SAWDUST AND FISH LIFE 



SESSIONAL PAPER No. 22a 



115 



more I^esponsible for depleting our streams and rivers of fish than all the sawdust in all 

 the streams in Canada put together. 



Applying the principle of the strength of infusions to the sawdust and water in 

 this stream, we can soon discover whether it is poisonous or not. 



The water passing the mill in the spring, when the mill is not working, is a 

 stream 14 feet wide, 6 to 9 inches deep, and flowing at the rate of 18 inches per second. 

 Thus 14 X % X % X 60 X 60 X 24, or about 1,209,000 cubic feet of water will pass 

 the mill every 24 hours. 



Now, as a result of very careful calculations, supplied to me by the Messrs. Todd 

 Bros., lumber merchants, of St. Stephen, N.B., it appears that in sawing logs into 

 one-inch and two-inch boards, about one pound of sawdust is formed for every foot 

 of sawn lumber, board measure. On this basis, 100,000 pounds of sawdust per season 

 would be passed into this stream, and if the mill cut timber for 100 days per season, 

 about 1,000 pounds of sawdust would be mixed with the 1,209,000 cubic feet, or about 

 .75,000,000 pounds of water. Expressing the sawdust in the form of percentage, we 

 find the solution would be '001 of 1 per cent. 



Turning now to iny laboratory experiments,* we find that a strength of '12 per 

 cent killed a minnow in 20 minutes, and a percentage of '16 per cent killed a minnow 

 in 90 minutes. That is, the pollution in this stream was only %2o of the strength of 

 the laboratory solutions. Of course, these figures are only approximations, but they 

 point unmistakably to the conclusion that this small mill stream emptying into the 

 East river and thence into Pictou harbour, is not polluted with sawdust sufiiciently to 

 kill fish life. 



The next mill I visited was one on a branch of the Petitcodiac, a river which flows 

 into the Bay of Fundy. The proprietors gave me the following information: The 

 quantity of lumber that is cut ranges from thirty to forty thousand feet per day, dur- 

 ing a season of five months, say 4,500,000 feet of lumber. The stream in high water 

 is about 220 feet wide, and from 5 to 6 feet deep. The average velocity is 2 miles an 

 hour. In August, when I was there, the stream was only about 50 feet wide, and the 

 depth did not exceed 12 or 15 inches. Consequently, if we average these estimates it 

 will be found that about 700,000,000 pounds of water would pass the mill every 24 

 hours. The sawdust, at the estimate of 1 pound for every foot of lumber cut, would 

 amount to 35,000 pounds per day, or expressing these figures as percentage strength- 

 of solution, about •05. Here, again, therefore, there can be no doubt that sawdust 

 does not kill fish life. But, here again, there are mill dams upon the stream with no 

 proper fishways, and consequently anadromous fish cannot pass up to their spawning 

 grounds. Add to this the fact that this and similar streams are all overfished year 

 after year, and the amazing thing is that any fish are left in them at all. 



AT ST. JOHN, N.B. 



On arriving at St. John, I visited a number of the lumber mills and obtained a 

 vast amount of information from a member of one of the largest lumber companies 

 in the city. The annual cut of each firm, the kind of saws used — whether gang, band, 

 or circular saw — and the mode of disposal of the refuse, were all carefully discussed. 

 None of the mills in the immediate vicinity of St. John empty the sawdust into the 

 river, but a few large mills and a considerable number of small ones far up the river 

 and its branches, do discharge the sawdust and other refuse into this stream. 



While, therefore, little refuse in the shape of slabs, edgings, butt ends, or bark, 

 could be seen for many miles up the river:, and no trace whatever of sawdust ; yet, grad- 

 ually, as I reached a part nearly halfway to Fredericton, there appeared evidence of 

 the work of the lumber mills. Edgings, laths, logs, and sawdust were seen either float- 

 ing or stranded plentifully along the shore. Opposite and above Maugerville this was 



* See my ' Further Report ' to Minister of Marine and Fisheries, published, 1906. 



