The general inadequacy of the sewerage system which has been indicated for the city as a whole is due in part to the fact that the city is largely an aggregation of sections, formerly independent of Johnstown itself, which have been annexed at different periods. Some of these boroughs had sewer systems more or less developed when they were taken into Johnstown; others had none. Not only the sewerage of Johnstown but that of outlying boroughs pollutes the two shallow rivers, the Conemaugh and the Stony Creek, that flow through Johnstown. These are burdened with more waste than they can properly carry away, and the deposits which are left on the rocks in various sections of both rivers create nuisances that are the subject of much complaint, especially during the warm summer months. (See Plates M, N, O, and P.) At various times agitation has been started to improve the rivers which, as they flow through Johnstown, are, at the low-water stage, little better than swamps of reeking slime from the waste matter emptied into them from the hundreds of sewers along their banks. The pipes through which waste matter is emptied into the streams go only to the river edge, leaving their mouths uncovered and making the river beds at times pools of slowly flowing filth. These unsightly, malodorous conditions could be remedied if pipes were extended out into the middle of the streams, where the water is deeper. With the exception of sprinkling a few wagon loads of lime along the banks of the streams each year, the city has done nothing to abate the nuisances arising from the use of these rivers as sewers or to restrain the coal and steel companies from allowing the drainage from mines and mills to enter the streams. The engineer’s records show that Johnstown had in 1911 a total of 41.1 miles of sewers and 36 sewer outlets, and 82 miles of streets, 52.7 miles being paved. The alleys in Johnstown are generally inhabited. They are narrow and without sidewalks. Their length is 52.88 miles and 47.35 miles are unpaved. The combined length of streets and alleys is 134.88 miles. A comparison of this combined length of streets and alleys with the 41.1 miles of sewers having 36 outlets shows the inadequacy of the sewer system. Not only is there an absence of paving, but the roadways are in very bad condition. A protest by “A Citizen” in the _Democrat_ of June 26, 1913, says that there are nine months in the year when it would be impossible for the proposed fire-department automobile engines to attend a fire in the seventh, eighth, eleventh, seventeenth, eighteenth, nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first wards owing to the condition of the streets.