HH62/2/LINLIT/9

Transcription

[Page] 8

The reservoir supply is one liable to pollution,
and the sooner these large communities are pro-
vided with another and purer water in greater
amount the better. The other Special Water
District is Bridgend, which has its supply from
the Bathgate Commissioners, and is wholly at
their mercy.
The villagers at Uphall Station have to depend
upon a field drain, and if it dries they must use
a filthy stream passing by their doors.
The villages of Cappers and Bathville may be
said to be without any supply. The former during
last summer was using water pumped from the
workings where men were employed.
The Deans houses depend on a shallow well
much exposed to pollution, and the water of which
is decidely impure.
The houses of Starlaw have at present no
supply.
The villagers of Woodend (population 300),
near Armadale, have to fetch water from a
shallow well in an old coal-pit at Barbauchlaw
Mill, distant some hundreds of yards.
Easterhouse, near Armadale, gets its supply
from the same well, which is a long distance
from it.
Blackburn has a very indifferent supply -
shallow wells, liable to pollution.
I furnished a report to the District Committee
of the inadequacy of the present supply in many
places, and of the total want in others; and I

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also visited the gathering ground of the Forest
Burn, in Lanarkshire, where the Airdrie and Coat-
bridge Water Company proposed increasing their
supply. The gathering ground I consider would
suit admirably for Linlithgowshire.
The Bill promoted by the Airdrie and Coat-
bridge Company passed the Committee of the
House of Commons; but was successfully resisted
in Committee in the House of Lords by the County
of Linlithgow.

Proposed Water Scheme for Bathgate District.
It is this source that is now proposed for the
supply of the whole of the BATHGATE DISTRICT.
The District Committee having received a
report from Messrs. Leslie & Reid, Engineers, on
the practicability of the scheme, recently passed a
resolution recommending to the County Council
that the 'Public Health (Scotland) Act, 1891'
be adopted, and that application be made in
terms of the said Act to the County Council, to
determine that the areas embraced in the Special
Water Districts at Uphall and Broxburn - at
Bridgend and at East Whitburn - shall cease to
exist as Special Water Supply Districts. After
difficulties in connection with procedure were
aranged, the County Council finally approved
of the scheme, and application was made to the
Secretary for Scotland for a Provisional Order
to enable the carrying of it out.
It is estimated that the population in the
BATHGATE DISTRICT requiring water, - excluding
the Burgh of Bathgate, but including Armadale