280 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. LII. No. 1343 



NEW PROBLEM 



The increased quantity of domestic wastes 

 resulting from the natural growth of popula- 

 tion does not accoimt for the rapid deteriora- 

 tion in the quality of the natural waters of 

 "New York state. Sewage pollution has been 

 anticipated; it is a time-honored problem of 

 gradual growth; methods of treatment have 

 been developed, and in general it is cared for 

 by municipal disposal plants. Trade wastes, 

 however, from the recent astonishing develop- 

 ment of chemical industries, unnaturally sup- 

 plemented by war demands, have given rise to 

 another and more complex problem. 'New 

 manufacturing plants have been built along 

 the water courses, and the activity of older 

 ones extended and enlarged. Little time has 

 been left for contemplation of the damage 

 caused by their wastes, or of preventive meth- 

 ods, and, unless immediate measures are 

 taken, a great resource of the commonwealth 

 is threatened. 



QUALITY CAPACITT LIMITED 



To those who have measured the amoimt of 

 water with which nature endows a given area, 

 it is obvious that the quantity is limited. 

 Though not so concrete or commonly under- 

 stood as its quantitative capacity, as for 

 navigations and for the development of water 

 power, its qualitative capacity for these other 

 purposes is no less limited. The amount of 

 contaminating material a water can absorb 

 without injury to its various uses is strictly 

 limited by the rate at which such substance 

 may undergo physical or chemical change; in 

 no other way can water escape the qualitative 

 result of its use. This in turn depends upon 

 the biological capacity of a stream to bring 

 about those changes, and in this sense the 

 waters are alive. Anything which upsets the 

 digestive power of a stream further incapaci- 

 tates it for discharging its natural functions, 

 until such time as it may recover by increased 

 dilution. There is a strong temptation for 

 users of the water to ignore that fact, because 

 the carrying power of the stream removes the 

 offence from its source, and the natural limits 

 are usually far exceeded before remedial 



action is considered. Just as in the case of 

 development for water power, the qualitative 

 limits of its natural capacity to be of eco- 

 nomic value can be expanded by judicious 

 use and scientific development. 



PROPER UTILIZATION 



Sufficient knowledge of the principal prop- 

 erties of water will enable the state to most 

 fully utilize its proper value. It does not 

 follow that individuals, communities, or in- 

 duetrics, cease to return used waters to their 

 natural drainage channels; nor is it possible 

 by any treatment to return them unchanged. 

 It is clearly recognized that water has a con- 

 siderable dilution value within which ultimate 

 harm is not done, and that the natural dis- 

 posal capacity is one of its most fundamental 

 and valuable assets to the state. By this is 

 not meant the ability to carry waste away 

 from one place to aiflict another, but a truly 

 legitimate purification function. As such it 

 plays a great part in the economy of nature. 

 There is constantly going on a process of 

 regeneration of inorganic substances to or- 

 ganic, recharging them by the action of sun- 

 light on green plants with the energy nec- 

 essary in food for the vitality of man and 

 other animals. From the unoxidized organic 

 wastes of our activity must these inorganic 

 salts be reclaimed. Nature has chosen the 

 bacteria and other lower organisms as agents 

 for this purpose. It is for them to prepare 

 the nitrogen and other elements in those 

 wastes for the next crop of vegetation. If 

 they cease to work, these wastes would ac- 

 cumulate unchanged, clog the progress of the 

 organic cycle in nature, and in a short time 

 the earth would become a desert waste. 

 While this activity is not restricted to the 

 water, it particularly concerns America, whose 

 universal adoption of the water system of 

 sewage disposal loses a valuable fertilizer from 

 its natural place on the land. By enriching the 

 vegetation in the waters and furnishing abun- 

 dant life thereto, it may be again returned to 

 the people as fish and shellfish instead of beef 

 and mutton. Such a broad consideration of 

 conservation may not seem of immediate con- 



