REPORT OF THE FISH AND GAME COMMISSION. 



127 



REPORT ON POLLUTION OF WATERS. 

 The Honorable Board of Fish and Game Commissioners. 



Gentlemen : The importance of keeping our streams and bays free 

 from substances injurious to fish is conceded by all. Fish have a suffi- 

 ciently hard struggle for existence without man contributing additional 

 difficulties in the form of injurious Avaste products. Furthermore, fish 

 which might not suffer from contact with, or absorption of, such sub- 

 stances, may face starvation because the plankton upon which they 

 feed has been destroyed by pollution. It can, therefore, be considered 

 a signal victory that section 635 of the Penal Code was so amended at 



Fig. 75. Birdseye view of main separator of the Standard Oil Company plant at Richmond. 

 The capacity is 20,000,000 gallons of waste per day. Photograph by A. M. Fairfield. 



the last legislature that it now includes practically all sources of water 

 pollution. 



The most common sources of water pollution with which California 

 has to contend are : refuse from wineries, wash-water containing leaves, 

 rootlets, etc., from the beet sugar factories, lampblack and tar from gas 

 plants, and fuel oils and sludge from steam vessels, refineries, and other 

 industries which use oil as a fuel. The refuse from the wineries and 

 beet sugar mills decomposes and ferments very rapidly after it is 

 deposited in the water, forming carbonic acid gas which is deadly to 

 fish life. 



