Main Sewers

SOURCE: Bureau of Surveys Annual Report for 1910, pages 43-44

In any system of sewers, those classified as main sewers bear the same relation to branch sewers as the stem of a tree to its branches. In illustration of its importance as a productive asset of the City, the simile may be carried further.

In the case of a tree, first the stem, then branches, leaves and fruit; in the case of sewers, first the main stem, then the branch tributaries, followed by the development of otherwise unproductive ground into blocks of houses, yielding permanent tax returns to the City.

A curtailment of appropriations for main sewers necessarily is followed, within a couple of years, by a marked (page 44) falling off in prospective tax returns, sufficient at least to lower the progressive average increase.

The importance of this item of municipal improvement in all schemes for "City betterment" should be apparent to all.