STREAM POLLUTION IN NEW YORK 



SIT ATP 



FOREWORD 



In June, 191 8, I was honored by an invitation from the Conseiva- 

 tion Commission to spend the summer in studying the problem of 

 stream pollution in New York state. In the original letter Commis- 

 sioner George D. Pratt w^ote, " The state laws prohibit the discharge 

 of factory waste, chemicals, etc., in quantities sufficient to kill fish. 

 The law has been inadequate for the reason that it is difficult to 

 prove that the discharge is the cause of the mortality." In replying 

 I called attention to the fact that the question has various aspects, 

 the legal, the chemical, and the biological and indicated my own 

 lack of fitness to consider the problem from either the first or the 

 second viewpoint ; but indicated that if the question was felt to call 

 for biological investigation, I was both ready and interested to take 

 it up. I felt it necessary to emphasize that fact at the outset because 

 I was conscious that as a rule the biological side of the problem had 

 been greatly neglected if not entirely overlooked. Personally, 

 I was inclined to feel that this aspect was important and offered 

 little appreciated opportunities for aiding in the solution of the 

 questions involved ; yet I knew there were those who did not regard 

 it as sufficiently significant to demand consideration early in any 

 such investigation. I found that the Conservation Commission was 

 already far advanced in the study of other phases of the problem 

 of stream pollution and welcomed an examination and development 

 of this phase which had not heretofore received special attention 

 at their hands. 



This statement must be made at the outset in order to show clearly 

 from what point of view the subject is attacked in the discussion 

 that follows. I do not fail to appreciate the importance and even 

 the essential character of other considerations even though they 

 are not discussed in subsequent pages of this report. 



The time devoted to the investigation was only about two months 

 and this is evidently inadequate even for a reconnoissance in a field 



