Biological Survey — Erie-Niagara Watershed 107 



III. CHEMICAL INVESTIGATION OF THE ERIE=NIAGARA 



WATERSHED 



By Frederick E. Wagner 



Lately fellow, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 



Had the selection of watersheds to be studied been made with 

 that object in view, it would hardly have been possible to select 

 three which differ more decidedly and radically than those covered 

 in the present and in the preceding two years. 



In the present instance we were confronted not as in the case 

 of the Genesee survey with a single river system, not as in the 

 Oswego survey with a distinctly unique series of lakes, great and 

 small, whose outlets are finally combined into a common stream, 

 but with a series of streams varying from a few miles up to nearly 

 one hundred miles in length, each making its independent way 

 to a huge body of fresh water and there losing its identity. Ton- 

 awanda creek is a notable exception to this classification, since its 

 flow is reversed during the last few miles of its course by the 

 Barge canal, which, usurping the creek's bed from the Niagara 

 river to Pendleton flows thence to Lockport and supplements 

 Tonowanda's insufficient volume by additional water drawn from 

 Niagara. 



Many of the streams have offered individual problems in the 

 past, while the depletion of Lake Erie fishing has caused much 

 discussion and conjecture regarding the possible contributory 

 influences of the tributary streams, municipalities and indu>strial 

 concerns which sewer into it. And so in the formulation of the 

 chemical policy to be pursued it was decided that particular 

 emphasis would be given to those streams of past concern, and 

 to that part of Erie which might be affected by the influences 

 mentioned. 



Types of Pollution. — Without regard to the particular water 

 influenced and arranged approximately in order of their promi- 

 nence, the list of polluting substances includes municipal sewage, 

 wastes from iron and steel works, textile, glue, tanning and chem- 

 ical industries, canneries, milk plants, laundries, garbage and 

 other wastes of lesser importance. 



Methods Employed. — Limited space makes it inadvisable to 

 discuss at length the effects of various types of pollution, which 

 information the interested reader may find by referring to the 

 corresponding reports of the past two years. In practically all 

 instances gaseous relationships were determined in the field with 

 a portable outfit, a part of which is shown in the illustration. In 

 addition, the facilities of the Buffalo Bureau of Water Laboratory 

 which was generously placed at our disposal made it possible to 



