Ward. — Elimination of Stream Pollution in New York 15 



the waters of one of the great lakes, cases where men brought 

 great buckets of garbage to the edge of the boat and threw the 

 stuff into the lake or the river, and where broken up boxes, to- 

 gether with the rinds of canteloupes or oranges were tossed over- 

 board. I have seen places where that stuff floated to the. shore. 

 That is gross pollution of the water, and that sort of material 

 lasts for some time. It is obnoxious to the eye. It offends us. 

 But it is not stopped. Why? Because there seems to be in the 

 minds of many people the idea that the waters are a sort of waste- 

 basket, a garbage box, a dumping field, into which all kinds of 

 waste can be thrown to get rid of it at any time. 



Let us take a more serious thing. A tanker has come in 

 from the ocean and entered one of our bays near here. Before 

 reloading they have washed out the ship and have discharged 

 into the water of the bay thousands of gallons of oil. I think 

 that is not an exaggeration for the discharge is very large — they 

 pump the mixed salt water and heavy oil refuse into the bay. 

 It floats around on the surface in a scum so thick that if you 

 push a row boat through it a line of the oil adheres as a distinct 

 band to the side of the boat. It is not necessary to show in detail 

 the certain effect on the aquatic life of that region. Surface 

 organisms which form the food of many fish are totally destroyed 

 and shore life suffers greatly also when the refuse is washed up 

 on the beach. 



All these things merely illustrate the indifference or ignorance 

 of people generally with reference to the value of our water areas. 

 In my opinion, the first thing needed in correcting the situation is 

 a campaign of education. I do not believe that you will ever 

 get the question of pollution settled until it is possible to teach 

 the average man that these things are wrong, until the average 

 man resents them in the same way you and I would resent our 

 neighbors pitching garbage into the alley behind our homes or 

 into the street in front of them. When public sentiment demands 

 the correction of the situation, then it will be possible adequately 

 to enforce the law. 



But education must not concern itself merely with this phase 

 of the problem which affects the people as a whole. Education 

 must concern itself also with the individual responsibility for the 

 wastes, with the manufacturer, with the person in control of 



