169 



to Ciiiciiuinti. Louisville or Kvansvillc, niul as the former are imuli 

 the larger, contributing therefore a nuuli larger amount of sewage and 

 wastes, active steps toward an abatement of the problem at these two 

 places will liave to be taken before Indiana is affected. The question of 

 the disposal of manufacturing wastes is a comparatively easy one for 

 Indiana nianulactnrei's. It is an individual prolilem for each concern to 

 solve, but there are very few where a treatment of the waste would be 

 i-equired, and then only after the problem has been taken up at all points 

 along the river. 



In the report made in lUll it was said that the problem was not one 

 for the individual states, but that it would have to be controlled by the 

 I'ederal Government, and preparations are now being made by the Gov- 

 ernment for a thorough survey of the entire river. 



Continuing the policy of surveying our rivers, and therefore our 

 natural water supplies, a survey of the Wabash River was made in the 

 summer of 1912. From the experience gained the previous summer, a two- 

 roomed houseboat was built, one room to be used for the laboratory work 

 and the second for living (juarters. The woi'k covered the river from 

 Bluffton near its source to tlie moutli, a distance of 450 miles. Because 

 of the shallowness of the river at the upper end, this portion was covered 

 in a rowboat, and samples shipped to Lafayette to the houseboat labora- 

 tory. From this point down, the houseboat was used. Eight hundred and 

 twenty-three samples were collected for a chemical and bacterial analysis, 

 ()!»() of them from the river. 



At no pomt was the river seriously polluted; i. e., a nuisance did not 

 exist. At a few places, however, as at Wabash, where a large strawboard 

 plant is located: at Lafayette, where there is another one; at Terre 

 Haute, with many manufacturing concerns, and at Vincennes, with its 

 strawboard works and distilleries, considerable pollution was found. As 

 ihis condition was always below the cities and they were not bothered, 

 and the natural pnritication of tlie river remedied this condition before 

 the cities and towns below Wi)re reached, )io complaints were heard. The 

 population on the watershed is not large in comparison with its size, and 

 the flow is surticient to care for the sewage and wastes by dilution. 



Although from a physical standpoint the river was found to be in 

 good condition, the analyses showed that if was miiit in its raw state for 

 drinking and domestic purposes, and that it would be necessary to filter 



