The Town Council Declares War on Filth
A sweeping new health ordinance outlaws backyard pigsties, mandates watertight privy vaults, and grants city officials the power to condemn contaminated wells.
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Passed July 1907, the new town ordinance establishes strict sanitation protocols for Kennewick. It defines any unwholesome trade or offensive business as a nuisance, granting the health officer authority to order the immediate removal of putrid matter, sewers, or sinks. Under the new law, all privies must be equipped with watertight vaults or drawers. The ordinance further prohibits dumping manure or garbage on any railroad line, street, or alley. Property owners are now held directly responsible for cleaning their own vaults, with the city authorized to bill the owner for any necessary abatement. Additionally, the Board of Health is empowered to condemn and fill in any well or cistern found to contain impure water, with resistance to these health measures punishable by fine.
“It shall constitute and it is hereby made a nuisance for any person to maintain or erect a privy unless the same shall be furnished with a substantial vault made water tight.”
This 1907 ordinance captures the growing pains of a frontier town transitioning into a modern municipality. While the specific concern over 'privy vaults' has faded, the modern debate over Kennewick’s municipal infrastructure and the quality of local water supply continues to echo these foundational public health efforts.
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