Semi-Tropical Industrial Waste
Problems
JOHN   W.   WAKEFIELD
Sanitary Engineer
Bureau of Sanitary Engineering
Florida State Board of Health
Jacksonville, Florida
A sanitary engineer's conception of Florida is that it is a land
shaped like an inverted "L" about as far across the top as it is in the
shank, with a climate so mild that biological activity takes place the
year round with the production of odor, insects, hydrogen sulfide
corrosion, water weeds, and tourists. It is a land with more water
on all sides, in the air, on the surface and under the surface, than
any state in the union. The average annual rainfall is about 60 inches,
but 55 percent of the rainfall occurs in four summer months, and the
rest is spread over the other eight months. Here Silver Springs with
a maximum flow of 1,170 cubic feet per second is found, yet many
areas are so deficient in fresh water that they are faced with possible
salt water intrusion. In Florida the stream gradients are so flat that
the State's largest stream, the St. Johns River, 257 miles in length,
has, at extreme low river stage, a differential of only 11 feet between
sea level at the mouth, and Lake Helen Blazes 283 water miles to
the south. In Florida every community is striving to be a major tourist
attraction and an industrial center at one and the same time, and hence
every stream must be pristine pure yet assimilate all sorts of waste;
where frost-free glades land, the Nation's winter garden center, rents
for $1000 per acre per year, yet the farmer spends half the year
pumping water off of the land and the other half pumping it back on
again; where more citrus fruit is grown than in all the rest of the
nation combined, yet the Director of the Agricultural Experiment
Station has stated that Florida soils lack the necessities for good plant
growth; where streams can, and frequently do, change direction of
flow twice each day, and have been proven to flow in opposite directions
on the surface and on the bottom at the same time; where practically
all preconceived ideas of sanitary engineering fail to work; where
practically all parasites, bacteria, insects, protozoa and fungi abound,
yet it is one of the healthiest places in the world; and in spite of its
limitations by virtue of its many natural assets and a highly ingenious
and energetic citizenry, a bit of paradise.
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