20G KEPORT OF THE 0OMMISSIGI>rER OF FISHERIES. 



River. Also, since Providence and Pawtucket are manufacturing 

 centers, a large amount of waste from gold and silver refineries, from 

 bleacheries and dye houses, and coal tar products from the gas com- 

 panies' plants, ultimatel}^ find their way into the river. 



In addition to these more important sources of pollution, the drains 

 from numerous shore resorts and summer residences situated on the 

 river banks must be named as a secondary source of contamination. 

 These drains are of minor importance in the general contamination of 

 the water, since the amount of sewage discharged by them is small in 

 comparison with that already mentioned, and also because they are in 

 use but a few months during each season, and at a time when few 

 oysters are dredged for market. 



The section of the river which receives this large amount of sewage 

 is a strip of water a little over 5 miles long, varying from about 1 mile 

 to li miles in width. As has already been pointed out, the tide 

 reaches well up into the river past Providence and up the Seekonk 

 Eiver nearly to Pawtucket. Thus twice in every twenty-four hours 

 clean sea water from the bay below flows toward the polluted areas, 

 and is a very important factor in the purification of the river. 



Much more space has been devoted to the description of the con- 

 ditions in the Providence River than will be given to the other waters 

 of the ba}', because this river is more polluted b}^ sewage, and because 

 most of the 03'ster ground of Rhode Island waters is located in this 

 body of water. The pollution of the Warren River is of only local 

 importance, since it is soon swallowed up in the large volume of fresh 

 sea water it encounters when this stream joins the Providence River. 

 The contamination of the Warren River is due chiefly to mill waste 

 and to the sewage from a few private drains that discharge into the 

 river. 



The sewage of Fall River is the third factor in the pollution of the 

 ba.y. This waste is discharged into the Taunton River near the head 

 of Mount Hope Bay. The outfall of this sewer is, of course, at a con- 

 siderable distance from the Providence River and Narragansett Bay, 

 and even though a large quantity of sewage and mill waste is passed 

 into the Taunton River, all visible evidence of pollution has disappeared 

 from the water at the entrance of Mount Hope Bay, nearly 7 miles 

 distant from the sewer outfalls. 



These three sources, then — the Providence sewers, the Warren mill 

 waste, and the Fall River sewers — are the principal ones from which 

 contamination can be spread to the oyster beds of the river and bay. 

 The sewage from Newport never reaches the oyster beds, the nearest 

 of which are at least 12 miles above Newport Harbor. 



