Stream Pollution 75 



day by municipal authorities, because of the interference from state 

 officials concerned in safeguarding the conditions of the streams, 

 it nevertheless can frequently be witnessed on a small scale in many 

 places, and is a regular habit on the part of citizens whose establish- 

 ments border on water courses, especially where the amount of 

 refuse is small and the practice of throwing it into the stream is 

 not accompanied by such conspicuous evidence of the occurrence 

 that comment and official criticism is provoked. 



This is really a survival of the ancient method of disposing of 

 garbage and waste in cities and towns at large. What was not 

 wanted by the property holder was carelessly pitched over the wall 

 into the public roadway, and while perhaps few men of the present 

 generation can recall accumulations of rubbish in the front streets 

 of American cities, they were frequent in the recent past, and are 

 still to be found at times in the alleys and on the vacant lots of 

 some cities. The practice, so far as it concerns public roadways, 

 has been thoroughly discountenanced, and generally is specifically 

 prohibited by law that is well enforced at the present date; but the 

 waterways, which have inherited the practice, have not yet been 

 adequately protected against this evident violation of general com- 

 munity interests. The reasons are not far to seek. As piles of 

 refuse on the streets are conspicuous and often offensive to the 

 citizens of the immediate locality in which they are produced, the 

 source is readily determined for the most part and the responsibility 

 easily placed. Where waste matter is emptied into the water high 

 way, liquid material is diluted, and larger, mpre solid wastes 

 rapidly broken up, until their character is not readily ascertained; 

 moreover, the source is in many cases so distant that, while it might 

 be determined, the responsibility for the condition is not distinctly 

 placed without much expenditure of time and energy. 



It is time to clear our minds of the conception that a water road- 

 way is an appropriate receptacle for waste material, any more than 

 the streets of our cities. Indeed, it may confidently be said that the 

 habit of using the streams for the reception of waste results in 

 more unsightly conditions than follow the accumulation of ashes 

 and rubbish in piles along the highway, and the ultimate conse- 

 quences of adding wastes to the streams are more serious for human 

 existence than the practice of permitting garbage to decay along 

 the roadside. 



To what an extent advantage has been taken of the general state 

 of public opinion and the laxity of public officials, or the want of 



