LIFE HISTORY OF LAKE HERRING OF LAKE HURON 405 



or settling basin at the rear of the chemical plants. Into this basin the chem- 

 ical wastes were diverted. The overflow of the pond, however, ran directly into 

 the river. 



The testimony of the investigators indicates that the pond was not very effec- 

 tive in relieving the situation. Mr. Harrison determined, by a controlled experi- 

 ment conducted after the issuance of the injunction, that a solution of 10 drops of 

 the chemical company's waste from the settling basin in 15 gallons of water killed 

 perch in 24 hours. The control fish remained alive during the experiment. As the 

 plant was under the supervision of the Federal Government and the products were 

 necessary for the prosecution of the war, very restrictive measures could not be en- 

 forced. According to Mr. Dow, the manufacture of clilorbenzol was discontmued at 

 Midland in November, 1917. 



The Bay City tap water retained its obnoxious qualities for some time after 

 November, 1917. Even in the spring of 1918 with each stirring up of the water in 

 the Saginaw River the characteristic odor and taste recurred. Mr. Kavanaugh 

 testifies that the fish of the bay also remained tainted until the early spring of 1918 

 to such an extent as to make many unsalable. The pollution, though less severe, 

 undoubtedly contmued into the summer of 1918. With the resumption of fishing 

 in the fall all traces of the disagreeable odor and taste had disappeared. So far^as 

 we know, the year 1919, then, was the first after 1915 in which the waters of the 

 bay were entirely free from the Dow chemical pollution. 



According to Doctor Koelz's field notes taken in 1917, the complaints of the fish- 

 ermen relative to the unsalability of fish involved principally the perch {Percafiave- 

 scens) taken in the bay. Many individuals of the other species taken in Saginaw 

 Bay were tainted also, and according to one fisherman many fish were afflicted with 

 sores on the body and had to be discarded. Norman Macaulay, manager of the 

 Booth fisheries at Bay City, informed me that the offensive taste and odor were most 

 noticeable in the yellow perch, the suckers, and the yeUow pickerel, especially in the 

 spring shortly after the ice broke up. These Saginaw Bay fish were so tainted at 

 this time of the year that it was utterly impossible to use them as food. The herring 

 and other fish taken in the fall were not so noticeably affected by the poUution ; they 

 did not lose their salability. Testimony of B. Brackenbury, of Au Ores, substanti- 

 ates that of Mr. Macaulay. Mr. Brackenbury states that the poUution did not taint 

 the fish taken at Au Ores. So far as he knew the poflution was noticeable as far as 

 Sebewaing on the east shore of Saginaw Bay, about 25 miles direct by water from the 

 mouth of the Saginaw River. Mr. Macaulay states that the Dow Chemical Co.'s pol- 

 lution affected the taste of fish taken as far as the Charity Islands at the mouth of 

 Saginaw Bay, about 35 mfles due northeast from the mouth of the Saginaw River. 

 Whitefish received by him and taken at the Charities were noticeably tainted. 



According to the fishermen, then, Saginaw Bay herring taken in the faU of the 

 year were not noticeably affected in taste and odor by the pollution of the Dow 

 Chemical Co.; only those taken in the spring were tainted. 



The period (1915 to 1918) during which the dichlorobenzol wastes of the Dow 

 Chemical Works polluted Saginaw River and Bay is seen to be precisely that during 

 which the growth rate of the herring was reduced. Before that period and subse- 

 quent to it the growth rate was higher than during the period 'and presumably normal. 



