IMPORTANCE OF THE PROBLEM OF STREAM 



POLLUTION 



The problem of stream pollution is undoubtedly one of the most 

 important at present before the country. A prominent member of 

 the United States Food Administration who was concerned with 

 the question of fish foods and particularly the means for increas- 

 ing the amount and facilitating the distribution thereof, in order to 

 add to the general food supply of the country during the war, has 

 stated that more than 60 per cent of the suggestions sent in for his 

 assistance from all the parts of the country urged on his attention 

 some aspect of the question of stream pollution and its correction 

 because in the solution of this problem lay everywhere the greatest 

 possibilities for the improvement of fisheries and the increase in 

 fish food. 



Evidently the question presents itself in its most serious aspects 

 in the oldest parts of the country and in those regions which 

 possess the largest population and the greatest manufacturing 

 interests. As might be expected, New York state, by virtue of 

 all of these features, is one in which stream pollution has become 

 marked and has exercised a powerful and unfortunate influence on 

 the streams and their fisheries. Of course even within the limits 

 of the Empire State, however, conditions vary quite as widely 

 as they do between the most extreme parts of the country. In 

 the heart of the Adirondack Mountains and amid the protected 

 surroundings of the Forest Preserve stream pollution is so little 

 significant that a game protector in such a place could report in 

 perfectly good faith, " I never heard of any instance in my terri- 

 tory." But along the valleys manufacturing interests have been 

 concentrated until the accumulated wastes of city and factory make 

 of the splendid rivers of the state sources of danger rather than of 

 pleasure and profit. For years our greatest city has been justly 

 protesting against the polluted condition of the magnificent river 

 that has been in the past a source of pride not only to that city but 

 to the state and the nation. And it is not merely a question of senti- 

 ment, for those who have studied the problems of the fisheries and 

 have seen something of the present condition of the Hudson river 

 will not hesitate to maintain that the commercial value of the stream 

 has been very greatly reduced by the conditions that exist in it at 

 the present time. 



It is wise to note here the situation in other countries, lest some 



