88 REPORT OF THE PISH AND GAME COMMISSION. 



REPORT OF THE DEPARTMENT OF WATER POLLUTION. 



lite Honorable Board of Fish and Game Commissioners of the State 

 of California. 



Sirs : There has been much less pollution of state waters during the 

 last two years than in like periods in the past. This is probably due to 

 the following reasons: 



First — The larger firms and corporations have been convinced that 

 much, if not most, of the (so called) "waste" is of value either in its 

 original state or, at small cost, turned into a by-product. Thus the 

 Standard Oil Company of California recovers both acid and asphaltum 

 from the "sludge" from the lubricating stills (which was formerly 

 discarded as worthless), and makes a fair profit on the investment and 

 labor. 



The Mason By-Products Company, (formerly the Mason INIalt Whis- 

 key and Distilling Company), has found a greater profit in its "waste" 

 than in its alcohol. 



The gas companies, realizing the immense value of lampblack and 

 tar as a fuel, would gladly recover the amount, which in past years 

 was dumped into the bay, if it were possible and thus effect a still 

 more material saving in their oil bill. It may be well to state, in this 

 connection, that the "Jones" generators (used in nearly all of the 

 Pacific Gas and Electric gas plants and in most of the other plants 

 manufacturing more than a million feet per day), produce the required 

 quality of gas with about one-third of the amount of lampblack for- 

 merly resulting. 



Second — The enormousl.y increased cost of petroleum, ])oth in crude 

 and refined forms, has forced both manufacturers and consumers to 

 utilize every possible means to prevent leakage and recover all oil 

 which has escaped as the result of unavoidable accidents. Thus, firms 

 which installed separating boxes, filters and other moans of retaining 

 oil "waste" at our request or to avoid prosecution, now find that these 

 improvements have more than paid for themselves in saving of oil. 



Examples of the foregoing are the Doheney Pacific and Associated 

 Oil Companies at Casmalia, Santa Barbara County, against whom com- 

 plaints were filed charging pollution. They have expended about 

 thirty thousand dollars in the purchase and improvement of a tract 

 of land adjoining their property and it is now an enormous settling 

 basin with its own pumping plant, pipes, ditches and tanks. The pollu- 

 tion has ceased and the saving will soon pay for the work. The South- 

 ern Pacific Company has constructed a concrete wall, or dike, in the 

 Sacramento River at Dunsmuir, at a cost in excess of twenty thousand 

 dollars, which retains and permits the recovery of the oil which has 



