WATER 183 



each year more effectively expressed. Newer companies, out to make power 

 or plastics or some other product of the woods and streams, incline now to 

 ask how they can do business there without leaving the scene of their oper- 

 ations naked and barren. 



The more enlightened concerns refrain from so raising or lowering 

 actual water levels as to flood or drain, unnecessarily, forest pleasure 

 grounds. And, once company reservoirs are established, they try to main- 

 tain a pleasant vacation environment by timing the use of water. Often they 

 find it possible to time the heaviest draw-down with the lightest period of 

 public recreational use. Thus they avoid revealing unsightly mudflats and 

 debris-covered shores at the height of the vacation season when most people 

 seek the woods and shores for beauty and consolation. 



Not all companies are so considerate. Many a camping and picnic spot 

 has been made useless or unattractive just at the time when the people 

 needed it most. Later, after Labor Day, someone in the powerhouse may 

 be told to throw the switch and restore the lake when few or none are 

 there to share it. 



Sludge and Poison . . . Sludge from hydraulic and other mining opera- 

 tions on the forests, and pollution of the waters with manufacturing wastes, 

 also maim or destroy woodland values. Here, again, the destruction is for 

 the most part preventable. 



Operators under permit in national forests can be required to install 

 settling basins at their own expense. When operations are situated on 

 private lands, however, the settling basins, if installed at all, may have to 

 be constructed by the Government on national forest lands below the point 

 of water use. Such installations now are made at public expense only if the 

 recreational values so protected justify, and if no means exist under State 

 laws or otherwise to enforce some other decent compromise for the moment. 



It is generally possible to remove industrial waste, such as the residue of tan- 

 ning and pulp industries, before discharging waste water into natural streams. 

 Sewage disposal plants are also practicable. If damaging waste substances 

 are eliminated from natural streams, the waterways retain their attractive- 

 ness and safety for camping and swimming, and fish are not poisoned. 



