296 Fortieth Annual Meeting 



Department of Health the town of Johnsonburg is building 

 a sewage disposal plant which is nearly completed, and 

 through the work of the two Departments plans were made 

 by which the paper company first is to have the town of 

 Johnsonburg take care of the waste by its disposal plant, 

 second, the paper company is to install apparatus for the 

 purification of the water and which will produce valuable 

 by-products. This device will cost in the neighborhood of 

 $100,000, but when the sewage disposal plant and these 

 devices are completed the waste water now inexpressibly 

 filthy should be over eighty per cent pure. Within six 

 months afterwards every acid works, and there are more 

 than a dozen, and every tannery will be compelled to dis- 

 pose of its waste otherwise than by emptying it into the 

 Clarion; and by the end of 1911 the Clarion River should 

 be a reasonably clear stream, fit for fish life and domestic 

 purposes. 



The paper factories and tanneries, the worst pol- 

 luters of streams, are the hardest to deal with owing to the 

 difficulty of thoroughly purifying the water without closing 

 the establishments. The Elk Tanning Company and the 

 independent tanners have all been served with notice by the 

 Department of Fisheries to install temporary devices for 

 purifying the water by the first of the year at least. 



All the pollution of the Juniata River from source to 

 mouth, excepting from about five establishments, has been 

 stopped. At least twenty-five per cent of the polluted streams 

 in the eastern and central and northern part of Pennsylvania 

 have either been purified or greatly improved within the last 

 two years with less than three dozen suits instituted by the 

 two Departments. The strength of the law is illustrated by 

 the gratifying fact that in the lower courts every suit under 

 the provisions of the present law has been won by the Com- 

 monwealth and the manufacturers fined. One case of the 

 Department of Fisheries in the county court under a previ- 

 ous law which was decided against the state, was 

 taken up on appeal to the Superior Court. It was then 



