American Fisheries Society 295 



In that time nearly 200 owners who had previously been 

 allowing the sawdust to escape now take care of this 

 product by burning it, selling it or stacking it so that by no 

 possible means can it be emptied, flowed or washed into a 

 creek. This alone has been a big step toward the puri- 

 fication of the mountain streams of Pennsylvania. About 

 400 manufacturers in other lines have either provided per- 

 manent or temporary purification devices, and some are 

 actually making money out of by-products. 



Two years ago the Upper Allegheny River in the State 

 was an offensive and ill-smelling object. Today there is 

 very little pollution emptying into it as far south as Oil City 

 and it is rapidly assuming the appearance of a clear, pure 

 stream. Little else today, except the sewage from the town 

 of Warren and a small amount of drainage from the in- 

 dependent oil refineries, pollutes the river above Oil City. 

 All the acid works which formerly emptied their waste into 

 that river have disposed of it otherwise and so have the 

 owners of industrial establishments, while the indications 

 are that the owners of the oil refineries will have completed 

 their purification plants within twelve months — purification 

 plants which will yield them a revenue. The change in the 

 Upper Allegheny River is remarkable to anyone who had 

 cognizance of that river twenty-four months ago. 



The worst polluted stream in the State is the Clarion 

 River. From its source to within twenty miles of the town 

 of Clarion there was not a living thing, animal or vegetable, 

 and from that point to the mouth there were only a few 

 fish of the hardier kinds until about the middle of June. 

 Above Clarion the efiluvia were so offensive that it was 

 almost unendurable to be upon the banks during the months 

 of July and August. This stream received the attention of 

 both the Department of Health and of Fisheries. 



The key to the whole situation in that stream is at a 

 town called Johnsonburg. Here there was a huge paper 

 plant that emptied about twenty million gallons of waste 

 water into the river daily. Under a decree issued by the 



