U.S. Health Service Says Our Filthy City Water Is Unfit for Drinking, Feb. 8, 1924

Our Filthy City Water. . . Vessels Denied Unconditional Certificate for Its Use by U.S. Health Service

Talk about our city drinking water! The U.S. Government can’t give it a clean bill of health. Its use is not permitted for drinking and culinary purposes on vessels plying in and out of the Elizabeth City harbor, only on a temporary provisional certificate, which may be revoked at any time. The U.S. Public Health Service makes this ruling as a result of an investigation held by the North Carolina State Board of Health.

Elizabeth City people are told that the water supply, while being somewhat unpalatable, is ab-so-lute-ly safe. In spite of the fact that it comes out of Knobbs Creek fed by a watershed not carefully patrolled, where dead dogs lie and seep into the water supply, and the excrement of the bodies of the mill’s hands of one of the biggest sawmills help to pollute it, the water company insists that the purification plant makes it safe for drinking purposes.

But the State Board of Health has said the purification plant “was not designed so as to be most efficient in the purification of the polluted water from the original source.” Fortunately for those who follow the water, the U.S. Government looks out for their health, and the Surgeon General of the United States Public Health Service has issued only temporary provisional certificates to vessels carrying passengers out of Elizabeth City, and which read this way:

“The available records from data from observations made indicate that the water supply is not of dependable sanitary qualities and safety, and therefore the present use of the water for drinking and culinary purposes in interstate traffic is permitted provisionally.”

It is no new thing for the Government to issue these provisional certificates to vessels. But this goes to show that the Public Health Service is on the job and knows that Elizabeth City people are obliged to drink water from a plant that is inefficient and may menace their health. Here is the letter sent to one steamboat line, printed in full that all may see for themselves:

From the front page of The Independent, Elizabeth City, N.C., Friday, February 8, 1924. Tkhe letter is missing.