the
State of Maryland as well as to our national Capital.

The information for this thesis was obtained from
the following sources:

1. Hep or t submitted to the General Assembly of
Maryland by the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission
on January 21, 1918.

2. Personal interview with Mr. Hobert Morse, Chief
Engineer of the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission.

3. Personal interview with Mr. Harry H. Hall, A-'Sist-
and Chief Engineer of Washington Suburban Sanitary Com-
mission.

4. Article in August 1924 iseue of "Washington
Suburbs"; a magazine; by Mr. Hobert Horse entitled "The
Washington Suburban Sanitary District, What It Is and
Why It Exists".