Editing Cesspit (section)

== History ==
{{See also|History of water supply and sanitation}}

=== United States ===
The typical American urbanite in the 1870s relied on the rural solution of individual well and outhouse (privy) or cesspools. Baltimore in the 1880s smelled "like a billion [[polecat]]s" according to [[H. L. Mencken]], and a [[Chicago]]an said in his city "the stink is enough to knock you down." Improvement was slow, and until the end of the [[19th century]], large cities of the East and South were mainly drained through open gutters. Pollution of water supplies by [[sewage]] as well as dumping of [[industrial waste]] accounted in large measures for the public health records and high mortality rates of the period.{{Citation needed|date=October 2017}} <ref>{{cite book|title=The National Experience}}</ref>

=== Europe ===
Cesspits were introduced to Europe in the 16th century, at a time when urban populations were growing at a faster rate than in the past. The added burden of waste volume began overloading urban street gutters, where [[chamber pot]]s were emptied each day. There was no regulation of cesspit construction until the 18th century, when a need to address sanitation and safety concerns became apparent. Cesspits were cleaned out by tradesmen known in the UK as [[gongfermor]]s using shovels and horse-drawn wagons. Cesspools were cleaned only at night, to reduce the smell and annoyance to the public. The typical cesspit was cleaned out once every 8 to 10 years. Fermentation of the solid waste collecting in cesspits, however, resulted in dangerous infections and gases that sometimes asphyxiated cesspit cleaners. Cesspits began to be cleaned out more regularly, but strict regulations for cesspit construction and ventilation were not introduced until the 1800s.<ref name="La Berge 2002 207–9">{{cite book|last=La Berge|first=Ann Elizabeth Fowler|title=Mission and Method: The Early Nineteenth-Century French Public Health Movement|year=2002|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-52701-9|pages=207–09}}</ref>

Before construction reforms were introduced in the early 19th century, liquid waste would seep away through the ground, leaving solid waste behind in the cesspit. While this made removal of solid waste easier, the seeping liquid waste often contaminated well water sources, creating public health problems. Municipal reforms required that cesspits be built of solid walls of stone and concrete. This kept liquid waste in the cesspit, forcing cesspits to be cleaned more frequently, on average two or three times per year. Liquid cesspit waste would be removed with pumps by cesspit cleaners, and then solid waste, valuable as fertilizer and for manufacturing [[ammonia]], was removed.<ref name="La Berge 2002 207–9" />

In 1846, French public hygienist [[Alphone Guérard]] estimated that 100 cesspits were cleaned in Paris every night, by 200–250 total cesspit cleaners in the city, and out of a total of 30,000 cesspits. The replacement of Paris' cesspit system was challenged for decades by officials not on public hygiene grounds, but on economic ones, based on the desire to conserve human waste as fertilizer rather than disposing of it in a modern sewer system. Paris' sewer system began modernizing in the 1880s, with the conversion of storm sewers for public sewage. Some cesspits were still in use in Paris into the 20th century.<ref>{{cite book|last=La Berge|first=Ann Elizabeth Fowler|title=Mission and Method: The Early Nineteenth-Century French Public Health Movement|year=2002|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-52701-9|pages=209, 215}}</ref>