134 Conservation Department 



(Tubifex). The water is turbid and practically devoid of fish life. 

 The lower end of this zone merges into the second, "the septic 

 zone." The establishment of this zone is hastened in the quiet still 

 waters of ponds. The dissolved oxygen may practically disappear. 

 The stream bed is blackened with sludge and foul-smelling gases 

 rise up through the murky water. Green plants are absent. The 

 larvae of the sewage fly and the rat-tail maggot may be found here. 

 The third zone is the "zone of recovery." Green plants such as 

 Potamogetons and eel-grass reappear, thriving on the excessive 

 amounts of organic matter and giving off oxygen to the water. 

 The fresh water organisms find conditions once more to their lik- 

 ing and fish life may thrive again. 



Twelve streams, not including the canalized Seneca river, re- 

 ceive sewage pollution of a serious nature at one or more points 

 throughout their course. Most of these, in addition, receive in- 

 dustrial wastes of various kinds. 



Two outstanding examples of the flagrant misuse of streams in 

 this watershed are shown by the cities of Rome and Auburn which 

 turn Wood creek and Owasco outlet respectively into what arc 

 virtually open sewers. 



The condition of Wood creek is very aptly summarized by Mr. 

 Wagner in the introduction to his chemical studies of this survey 

 and need not be further discussed here. It might, however, be 

 pointed out that the "zone of recent pollution" and the "septic 

 zone" coincide in this case. Biologically, it offers little, even the 

 ordinary, visible foul water organisms finding conditions untenable 

 for some distance. 



The population of Auburn, according to the 1925 census is 35,- 

 677, of these over 25,000 are not connected with either of the 2 

 small sewage disposal plants. Their sewage enters the Owasco out- 

 let in a raw state through 25 sewer outfalls distributed through the 

 heart of the city, causing what might be characterized as a "zone 

 of recent pollution." Even under conditions of normal flow, 73.8- 

 93.5 cu. ft. per sec* on week days, the stream is turbid and loaded 

 with the effluent from the sewer outfalls. How much more inten- 

 sified are they then on Sundays and at night, when, due to the 

 water regulation at the State dam, the flow may be as low as 19- 

 36 cu. ft. per sec. ! *. 



By means of the many dams and because of the swiftly flowing 

 nature of the stream the dissolved oxygen is being constantly re- 

 plenished as it is being used by the decomposing organic matter 

 and, as will be seen by reference to the chemical report, the oxygen 

 never gets lower than 76.0 per cent saturation. Thus a "septic 

 zone" does not get time to become established. Nevertheless many 

 desirable kinds of fish cannot possibly live in a stream that serves 

 as an open sewer, whether it becomes septic or not, and that is 

 just what we find — a few members of the very tolerant species, 

 such as bullheads, here and there until we get well down into the 



* Rep. on Sewage Conditions at Auburn, N. Y., by Theodore Horton, Apr, 

 25, 1917, (letter on file in City Engineer's Office, Auburn, N. Y.). 



