108 Conservation Department 



V. CHEMICAL INVESTIGATION OF THE OSWEGO 

 WATERSHED 



By Frederick E. Wagner, 



Fellow, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 



In this, the second survey of a watershed area taken as a whole, 

 the chemical policy has been necessarily adjusted to meet the 

 requirements of varied conditions. 



The waters about which particular interest centered may be 

 classified into three groups, lakes, springs, and streams, included 

 in the last named are those rivers which have entirely or in part 

 been incorporated into the State barge canal system. In regard to 

 the first class, it was desired to determine variation in gaseous and 

 related characteristics between the surface and lower depths of the 

 more important lakes, and to study possible changes in these dur- 

 ing the summer season. The importance of the springs lies in their 

 possibilities as sources of cold clear water adaptable for those fish 

 species demanding 1 such conditions. 



As in the first survey, of paramount importance in stream studies 

 was the investigation of pollutional factors, and determination of 

 their importance both in regard to intensity and length of stream 

 affected. 



Types of Pollution. — The industries with which the Oswego 

 watershed abounds, especially that section containing the outlets 

 of the smaller lakes east of Cayuga continuing down to Oswego on 

 Lake Ontario, and which supply the greatest pollution problems, 

 are the woolen and paper industries. These are pressed closely in 

 prominence by pollution from municipal sewage. Canning fac- 

 tories dot the landscape at sundry places, but in general the 

 summer of 1927 was a slack one for canneries, and numerous cases 

 must be classed as potential sources of pollution which under other 

 circumstances might have been found more serious. 



It might be well at this point to call attention to an erroneous 

 impression entertained by certain cannery officials. Several have 

 advised that at considerable expense they have installed screening 

 devices with the understanding that such would completely solve 

 their waste disposal problems, and that the effluents therefrom 

 might safely be passed directly into a convenient stream. The 

 fallacy of such a conclusion is not obscure. Screening out the 

 coarse material such as faulty peas, beans, cherry stones, etc. 

 greatly improves the condition of the wastes for which disposal is 

 sought. But what of that material which passes through the finest 

 of screens, (they are not always fine) and which varies in size of 

 particles from true solutions up to more or less finely divided solid 

 pieces ? Obviously that material in a fine state of division is in the 

 most favorable condition for ready decomposition, with consequent 

 threat to the aquatic life upon w r hich it may be thrust, so the 



