384 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 



valleys of the Tennessee and Cumberland Kivers, water supplies 

 also were severely diminished. Inadequate ground water failed to 

 maintain the springs; too much of the rain has been running off 

 instead of percolating into the soil. 



The quality of waters from open reservoirs and rivers, such as 

 communities use during droughts, is far from satisfactory. Because 

 of the open condition of the supply and its temperature, organic 

 life such as algae increases tremendously. During 1930, operation 

 of municipal water-supply systems was affected by a condition of the 

 water approaching stagnation. Waring and Stewart state that 

 palatability of the supply for eight cities and villages using water 

 from the Ohio River was impaired, in spite of the fact that sufficient 

 water was in the river to supply the pumps and piping systems. They 

 report that the river became a succession of pools created by the 

 Government navigation dams, and the more or less stagnated water 

 developed obnoxious tastes that could not be entirely removed even 

 by purification. Acids and other industrial wastes became sufficiently 

 concentrated to damage plumbing and fixtures in water systems and 

 households. 



Problems of water supply are among the most pressing and im- 

 portant facing the people of the Ohio Valley. Not only are sufficient 

 quantities to meet needs at all times essential, but the water must be 

 pure, potable, tasteless, clear, cool, and reasonably soft to be accept- 

 able. 



EROSION 



A third major watershed problem of the Ohio Valley is that of 

 erosion. The loss of soil and soil fertility is a fundamental reason 

 for the decline of communities and their prosperity. Loss of capacity 

 to produce wealth makes land less capable of bearing taxation to 

 support local government. Aside from the decline of soil fertility 

 arising from overcropping and lack of proper care of the soil, the 

 greatest cause of soil deterioration is the washing away of the invalu- 

 able top soil. 



The entire area of the Ohio Valley is subject to erosive processes. 

 The northern and northwestern portions have been damaged rela- 

 tively little because of the generally level surface. Other factors being 

 constant, the severity and rapidity of erosion varies closely with degree 

 of slope and the roughness of the topography. The greatest severity 

 of erosion is consequently found in the hilly to mountainous sections 

 where erodible soils have been cleared unwisely. 



On the hilly southern portions of the Wabash Basin, destructive 

 erosion has taken place. Fisher ** emphasizes the occurrence of 

 thousands of acres of eroded lands in southern Indiana which were 

 formerly quite fertile. These areas have been destroyed by loss of 

 soil. 



In the watershed of the Raccoon Creek in Ohio, a study of Vinton 

 County 45 revealed that although there is not much gullying, sheet 

 erosion occurs generally over the county, especially on the steeper 

 cultivated slopes. In the Muskingum River Valley, surveys by Dr. G. 

 W. Conrey, of the Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station, have shown 



44 Fisher, M. L. The washed lands of Indiana: a preliminary study. Purdue Univ. Agr. Exp. Sta. 

 Cir. 90. 1919. 



4 Bitterly, J. H., Moore, H. R., and Falconer, J. I. Land utilization in a southeastern Ohio county. 

 Ohio Agr. Exp. Sta. Bui. 485. 1931. 



