The Health bulletin [serial] - University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

December, 1951The Health Bulletinlater on in this paper. Items which thesanitarian and sanitary engineer wouldbe primarily concerned would be thoserelating to (1) water supply sanitation,(2) waste disposal, both domestic sewageand industrial waste, (3) the disposalof garbage and refuse, (4) milksanitation, (5) food sanitation, (6)vector control, and (7) but not least ofthe group, the training of lay personnelto assist the sanitarians in connectionwith Civil Defense activities.The training, not only of our ownpersonnel, but of lay groups assvunesmajor importance in the considerationof this problem. When we consider, forexample, that work that was necessaryin connection with the flood of a fewyears back on the Cape Fear River, atwhich time it was necessary to requestthe assistance of sanitarians from agroup of counties throughout the Statefor work on this program, as I rememberat that time, we recruited 19 or 20men and they devoted a week or tendays to emergency work in connectionwith rural water supplies and ruralexcreta disposal. The district engineersand sanitarians from the State Boardof Health spent more time in the area,and they were of course, involved withpublic water supplies, although themajor time was devoted to those homesin the outlying areas and in the ruralsections which depended on privatewater supplies and private methods ofsewage disposal. Remember that herewere 18 or 20 men devoting a week orten days to primarily a rural problemin lowlands affected by the flooding ofthe Cape Fear River and we can visualizethe number of men who would beneeded and the enormity of the problemshould a bombing attack occur onany of our major cities or towns. Otherdisasters in the State have called forthe transfer and recruiting of thosetrained personnel available to assistwith problems that had developed. Wethought at the time that we were confrontedwith real problems. Dr. YoungI am siure, when wrestling with theflood on the Roanoke River in HalifaxCounty, was satisfied that he had quitea problem, but we have not yet had abombing.Realizing that the first thing whichwe should do was to outline and brieflydiscuss the various items mentionedabove with Civil Defense authorities inthe State, we prepared for submissionby Dr. Norton to the State Civil DefenseDirector an outline of the thingswhich, in our opinion, should be covered.I shovUd like to read this materialto you because I feel that it does, tosome extent, describe the size of theproblems with which we would be faced.Water SupplyDuring times of disaster broughtabout by war or otherwise, the healthof an entire commimity may be seriouslyaffected by an unsafe or inadequatewater supply. It is paramount, therefore,that every measure be taken toassure the safety and adequacy of suchsupplies, since water must be furnishedfor domestic and industrial purposes Inaddition to the enormously increasedquantities that may be required forfighting fires. Damage to water systemsor interruptions of power will confrontwaterworks engineers with many criticalproblems. Preparations to meetthese contingencies are essential stepsin any plan for protection of the commimityin time of war. Proceduresshould be developed for emergencyoperation and control of waterworksand adequate facilities should be providedfor making repairs, disinfectingmains, and restoring interrupted services.The State Board of Health is particularlyconcerned with the technicalmatter of emergency operation andmaintenance of plants and distributionsystems; the establishment of emergencywater service in the event of interruptionof supply; the repair anddisinfection of water mains and appurtancies;and, the augmentation ofwater supplies for fire protection. Otherinformation which is of importance inplanning to meet disaster conditionsconcerns the revision and improvementof distribution system maps and re-