Travers. — Fighting Pollution in Ohio 291 



stopped. The manufacturers in turn ask us what we want them to do; 

 they say that they themselves do not know what action to take. It would 

 be folly to arrest the manufacturers for polluting streams when we have 

 no remedy to offer them. 



Mr. Wells: In England they have had this problem, much more 

 acutely, of course, than we have. Over there the quality of the water 

 is most important. The question of water power, irrigation and all 

 that sort of thing it not such a big problem in England as it is in this 

 great country, a new country in process of development. There the 

 quality of the water is looked upon as very important, because they have 

 ■only a certain amount of it, and vast industries are dependent upon it 

 almost for their existence. In England a royal sewage commission was 

 appointed with a view to arriving at some solution of this problem. 

 They worked for 17 years, and in their final report said that the only 

 solution was the appointment of a central authority to take up all these 

 problems and to adopt regulations applicable to individual cases rather 

 than to make prohibitory provisions or adopt any uniform law, every 

 single piece of water being a law unto itself. Then, in the case of 

 rivers, there would be boards for the regulation of the waters of those 

 rivers, subject to appeals to the central authority. I think this country 

 is going to come to that ; the day is drawing near when we are going to 

 unite these different aspects of the work — quality of the water, irrigation, 

 water power, storage, and so on — into one group, and work together 

 toward a common end. Decisions will be made in regard to individual 

 cases, and there will be courts of appeal. It will be possible to say that 

 in this place, sand beds are necessary to prepare sewage so that it may 

 go into that stream. But that course may not be necessary in another 

 case. In a river like the Passaic nO' treatment at all is needed. That 

 stream is a sewer, and as such is most valuable to the industries in its 

 vicinity. The fish in the stream are of small value when compared to 

 the value of that river as a means of carrying away the waste of indus- 

 tries that are worth millions of dollars. But where a stream is more 

 valuable as a trout stream than as anything else, for a little factory to 

 ruin it is not right. So different standards suit different conditions, and 

 these can only be determined by an examination and consideration of the 

 particular circumstances. 



Mr. Barber: You think, then, that the deposits from creameries are 

 deleterious to fish life? 



Mr. Wells : Many of our worst complaints are with regard to the 

 damage done by the waste from creameries. There are many of them 

 in New York State, located along the fishing streams. 



Mr. Barber: What do you recommend to take care of the deposits 

 from these creameries? 



Mr. Wells : There are two kinds of waste which come from 

 creameries. First, you have the concentrated organic wastes, such as 

 skim milk, sour milk, whey, and buttermilk. These wastes are con- 

 centrated and they are serious because a small volume means a great 



